Game art Portfolio advice

My general portfolio advice is a combination of examples of iteration/development/design work (often the kind of thing you might do in A level), some drawings from life (e.g. still life, figure drawing, technical drawing) and imaginative work (work that demonstrates combining ideas imaginatively). Some places might request a variety of mediums, and this is often course-dependent - in this case you would want evidence of working in a 3D space, ideally digitally but any spacial work i.e. model making, textiles or prop-making, papercraft, pottery etc all show your ability to work in 3D space. Less is more, they want to see your ability to curate your work. Try and cover all of these areas thoroughly within the limitations they have set in their portfolio guidance.
If you have tried to do 3D modelling before - let me know what you've done & I might be able to give some more specific advice!
If you haven't - try downloading Blender and following some basic tutorials to make some really basic models and then start trying those tools on your own to make something simple. You'll see people often recommend the Blender doughnut - I did do this tutorial back when I was learning 3D but personally I didn't find it to be as helpful as other resources out there as it focuses on giving you an overview of all the capabilities of Blender (including simulation, animation etc.) rather than focusing on modelling - I think you might be better off trying specific modelling tutorials, especially if you want to have something to show on your portfolio - common tutorials lecturers will have seen dozens of times so it's good if you can try and do something original even if it's not quite up to the same quality. (By all means show your tutorial work as well, crediting the resources you used on your portfolio) Try CGEssentials or similar channels on youtube.
Worth noting though - I didn't have any digital 3D on my university entry portfolio and it's by no means a hard criteria. Having evidence of working in 3D space is the most important thing - as long as you have some examples of that, even if it's in psychical media, demonstrating your core fundamental skills in traditional media is just as key, if not more - depending on the people looking at your portfolio!

About a week ago, I finally got access to Blender, and I actually started that donut tutorial, I'm only part way through it now, though. Are there any specific tutorials you recommend? I've also done some pottery and prop making before, so would that type of stuff be useful for the application if i put it on there? I'm planning on doing some more life studies and things like storyboarding now, and I'm trying to do some imaginative work at the moment in alevel art. Thank you so much for the advice though!!!

Sounds like you've got a lot of the right starting pieces 🙂 Life studies is absolutely critical imo - whether it's still life, drawings of your street or your garden or your kitchen, figure drawing from a class or just from drawing people on the train - that stuff is all great portfolio content. Storyboarding is important if you're also interested in applying to animation courses but if you're sold on Game Art, I wouldn't worry about so much. But as for your props & your pottery - if it's work you're proud of and shows an understanding of working in 3D space, absolutely. In my entrance portfolio i included photos of an origami model i used as a base and then drew over the top of it to create some "concept art" style work. It was commented on lots in my interviews even though in my opinion there were stronger pieces in my portfolio.
Mmmm specific tutorials is harder - I don't work in Blender anymore. I have done some quick googling and possibly try this series, although it's a bit out of date - would ideally like to find you something more recent.... If you search on Reddit, especially r/blenderhelp, you might find some better resources than things I can find in 5 minutes. Sorry I can't be more help there.

I'm gonna start doing some life drawings in random places and try to get better at not overcomplicating things for myself. I still haven't quite decided if animation is something I would like to do but I'm more focused on game art right now so I might do a bit more research into that for myself so I can properly know if it's exactly what I want to do. I've also been thinking about combining some traditional and digital art to create some concept pieces, so thanks so much for that! I also just posted on reddit asking for any beginner tutorials. Thanks so much for helping. This is the best advice I've gotten so far from all the research I've been doing!!!!!!!!!

I'm planning to apply around the end of this year for a game art course or something similar to that. I'm trying to gather as much advice as possible for how to put the best portfolio together and what I need to create (3D models, digital art etc.) And I just want any advice possible!!!

Hi @Kurapikas
If you scroll down on this webpage I'm linking to you can find some portfolio advice specific to Game Art. https://www.aup.ac.uk/posts/top-tips-on-building-a-creative-portfolio
Hope that helps
Andrea. Student Ambassador.
Arts University Plymouth Rep
Aup.ac.uk
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If you want examples of the sort of work my Games Art degree wants to see in an applicant's portfolio you might want to watch this video: https://vimeo.com/841286222
If you look in the text box below the video I've put links to useful tutorials for life drawing and sources of photography to work from if you can't get to actual classes (warning there are naked people in those links!).
Regarding the 3D side of things, once you've done a few tutorials and feel comfortable with the software, then start making your own designs in 3D. Always work from reference photography or from concept art so that you don't make stuff up as you model. And if making anything realistic, check the scale of everything and the proportions of one part of a model against another - classic student mistakes are bricks that are meters across on a brick wall - the wall is built to the right scale, but the textures have been applied badly. Or watch out for things like the size of a door or window in a building - it should be neither too large or too small (andd if you're working in games the doorway has to be big enough for the collision detection on a character to allow the character through the doorway!). Oh and please avoid modelling clichés - dreadful manga/anime swords, bad space marines or ninjas, a portfolio that is nothing but guns etc...

hi there, you go to hertfordshire? can we message? i have questions about the school!