Thanks for commenting and yeah U totally agree that I would need to substantially improve my portfolio to get in. But, I am just not exactly sure how I would go about it aside from adding some process work, using much better renders after messing around with lighting and stuff, and possibly trying to compete in some design competitions from which I can use my submissions, all in the four months time frame should I decide to reapply for next fall.
Also, could you clarify what you mean by "low-bar of entry" as I believe UofT's MArch is highly competitive to get into compared to others across Canada.

I*

UofT is the default school (and perhaps largest) for most eastern canadians and it attracts many international applicants mainly due to it's location (ie. toronto). Its M.arch is meh compared to the top 2 schools (Waterloo and McGill) but the main reason why UofT gets a bad rep is because they fill their classes with their own bottom-of-the-barrel general arts degree undergrad students. This lowers the quality of the student pool drastically. Still has some decent work come out of the school, but their is greater mediocrity than places where the bar for entry is higher.

As for your folio... 4 months is likely not enough.  Most spend a few years collecting various artworks and design examples.  You need to consider why you want to get into architecture.  It's not about graphics or 3D renderings.  It's about being able to manage design with the realities of construction and client budgets.  Grad school will teach you this (probably not at UofT tho), but you need to show them that you have the fundamentals of design down.  

Yeah I see what you mean and just be clear, I was only comparing UofT to other master programs that allowed unrelated undergrad students to apply which include UBC and UCalgary.

Also, when I meant four months, I didn't mean that I would create a portfolio from scratch during these four months as I have most of the works or half of them that I was planning on using completed while I was in my Game Development program. Specifically, I was planning on reusing two or just one of the main video game projects that I have worked on over the years in my Game Dev program (Roboat Racing and Bustle) but trying to present them in a different way like including process work opposed to just screenshots and greatly improving the renders after taking more manual control of the lighting for whatever screenshots I do use. The reason why I was considering using both or one of them is due to them best showing my creative potential as they were all my group's ideas that resulted in those final products and UofT requiring those without design backgrounds as myself to demonstrate creative potential in other fields which in my case is Game Dev. Aside from these two video game projects, I was planning on using one or two models that I made when I worked for Toronto Rehabilitation Institute on their DriverLab project (3D Driving Simulator) as a 3D Environment Artist for Game Dev industry work. I worked with them as part of my fourth year capstone where we were required to work with an actual company on top of our studies. The work from this that I was planning on using is the Petro Canada and/or Cineplex model after manually making better use of the lighting before getting the renders. The renders as they currently are can been seen in on my online portfolio that I linked.
So, in a way I have been working on my portfolio for the past four years and am mainly trying to collect my best work out of them and trying to present them in a much better way by trying to also show process work and not just screenshots this time around. Aside from these 2-4 projects, I would be focusing on creating 2-3 more completely new projects that I would try to present as the main projects out of all of the projects.
Taking all if this into account, do you still feel that four months is still not enough?

Please remember that from an non-arch background... course specific assignments do not hold the same value as personal pieces. One the first things I remember when I was giving interviews from undergrad admin at waterloo was that once a student says "I did this because my prof said we had to X"... they got a big negative mark on their interview score. Schools want to see independent and creative works. Not a shopping list of your undergrad's homework assignments.

*of

Sorry for the formatting as I tried leaving spaces between the sections but for some reason they just didn't translate in the actual post.

Yeah I see what you mean. I guess one of the mistakes I made in my last portfolio is specifying the video game projects as a academic when they were actually more personal. Although they started off as academic, my group and I continued working on them on our own time and presented our games at various events such as EGLX 2018 to push our products to the public, none of which was involved with the academics.
If I decide to reapply for next fall, I am thinking of classifying them as personal this time around and possibly explain that they started off in an academic setting or maybe just don't mention that.
So, if I were to reuse two or one of these projects and present them differently this time with process work, etc and maybe use just one or two of the models I created for Toronto Rehabilitation Institute as industry work after greatly improving the lighting, this would leave me with needing to create two or three completely new and personal projects.

^Knowing what buttons to press in a software to make pretty pictures will NOT get you in. You need to show independent creative work. Anyone can make renderings.

Yeah I see where you are coming from.
So, could possibly give me any examples on what kind of independent creative work I can aim on creating aside from including some process work for the video game projects?
I was thinking of competing in some design competitions if I can in the time I have should I decide to reapply for next fall and using my submissions depending on how good they are as portfolio pieces but am worried that I may be judged much harder in that case since I would be trying architectural related work without any prior education on it.

Do not attempt architecture related work if you don't know what you're doing. Applications for programs that allow non-arch students do not expect you to know anything about architecture... so don't try. Focus on something else that you do know, perhaps you're good at life drawings and painting? Maybe you've done some graphic design for logos and whatnot. That helps if you also have copies of the variations your design took prior to its final form.

Yeah I have done some graphic design work, mainly for the 2D video game project that my group and I worked on called Dot, which you may have seen in my portfolio. Specifically, I designed the logo and some of the UI stuff. So, I guess I can try to show a couple variations that I had of the logo and the UI stuff as the logo had a different sort of style for the text-based version of the game compared to the 2D final version as well as the UI that was changed based on feedback that I got for it.
Maybe I can reuse that video game project presenting it differently this time and also showing the graphic design stuff as some of the process work for the bigger project which is the full video game?
Also, you mentioned life drawings which reminded me of a still life drawing that I did in my first year. I was thinking of possibly using depending on feedback.
Here is a link to it:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-nv5LoaWUBpWYJDaL12cx3tEJU_TLLfr/view?usp=drivesdk

That’s a start, but’s its just one drawing and it’s a very common scene. You’ll need a dozen or so good and unique drawings to show design fundamentals. That’s one way to build up a good foundation for your portfolio.

Thanks for the feedback and what do you think of presenting graphic design stuff such as logos and UI that I made as part of the process work for the bigger projects such as Dot in this case opposed to having them as their own portfolio pieces?

Also, do you still think that having a 3D rendering of models that I have created still not worth it if the scene is off my vision as in me putting seperate models together to make the overall composition my own if that makes sense.

For example, I started a personal project a few weeks ago, creating 3D models and using them to create a 3D visualization sort of thing of how I vision my home's family room as I have decided and am deciding how my custom built home's family room should look by picking designs and ordering a customized sofa set, picking the right coffee table set, rug, blinds, lamps, etc, to what I feel would look best.

Keep in mind that the models I am creating for this scene would be a lot more detailed than the low poly cartoony type models that I have made for the video game projects in my portfolio.

I can't follow your logic. I think you really need to take a hard look at what constitutes a portfolio. Also, knowing how to make 3D does not correlate to good architecture portfolio material since little skill is required to make something look convincingly okay.

Sorry, I guess I was just treating this more like an environment artist portfolio than an architecture one.

Thanks a lot for the feedback. I get what you mean by saying that there is nothing of me presented in the portfolio that I am interpreting as there is not much full on design stuff presented or if there is, it is not presented in the best way like for the video game projects.                 

As a result, I am thinking of presenting the main video projects, two of which were used in my linked portfolio (Roboat Racing and Bustle) in a different way by dedicating a page just for process work where I can show the design process for the level designs, logo designs, etc, aside from having a page presenting the finished product with the screenshots and stuff.

I feel like one of the mistakes that I made after going through your feedback and others is that I just focused on presenting the finished product through mainly screenshots of the games. I felt like I should have shown the design process of how the designs such as for the levels shown in the screenshots were made and why they were made, presenting them through concept images. I can try explaining why certain designs worked better for the players resulting in better gaming experiences.

After looking through some of the process work for the game projects that I have worked on, I remembered a storyboard that I worked on as one of the cinematic ideas for the Roboat Racing project. I also made a Leica Reel for it. I was wondering what you thought of me possibly including them as part of the process work for the Roboat Racing project.

Here is a link to the storyboard and other process work:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/101xNGDyvm3rmje30InyPsL2R3Wfmo3KR/view?usp=drivesdk

Here is a link to the Leica Reel:

https://youtu.be/A_qIg2dU44w

Nothing is composed, and it feels like a dump of images.

dude... okay, I think you should find one portfolio on issuu that you think represents a successful portfolio application for an m.arch program, that is similar to the type of work that you're showing, and post it in here. That is where we should start. But.. to talk about just the beginning of issues: Every page that has text on it starts with "this page shows" and then you continue to describe what we're already looking at. You have youtube web addresses linking to the trailers of your work. You have photos of whiteboards. The pages are crammed with images. There is zero border and zero composition continued throughout the portfolio. you said the font isn't figured out yet but text is PART OF the design of the layout of a portfolio and your text is just scattered about regardless of the font chosen. there is no design to the cover. the sketches are not helping the reader understand what you're trying to say. there is no coherent visual story showing how you got from conception to completion. I could give you hundreds of issues showing in this, and I'm not saying this because I'm trying to make you feel bad about it. I'm saying this to try to help you. If you're applying to UT this round you have hundreds of hours of work ahead of you and you'll need to spend the next month doing nothing but working on this. Your portfolio should show people that you can visually communicate your work in a professional manner. This is not doing that at all right now. Delete everything but the best stuff you've ever done and then go from there.

I did the homework for you. Your portfolio should look like this https://issuu.com/jason0008137/docs/game_design_portfolio_2019

Dude, what the bloody fuk? Look at all the advice above. This is not even draft level work. Remember that you’re applying to a design school so show some thought to the image selection, quality and placement. Way, way too much focus on game stuff and no demonstration of understanding of basic design concepts so perhaps take a few weeks/months and pick up a pencil and draw/sketch. You need a lot more stuff. Get rid of all those simple diagrams and bad pictures. If you don’t care enough about the work to document it properly, don’t bother including it in the folio. So much work is required here to bring this to acceptable.

*it