Ever wished you were better at writing emails you want a response to? Here are a few handy tips:

1. Get to the point. No one likes reading rambling emails. Respect my time and my attention span by staying on-topic. Keep it short because I’m not interested in reading a novel.
2. HAVE a point. When I’m done reading an email, I want to have a clear Next Action. If you don’t give me one, you shouldn’t rely on me to come up with one. The best way to do this in my experience is to ask a direct question. If you don’t have a question, I’ll probably look at the email and think “Hmm. Okay. Next.” But if you ask a question, I have something to do.
3. Answer my question. If I’ve asked you a question, answer it early in the email and directly. Don’t make me dig to find it.
4. Regulate your paragraphs. Keep your language simple and your paragraphs orderly. Too few paragraphs that are long result in a sea of text I won’t want to read. Too many paragraphs that are short turn into a broken-up jumble of text I won’t want to read. 3 to 5 lines per paragraph, and 2 to 4 paragraphs is reasonable. Separate your ideas in a meaningful way and if you change the subject, start a new paragraph for it.
5. Have an active voice. Don’t say “I could do this” when you could say “I am doing this.” Speak to show you’re taking action and doing stuff instead of sounding passive. Using exclamation points conservatively can also liven up an email. Finally, a strategically placed smiley face to add personality. Have an active voice! :)
6. Heed the rule of 3, 4, 5. If you’re itemizing something, or listing things, or organizing thoughts, try to keep them in threes, fours, or fives. People like these numbers and they’re easier to remember and understand than arbitrarily huge numbers that won’t fit in your head. 7 is a good number, too, but usually only for articles and not emails.
7. Sign your name. This seems obvious but a lot of people don’t do this. Sign with your full name to help make it stick in my head. This is subtle, but important. Professionals sign their name. :)

Does anyone else have any useful emailing tips?

I found something awesome on LifeHacker a moment ago that smArtists may appreciate. It’s called The Freelancer’s Toolset. It’s a list of 100 web applications to enhance freelancers’ productivity.

It looks like a fantastic list! Here’s a few highlights from it:

• Stikkit is a central sticky note repository that interfaces with apps like Outlook. It stores names, addresses, birthdays and other snippets of information. It’s also open for collaboration even for people that don’t have or use Stikkit… and you can email it notes, too, which is pretty cool.
• NetVibes which I use. Basically it’s the ultimate customizable homepage, much like My Yahoo, except more flexible. You can turn any RSS feed into its own window, as well as drop all sorts of kickass productivity applications onto one page. It even has separate tabs you can load up with different categories of information. For example, I have a tab that contains a calendar, my personal life todo list, upcoming holidays and weather. On another tab, I have a series of small boxes that contain RSS feeds to every major news site I visit. On another tab, I have useless crap I waste time with. :) There’s a huge, thriving community of amateur developers that make modules and custom applications for it to make it infinitely extendable. I highly recommend checking out NetVibes.
• Google Calendar – I use this as an embedded window in NetVibes. It’s simple, straightforward and fun to use. I also set it up to email and text message me on my phone anytime I have an upcoming appointment so I never forget. It’s indispensible!
• FreshBooks – The Fastest Way to Invoice! This is a really cool and well-positioned company. Invoicing can be a bit of a bitch and this can help you keep track of it more easily. You can manage a huge series of invoices, send them by snail mail through the website, track the time spent on the job, accept payment online, manage work orders and generate reports. What a kickass idea!
• ConceptShare – An online visual collaboration tool. Basically, add notes or paintovers to anything you need to, and have small sticky notes that can turn into miniature discussion threads that float on top of the image and have pointers everywhere. This is so damn cool, I may try using it myself with my contractors.
• Meebo – Gain access to every single IM app on the planet through their website without downloading or installing anything. This is such a mind-bogglingly great idea. smArtists, listen up — IM communication is incredibly useful, and offering it can often be a good thing. Whenever possible, offer it as a quicker alternative for email for smaller, quicker questions. Even if you don’t use that app normally, Meebo can help. :)
• K7 – A terrible name but an awesome service. This will set up a temporary phone number for you to receive faxes and voicemail messages, which are emailed to you. What a great idea!
• Nolo – Got a legal question that pertains to contracting? Have it answered here and check out their articles and how-tos.

Any other gems I might have missed?

Something I’ve learned is never to skim emails. Sit down and read them. Assess what they mean. Understand their ramifications. Build a quick and rough mental time estimate of how long it will take to address what’s in the email.

You have three options:

1. If it takes less than five minutes, do it immediately.
2. If it requires more time than that, schedule it for later.
3. If it’s a dead or already-completed issue, archive it immediately.

Watch your to-do list and your inbox clear out faster than you ever thought possible. :)

If I’m your art director and you see that I’ve named files a specific way, that is for a reason. I’ve already sent you the file naming conventions… stick to them. If you still don’t know what to do, just ask me.

File naming conventions MATTER.

I will like you so much more if you make an attempt to save me work by naming files properly. But almost no one ever even tries, and you make me have to do it. This is why I write the file naming conventions in the first place. This is one small way to show excellence that will put you head and shoulders above your competition. I respect attention to detail and quality customer service.

Here’s the introduction of a new series of little thoughts that won’t really fill out a full post.

Everyone likes to get involved.

If you have people in your pipeline that have to approve your work, at any level, they’ll probably want to get involved with your work. To make their mark. To make a difference. To take some form of action to justify the fact that they’re “doing their job.” Even if your work is absolutely perfect, they’ll have something to say about it.

This is often a pain in the ass, and it’s inevitable. More often than not, they’ll pick out something that’s a nightmare to change.

But hey, what can you do?

I’ll tell you. :)

What I suggest to you — whether you’re a manager looking at your boss, an artist looking at your AD, or an AD managing an artist — is find ways to leave your work looking about 95% complete. Make the final 5% it needs obvious.

People WILL meddle and want to have a hand in whatever you’re doing. Position your work in such a way that the final 5% that needs doing just immediately jumps out at them. They’ll point it out and suggest a change. You’ll say “Oh, shit! You’re right! I’ll do that!” then go in and fix it, show it to them again, get their approval now that they feel they’ve done their job, and the asset is done.

Everyone, everyone, everyone wants to feel involved. To have their say. To feel like they made their mark. Anticipate this! Simply define the boundaries in which people can be involved freely without severely affecting what you’re doing.

This requires a soft touch. Doing stupid, insulting, obvious shit like leaving a head off of a character or forgetting to color a concept is a slap in the face. It will make you look stupid and prove you don’t follow directions. Be subtle, be smart, and be respectful of peoples’ need to participate, and you’ll go far.

Here’s to thinking out loud!

I’ve decided that I need to have a clean and clear concept art repository. As it is, everything is really spread out and too dependent on me remembering where random crap is instead of actually being intuitive. My motto: If it only exists inside your head, it’s worthless.

So where do I begin? (more…)

I’m dealing with contractors that are rigging models now, and I was thinking, what would be the best way to illustrate the problems I find?

“Just look at the shoulders” is too vague. Saying “the knee looks funny when it’s bent” is a little better but not much. It seems like it’d be most useful to create simple markers to show when, where and how the rig is broken. How can I do that?

What I ended up deciding to do was create a test animation (if one didn’t already exist) and scrub through it to spot issues. Whenever I spot an issue, I do the following:

1. Take a screenshot.
2. Note the frame number.
3. In Photoshop, circle the problem area.
4. Next to the problem area, write down the frame number.
5. Below the problem area, write a brief description of the issue. (if needed)

From there, I send the contractor the separate screenshots I take as well as the MAX file with the test animation. That way they can open up the MAX file, scrub to the correct frame, look at the screenshot, find the problem and quickly fix it. It minimizes the amount of written communication by being direct, visual and simple. Saves me time, saves them time.

This is the best I’ve got so far. Anyone else have any ideas? :)

If you’ll permit me to geek out a bit (and be late to the party) I just discovered Flickr and posted a ton of photos from my various trips on there.

Jon Jones’s Flickr

This kicks ass. SO much easier and better than what I’d been doing before for photos!