7 Tips for Writing smArter Emails
Ever wished you were better at writing emails you want a response to? Here are a few handy tips: 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. HAVE a point. When I’m [...]
The Freelancer’s Toolset
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:
Little Thoughts #3: Don’t skim emails.
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: If it takes less than five minutes, do it immediately. If [...]
Little Thoughts #2: Stick to filename conventions!
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 [...]
Little Thoughts #1: Everyone likes to get involved.
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 [...]
Learning In Progress #9: Concept Art Repository
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 [...]
Learning In Progress #8: Rigging change lists
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 [...]
Flickr rules.
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!