LO2: Professional Etiquette

Professional Etiquette is the sentence used to refer to the manner and way you behave and communicate in a workplace. In the job role of an animator, I am going to largely have to communicate with my employer, other animators working along side with me and especially clients. This means that when writing emails to clients discussing certain projects, that my language will need to be clear, and formal, since I am writing to someone who needs to be regarded with importance since he is either paying me or my employer depending on the situation. Regardless any form of communication to anyone during the work place needs to be contain aspects of formality, as well as a friendly nature.

This is because the people you are communicating to in this industry are likely to be people that you are going to spend a lot of time with, working on a project. The friendly aspects of a tone however, should never lead to discussions of personal problems or gossip about other people that you are associated with, since this would be regarded as highly inappropriate, and may in fact slow the production of a project down. If you come across as focused on the task at hand, your client is more likely to have faith in the fact that you are going to complete their project to a high standard.

This all applies to the animators you are working with, however animators would find it difficult to act too formal around each other, since animation is as much acting as it is animating, and you would need to act out scenes towards each other, in order to successfully communicate the desired facial expressions/ideas and mannerisms you want them to animate. This is hardly a task which can be completed without having a couple of humorous moments, however as long as those moments are beneficial towards the product then they are ok.

In terms of the job roles hierarchy, the animator is placed in the middle, since the animator requires other peoples ideas to execute in the scenario of a job role, since controlling the idea as well as animating the product would be too large and difficult of a task for one person to take responsibility for, which could risk the speed of the production of a project. It is important that the job role of a creative director and a creative director is around in the top tier, in order for the concept of the project to be formed entirely, in order for the idea to be as refined as possible. This will result in a more successful product and a happier client. Along side the animator, the art director and the storyboard artist are vital in order to refine the products visual style, perhaps one of the most important aspects of the animation project, since you are technically creating visuals which are designed to appeal to a specific audience. The lower tier of the hierarchy shows the people who's work supports the whole project more than catalysts it, however their tasks are inherently just as vital in terms of creating a stop motion animation, since you can not create a stop motion animation without models or a set, however these job roles are considered to require a lower amount of skill than the job roles above.