Occupational Health, Safety and Professional Ethics
Your body at the desk
Storyboard work means hours of close drawing. Set the monitor at eye level, about an arm's length away. Keep wrists straight, elbows near 90 degrees, feet flat, lower back supported. Follow the 20-20-20 rule: every 20 minutes, look at something 20 feet away for 20 seconds. Take a 5 to 10 minute break each hour. Watch for repetitive strain injury (tingling fingers, wrist pain) and eye strain (headache, blurred vision), and report them early. Light the room to avoid screen glare, keep cables and power strips tidy, and never overload a socket.
Ethics and law
- Boards are intellectual property. Do not copy, trace or resell another artist's work.
- Respect the NDA: never post unreleased frames on social media.
- Credit collaborators, and give the client only the licence that was agreed.
- Keep client files secure and backed up.
- The POSH Act, 2013 applies to every workplace, including freelance sets: harassment is a complaint, not a joke.
- Refuse work that requires pirated software or an unpaid 'test' that is really free production.
Worked example
A studio asks you to copy frames from a hit animated film as 'reference' for their own character. Reasoning: copying a distinctive character design is infringement. Study the technique, meaning shape language and palette, then design originally and document your own process.
Traps that cost marks
- Treating a deadline as a reason to skip safety or licensing.
- Assuming ethics only concerns money.
- Ignoring early RSI symptoms until they become chronic.
- Posting a client's unreleased board to build a portfolio.