Graphics Reference
In-Depth Information
employee benefits and protections. At the very least, negotiate for rights to display
the work in your portfolio when you and the client draw up a contract. The contract
should state your intent to assign the rights to the client after the work has been
completed and paid for in full. This differs from a work-for-hire because the two of
you can write the specific provisions necessary to give your client the rights they
need to use their material without denying you the right to claim your contribution.
A perfect example of why an explicit exemption for portfolio purposes is so
important is the animation portfolio reel. By and large, unless the animation in ques-
tion was designed, developed, and executed by and for one person, or by one team of
creatives with no third party (like an ad agency) involved, getting rights to display
your work after the fact is likely impossible. There are too many layers of individuals
and teams of lawyers between you and the final client.
Almost every animator puts excerpts of these projects into their reels with the
probable assumption that no one will chase them. That is true...until you place the
work on YouTube or another public site. Some large corporate clients—exactly the
If you stamp a big copyright C over the image,
you are certainly safe, but you also degrade
the quality of your work, often to the point that
people fail to look at it carefully.
