Pitching our Documentary

My group pitched the documentary and it sounds like it went well.

The most important piece of feedback we got was to work out how to condense the story to fit into a minute or so, possibly by focusing on a couple of very defining moments in Moonlite's story.

It was also recommended that we tweak the chronology of the story, and that it might be interesting to start with the climactic final gunfight and then go back and retrace the steps that led to it.

We've identified a really useful research source, a book called "In Search of Captain Moonlite" by Paul Terry. I'm hoping to contact him personally but thus far I've not found a way to message him without paying for a premium LinkedIn membership.

Research continues. I've started considering the best way to stage a gunfight and structure the story.

I've found images of Wantabadgery Station where the shootout took place to use as inspiration and reference.

 A print of the shootout that resulted in Moonlite's capture and Nesbitt's death, from 1879.

 Depictions of the standoff

The team of officers, photographed after Moonlite's capture

Documentary Filmmaking

I want to make a documentary about Andrew George Scott AKA Captain Moonlite, a bushranger who roamed the Australian outback in the mid 1800s. His story interests me because he seems to break the stereotype of bushrangers being brutish morons and his relationship and travels with cellmate James Nesbitt would make for a great tale if told right.

I've identified some research sources so far, namely a writer for Australian Geographic (who hasn't replied to my email yet) who wrote a piece on Scott, as well as the curator of Eugowra Historical Museum and Bushranger Centre, who I am yet to contact.

The documentary should be factual, but I want to focus on building a portrait of Scott's character, framed through various events throughout his life.

We've drawn inspiration for 2D animated art styles from animations like Samurai Jack, that make use of few colours and strong contrast.

We want to adopt a bold and simplistic style.

I thought of using the colour scheme of the aboriginal Australian flag for shots of the land and the desert. It would lend itself well to the aesthetic and add important cultural context to the film.

Finishing Burger King

I had to submit this project early due to a university visit abroad, but I had time to do a little colouring. I'm pleased with some of the character animation I made on this project and my fire animation is improving. I failed in sticking to the character sheets supplied by Andy and the character animation noticably slips into my own style occasionally. I would've liked to have had more time to animate the microwave explosion and the final composite of my short segment. Dan and Andy finished the project really nicely.

In future, I will take care to double check everything. The microwave explosion wasn't finished when I gave it to my team and didn't fit into the final composite as well as it could've. 

Group Crit and Finished Line Art

Useful group crit this week. I was reminded that since each member of my group would be animating a scene separately, it might be hard to keep the animation style consistent across all three short films. I must consider this more in future. Otherwise, feedback from classmates on our work so far has been positive!

I finished the line art this week. I've happy with it, and think I kept the characters quite consistent. I found it difficult to keep to Andy's character designs as I had to start the animation with only a front and side on t pose for reference.

I'm getting better at figure drawing, especially hands. I used reference material.

As my video mapping trip to Lille draws closer, I'm feeling the time pressure a lot more. I have two days to colour and complete as much as possible.

Animating my Roughs

Now that storyboards and animatics are done, I've taken a break from the fire animation and am animating the caveman scene. The three of us have decided to animate a scene each.

I did the roughs and am pleased with my character animation. It is weighty and well timed. I'd have loved to make this animation on ones, but time constraints do not allow it.

When revisiting my rough animation, I found that I had drawn them to be too rough, and I had not properly considered the scale of the character's head and the position of his facial features as he moves from pose to pose. This means I have far much more work to do when drawing the final line work.

In future I shall make my rough lines more detailed to save time.