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Case study

Shotover Jet: Sixty Years of Thrills

[One or two sentences on the project: what Shotover Jet needed, and why the opening moves from live footage into animation.]

Client
Shotover Jet
Role
[e.g. Direction, illustration, animation]
Tools
[e.g. After Effects, AI tools]
Timeline
[e.g. 3 weeks]
  1. 01

    Reference

    [Where the look came from: live footage, location, mood boards.]

  2. 02

    Storyboard

    [How you planned the shots and timed them to the edit.]

  3. 03

    Style frames

    [How the illustrated frames were built: palette, shapes, AI steps, cleanup.]

  4. 04

    Animation

    [How the frames were brought to life: motion, wake, camera, transitions.]

01 · Reference

From live plate to illustration

[Write-up: how the live gorge shot became the first illustrated frame, and how the morph hides the cut between them.]

02 – 03 · Storyboard to style frames

Building the frames

[Write-up: your process from rough board to finished frame. Drag each frame to compare the sketch with the final.]

Temp sketch

Shot 01 Gorge entry

[Write-up for this frame: what the shot needed to do, the framing choice, and anything you changed between sketch and final.]

Temp sketch

Shot 02 Driver's hands

[Write-up for this frame: what the shot needed to do, the framing choice, and anything you changed between sketch and final.]

Temp sketch

Shot 03 Passengers

[Write-up for this frame: what the shot needed to do, the framing choice, and anything you changed between sketch and final.]

Temp sketch

Shot 04 Top-down run

[Write-up for this frame: what the shot needed to do, the framing choice, and anything you changed between sketch and final.]

Temp sketch

Shot 05 The spin

[Write-up for this frame: what the shot needed to do, the framing choice, and anything you changed between sketch and final.]

Temp sketch

Shot 06 Into the canyon

[Write-up for this frame: what the shot needed to do, the framing choice, and anything you changed between sketch and final.]

04 · Animation

Bringing it to life

[Write-up: how you animated the frames, e.g. the wake, the boat's motion, camera moves and the cloud wipe back to live action.]

Temp

Animatic, work-in-progress clip
or After Effects breakdown goes here

Result

[Outcome: where it ran, the response, and what you'd take into the next project.]

Got a shot that needs saving?

Send through a frame or a clip and I'll tell you what's possible, usually within a day.

motion@danwatson.co.nz