Sea Battle, Maps and Hangings (2.5MB)

This 50-second sequence represents a few of the shots I did for filmmaker Agnieszka Piotrowska and her documentary on the mysterious John Avery, the "Ghost Pirate" (2003), broadcast in the Riddles of the Dead series of the National Geographic Channel. Avery's body was never found and so it may be he got away with his enormous heist. I also did several animated maps showing Avery's movements across the world, of which there are a couple of samples here.

The main battle ships were done with hand-drawn and scanned-in ships, composited on top of the Bristol Channel (filmed on a DV camera) in After Effects. Gunsmoke effects were photos of clouds, distorted. One or two shots show Bryce models: the falling mast and the exploding cannon. The hangings were simple animations and composites.