“Not all heroes wear capes. They wear seatbelts.”

“Not all heroes wear capes. They wear seatbelts.”

Young Australians aged 18-25 are the most likely to have travelled as a driver or passenger without wearing a seatbelt, and young animators such as RMIT Bachelor of Design (Animation and Interactive Media) student Olivia Hartanto are looking to change this.

Her animation short ‘Captain Buckle’ won one of two major awards in the 2024 Transport Accident Commission’s (TAC) annual ‘Split Second’ competition, aimed at demonstrating how the wrong split-second decision can endanger lives.  

Hartanto said animation had been her passion since childhood. 

“It inspired me to pursue animation at RMIT Melbourne, all the way from Indonesia,” she said. 

“I saw the TAC Split Second competition opportunity through my RMIT school email and decided to try my luck competing.”  

Hartanto was presented with the inaugural award for multicultural creatives aged 18-25 studying in Australia, a new category created to share fresh perspectives and help change behaviours in young drivers.

28 March 2025

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Olivia Hartanto.Olivia Hartanto.

Seatbelt usage can vary depending on cultural background, making it important to diversify the voices guiding these campaigns.  

“In Indonesia, it’s not required to wear a seatbelt in the backseat of a car,” Hartanto said. 

“So, when I first arrived in Australia, I was surprised to find that it’s a requirement here.”  

Winners of the ‘Split Second’ competition were invited to work with creative production companies Taboo Group and Truce Films to bring their concepts to life and the winning shorts were shown on the big screen at the official premiere with TAC.  

Hartanto said it was an incredible experience.  

“The best part was seeing the WIP [work in progress], as I was always excited to watch how my initial idea got slowly turned into an actual animation.” 

Captain Buckle was inspired by Hartanto’s childhood love for superhero films and went through multiple stages of development working with Taboo.  

The end result was a Batman-style character adorned with a novel seatbelt clicker helmet, who saves lives by doing up seatbelts and asks Australians to ‘be Captain Buckle’ themselves.

Cartoon superhero Captain Buckle.

2024 Split Second Competition Winner – ‘Captain Buckle’ by Olivia Hartanto

Hartanto believes the experience of developing her animation helped her learn the importance of balancing creative ideas with reality.  

“I learned that creativity always need to be grounded to reality, especially if you are conveying a road safety message to the audience,” she said. 

For RMIT students, opportunities to work with industry come in many forms including work-integrated-learning, industry placements, industry partnered projects and involvement in competitions such as this one.  

Hartanto said this was an experience that has enriched her learning and skill development. 

“I had the opportunity to see how professionals work in the industry and learned so much from them.” 

RMIT School of Design is internationally recognised as a leader in design education, research and practice. The University is ranked #1 in Australia for Art & Design, and #26 in the world (2025 QS World University Rankings by Subject).

 

Story: Jas McAuley

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28 March 2025

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