touchstone presentation- marine mission

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By Shannon Mason Touchstone- Presentation Art of thus far UCA Computer Arts and Animation 1

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My year 3 Touchstone 'Art of thus far' document, detailing my ideas, changes and progress so far in my current CAA minor submission project.

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  • By Shannon Mason

    Touchstone- Presentation

    Art of thus far

    UCA Computer Arts and Animation 1

  • Contents Page Developing Initial Ideas for Game pg3-6 Games Rules pg7-10 Animal studies pg11-15 Influences pg16-19 Environment Concept Art pg22-23 Character Concept Art/Colour Tests pg24-33 Redesigning textures pg34 Oil Tests pg35-36 First hand Research pg37 Orthographic Sketches pg38-40 Character Traits pg41-45 Modelling the Character pg46 UV Texturing pg47-48 Rigging Controls/Skinning pg49-51 HR-LR/ Texturing/xNormals pg52-55 Audio Choices pg56 Christmas Intentions pg57 Illustration List pg58-59

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  • Initial Ideas: The Plastic Island

    The Plastic islands struck me as a great area to start my research simply because of how vast a problem this relatively quiet ecological disaster has caused. I say quiet because astonishingly very little information is generated into the public domain (although websites such as Greenpeace.org do an amazing job at documenting this problem) yet issues such as the deforestation of the Amazon are at the forefront of peoples minds. I saw this as an opportunity to create CG art, in such a way that it would motivate and teach youngsters the dangers of this impending disaster. Essentially plastic is trapped in the Pacific gyre in a vortex whereby the currents of the Ocean converge. This means that the plastic with its immense lifespan of decomposition, is pulled together, forming clusters of debris in the centre of the Pacific. Animals perish by becoming tangled in these clusters or ingesting debris; but the problem is made yet more alarming when we consider the toxicology of the substances of every day plastic materials. The issue doesnt need to be tackled in an all gloom and doom manner, in fact I feel as though a creative, playful stance on sea life, could encourage children of the next generation to get motivated behind this crisis. My aim is to base a game on the Plastic Islands which will enlighten children's perspective and educate them in such a way that isnt firing facts at them, but instead offering a favourable interactive finish when it comes to cleaning and managing the disposal of product.

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  • The Demographic

    A series of machines (loosely based around marine life) are tasked to clean debris from the Ocean by collecting and reconstructing their loot.

    Plastic is non bio-degradable and cannot be burnt or destroyed. In reality governments do not know how to tackle the long term consequences of the mass production of plastic products and its affects on the natural environment: it makes sense that if plastic cant be destroyed it can be utilised through a fantasy form of recycling. This drills the message of environmental responsibility and awareness which I wanted youngsters to understand.

    Although the player is tasked to move through the environment and collect debris from plastic trails (at randomised values), once they have accumulated enough debris to fill their cargo they are then tasked with the very real question of what to do with the plastic? This is when a little fantasy comes in, the player is to take the plastic to different machines and places to see the plastic transformed into a product which can be useful to build with. Once they have the end product they are capable of modifying their submarine vehicle to collect extra plastic, hold more cargo, move quicker etc or build things from the plastic such as an underwater environment for themselves to live. Creating will become the competitive edge between players and encourage them to go out and collect more to clean the environment. Its a fun way of cleaning space!

    Game type: Third person, Next gen, Race-collect- build and free roam. Demographic: 3+

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  • Mission Statement

    The mission statement clearly states my end goal and specifications for this current (minor) project submission. The details are as follows:

    To design all 5 characters.

    Develop three fully completed characters for Games rendering purposes.

    Characters developed via Maya must undergo a technical process which sees them fit as an asset to a game.

    Develop an animated turnaround short for the characters which have been developed. Displaying LR wire frame, textured and un-textured passes for each character as well as some still images to introduce them and their characteristics to the viewer.

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  • Plastco

    Every game has an over arching villain in its concept, however I didnt want my idea to be centralised around catching a single bad guy to save the day, that notion simply detracts from the real intention of the game which is promote a sense of awareness in children of the damage of non biodegradable materials.

    So instead I have decided to introduce the idea of an evil company, Plastco. Who are hell bent on ditching their waste products irresponsibly into the Ocean. They are constantly finding new ways to litter the Ocean, via submarine, dropped from Helicopter ect.

    Plastco makes for the storyline of the game and also encourages the idea of the BIG missions towards the games climax.

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  • Rules of the Game

    The Theme: Collect, Recycle and repurpose unwanted debris around the Ocean into materials which can be used for modification.

    Time Limits: Of course the player will be pressurised each time they leave base to collect debris with a time limit (represented by an Oxygen gauge). Dotted around the map Oxygen bubbles will rise from the bottom of the Ocean, which the player can decide to collect as tactical play for additional time. Oxygen bubbles will grant randomised values of extra time dependant on the mission e.g. +10secs, +20secs, +30secs or even +1min

    Speed Boosts: Along the way the player may also receive speed boosts represented by currents underneath the water, which will push the player along allowing them to collect extra debris to recycle. Speed boosts can also be granted by modifying the animals machines.

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  • Rules of the Game Cont

    Obstacles: Hidden among the debris will be a series of obstacles which the player will have to avoid in order to progress. Rather than taking health damage, these child friendly obstacles will add a penalty to the characters speed. Causing a sudden stop to a speed boost, or simply slowing the character, or even reducing the amount of debris a character can collect.

    Trails: Debris will sit in vast trails. This helps direct the player towards an objective.

    Modification: After the debris has been collected it can then be modified by taking it through several characters which will be able to help shape and trade material with. Each player has a home they can modify and invite friends to join them at, or alternatively unlock and level up machinery of the character to give you advantages of greater speed boost, manoeuvrability etc.

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  • Rules of the Game Cont

    The Protagonists: The player has the choice of playing as the main character of the turtle or the manta ray depending on their preference of characteristics. The whale, crab and dolphin operate as side quest and interactive characters.

    The Whale: The whale character is able to recycle the debris into us-able material. i.e: 50plastic bottle may = 1 purple cube and 10 glass jars may = 1 green cube. This introduces rarity into the game and gives the player something to aim for and compete for. The whale is the first character you will take the debris to.

    The Crab: The crab is the smith, who is able to shape the raw material cubes generated from the whale into actual objects. By taking for example 2 yellow cubes, 1 green cube and 5 shells you may be able to construct a helmet for your character.

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  • Rules of the Game Cont

    The Dolphin: The Dolphin is reconnaissance, who is able to give you feedback on unlocks, tips and hints on how to gather or where to look for extra rare items or simply alert the player with some real factual statistics on the Ocean.

    Rare materials: Materials both man-made and plastic can be found in different levels on different parts of the map. This encourages the player to work with the environment collecting materials such as Sea Weed, Shells and pebbles to make yet more things as well as collecting the and retaining the cleansing of the Ocean from the Debris.

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    Following the Thunderbirds, I have decided to create a series of creatures with different purposes for their underwater missions. Each creature will play on its natural attributes to allude to its purposes inside the Game, hence they will react in a normal, natural way. I have been inspired by the Humpbacks large shape as well as his popularity in childrens animations and books, it is widely regarded as an interesting creature of the Pacific Ocean. I can imagine the whale using its colossal size too help harbour and transport machine and materials from place to place. Hence he has the major task of taking the raw material and transmuting their properties into a repurposed material. Smaller creatures will have to come back and forth to the whale as they collect materials to be repurposed.

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    The Crabs role in the Ocean will be used to reshape and form the raw material into objects which can be utilised for the Game, the player will have to take the repurposed material from the whale to the crabs to be shaped. It can be used for upgrades on the equipment and devices the animals use to collect the materials to perform tasks which save the environment, to create building materials for missions or personal upgrades for property under the Ocean.

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    I really liked the Sunfishs eccentric arrowhead shape. Also the Sunfishs size matches the size of the turtles, hence all the animals I have decided to work with havent been shrunk or oversized to the point where they break the suspension of disbelief.

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    The leatherback turtle is one of the animals I have found have had a real problem with human waste inside their natural habitat. As well as their iconic shape they bring a big change to all the fish shapes in the Ocean. I felt the turtles shell could be utilised as an attribute for the game

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    The Turtle and Manta Rays job under the Ocean is to collect the human waste and transport it from the environment to the whale. Similarly, the Manta Ray follows the Turtle, as I have chosen to analyse the Manta Ray because of its unique shape and character.

  • Influences: The Thunderbirds.

    Thunderbirds has been a vital asset in helping my visualise the potential for the Game. The idea of each thunderbird vehicle having its own function on a vast team really applied to the wide range of sea life which I have been studying. Some creatures may be quicker, stronger, stealthier or larger than others allowing me to get playful around these animals and their functions as a team. Another motif brought forward from Thunderbirds was the idea of International Rescue. The idea of the animals of the Pacific Ocean teaming up for missions to save their world very much seemed like an international rescue effort from a marine creatures perspective. The idea of the Game being set different missions of varying danger and importance (with regard to the cost of marine life) constructs the reality of danger to the wildlife in ecological disasters as well as pace and excitement on the Games platform.

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    FIG.19

  • Influences: The Life Aquatic.

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    FIG.20

    The Life Aquatic came in as inspiration for its punchy colour palette (typical of those old Sea bestiary books) everything seems a little too strong. I enjoy the strong difference of blue and orange complementary colour set found in the Uniforms of the Team Zissou crew members and believe it may be something nice to take through into character design as a way of making the creatures stand out from a murky blue/green environment.

  • Influences: The Octonauts

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    FIG.21

    I have also used the childrens show the Octonauts as inspiration for my designs. Purely for the cute and friendly nature of the protagonists. A lot of the shapes are rounded and child-friendly associating themselves with the same demographic as I.

  • Influences: Salvador Dali.

    My main influence for the environment artwork is based around the surrealist Salvador Dali. In Dalis artwork, the rock-shaped morphs stood out to me as something which could easily occupy the sea bed as abstract shards of coral reef. I want the environment to seem strange and alien, exciting for the player to explore. I also feel that a surreal touch to the environment can make the half plastic- half natural world I am aiming to create seem more fantastical and in that way more spoilt by the hindrance of man made material. The Pacific Ocean is an amazing place, hyperbolic scales will only add an element of awe to this adventurous environment. Finally Dalis colour palette seemed very interesting. Often in Dalis landscape artwork, I note, the horizon line is met in stark juxtaposition with the blue sky: which the oils only emphasize in the harsh nature of their medium. I can imagine a sandy sea bed meeting the blue waves in a similar fashion, picking up on the slightly-stronger-than-natural Palette of Wes Andersons The Life Aquatic, which I have also analysed as a key influence for the artwork design for the creation of this game.

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    FIG.22

  • Base Sketches

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    Here are a few example sketches where I have started to consider each creatures individual characteristics to start to build there characters up.

  • Adding the Missing Characters

    After doing some more research into Thunderbirds and establishing my influences it was beginning to become apparent that I was missing a few characters: largely I have started to develop some interesting concepts with a variation of creatures but it was missing the key character who sits in the background and orchestrates all of the missions and the mission control centre.

    I have arrived at the idea that an eccentric research assistant leads a double life one of which is under the Ocean. As well as collecting research she has fitted the marine life with the tools necessary to recycle and clean their environment. She acts as the commander who directs the animals from the main base.

    I also wanted a brains character and I particularly liked the idea of an Octopus, I could imagine his eight tentacles multitasking over several computers and the Octopus is something easily identifiable with children and kids.

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  • Concept Art: Environments

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  • Concept Art: Characters

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    After feedback, people seemed to suggest that I needed to push the colour a step further in order to give the characters more allure. Looking at Vinyl toys and popular TV series, the power rangers I really wanted to establish the idea of the different characteristics of each creature through its different colours. So that hopefully children would be talking about wanting the red one or the blue one. The only trouble that simply adding a single colour to each animal gave them a plastic effect which was exactly what the plot line for this unit of work didnt need.

    Colour Influence

  • Oil Colour Tests

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    Wadhurst Primary- Feedback

    Experiencing some trouble colours and wishing to explore the possibility of fleshier, natural parts in contrast to painted, bright and textures/patterned across the creatures. I decided to head to a Primary school in Wadhurst, East Sussex to see what children thought were the most creative colour schemes to draw in peoples attention. I worked with students of Years 3 and 4 who fortunately fit into the demographic this game aims for. I encouraged children to get into the mind frame of the characters giving them a name and writing about their habits, how old they were, where they lived and what they ate etc. My plan was to take in plain photocopies of my sketches into the school and after a brief on the game, allow them to draw onto the plain outlines colouring them in any way they had chosen. There really were no restrictions except the colours should be bold and creative. After the children had finished their drawing task it was up to me to draw inspiration from them and combine them in such a way in photo shop that it becomes appealing.

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    Orthographic Sketches

    Before we jump into Maya to start modelling the creatures it was vital to produce orthographic sketches of the models to build them accurately. To the left is an orthographic birds-eye sketch of the turtle and on the following slide you will see an orthographic sketch of the whale and crab characters.

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  • Character Traits: The Whale

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    Name: Woo- Z Job: Transport/Transform plastic into reusable material Strengths: Strong, durable, happy, hard working, easy to find due to huge size.

    Weaknesses: Clumsy, slow, oblivious to his surroundings

    Capacity: 100000+ bottles (can hold an infinite amount in the game)

    Commonly Found: Around the Ocean in the congested plastic parts, whales normally swim by themselves and spread out over the Ocean. They travel from HQ to the sore spots where their impact of work is neaded.

  • Character Traits: The Turtle

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    Name: Patch Job: Collect plastic and transport the plastic to the whale (the protagonist character)

    Strengths: Strong, hard shell, speed boosts, leader, customisable, robust- can crash through objects, resilient

    Weaknesses: Big object, harder to weave between cracks, short boosts of speed longer to regenerate.

    Capacity: 500+ bottles (at max before drop off) Commonly Found: Everywhere! Especially at HQ and around hot spots. The players main character. Between 1-5 Turtles per group.

  • Character Traits: The Manta Ray

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    Name: Reggie the Ray Job: Transport/Transform plastic into reusable material Strengths: Flexible, fast, good stamina, manoeuvrable, lots of speed boosts which regenerate in quick succession leaving the ability to travel vast distances.

    Weaknesses: Weak, takes a lot of speed penalty for hitting obstacles

    Capacity: 500 bottles (max before drop off) Commonly Found: Again Everywhere! The Manta Ray is the second protagonist character players can opt to play as, and can also come in a pack of 1-5.

  • Character Traits: The Crab

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    Name: DOB Job: Drill, fix and build materials Strengths: Intelligent, able to fix and build from repurposed materials, can be attached to other creatures.

    Weaknesses: Slow, unable to travel far, incapable of holding plastic

    Capacity: 0 bottles Commonly Found: Around the Ocean in the congested plastic parts, working on constructing or even deconstructing vast plastic ice- bergs

  • Character Traits: The Dolphin

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    Name: Dolphi Job: Detect plastics and relay the results back to HQ Strengths: Quick, flexible, intelligent, can communicate to orchestrate animals and organise bigger projects via talking to HQ commander.

    Weaknesses: Unable to collect plastic, delicate equipment may become damaged by swimming into obstacles

    Capacity: 0 bottles Commonly Found: Around the Ocean in parts which have not yet been ventured upon. Works heavily with HQ and the crabs who repair their damaged equipment. They swim in pairs so they always have equipment to talk to HQ in case one Dolphins machine malfunctions.

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    Step 1. Modelling

    FINALLY we are able to move into Maya with basic modelling. I have modelled the Turtle, Crab and Whale so far all with polygon objects. One crucial technique to bare in mind whilst modelling is that they need to be fit for games purposes. This means that they can afford to be unsmoothed and also that they are not over complicated.

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    Step 2. UV Modelling

    The 2nd Step in the Maya process was to start UV texturing the creatures. Again being a games design project I have tried to pack out the UVs as much as I can. Meaning less texture space will become less memory intensive for a game. However I have designated some more important or larger sections of the creature larger areas of texture space, for instance the turtle (who is the protagonist) has more space for details in his fins and face than the other characters may do.

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    Step 3. Control Rigs

    On the following slide is an example of a Control Rig with way too many details and functionality on it for a simple games character. Featuring a ribbon spine for a character who wouldnt bend, IKs and reverse foot controls, which werent needed. This was stripped back and made into a more functional rig as you can see in the image to the right. I had to think about exactly what these creatures would need to do as a character, inside the game so that I could build the right controls and bring them through to the skinning process.

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    HR- LR Modelling

    To add extra details I had to them smooth the model via duplicating the LR objects and enlarging the scale via its Normals. I would then add any extra edge loops to hold the model together smooth the mesh and extract and penetrating vertices by utilising the soft select tool and pushing them at an equal distance back through the surface. For some objects (the shell for example) needed extra details which has to be built into the LR model before it was smoothed.

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    xNormals

    Xnomrals is a really handy piece of software which I have been using to generate AO (Ambient Occlusion) and Normal Height maps to add detail to the models look. This simply involved exporting the HR and LR meshes as OBJ exports and then hitting generate maps button which I would then bring into photo shop to create a series of PSD files out of.

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    Normals Height Map Generated via xNormals

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    Texturing

    I then textured on top of the UVs making sure to match any details which needed to be added to the Normals height map in the same position as the texture. I wanted to make the machines look a bit worn and torn adding sea weed (or ivy as the illusion would be) as well as dirt maps over logos and type.

  • Audio

    As my project approaches its climax, I have needed to start to think about how I will pop it into an animated sequence. One of the major choices was, what audio?

    Ive decided the two best possible audio example to explore would be an epic- cinematic audio track which brings humour into the mix with this massive task the animated animals are enduring. Or conversely a theme song, something rock-like, punchy and will be remembered.

    For the purposes of this minor project submission I am pursuing an epic soundtrack although an actual sound track may be on the cards if this project gets taken forward for the major submission also.

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    Fig.28 Audio Waveband

  • Christmas Intentions

    The Crab- Finish Modelling UV Ctrl Rig/Skin Texture

    The Turtle- Finish Texturing

    Audio- Buy soundtrack

    Animation- Animate turtle and crab ready for renders. Set up Cams and scene.

    Upon returning to Uni I will have to render my creatures and finish the whale as he is currently saved on Maya 2015, (owning 2013 at home). This should be achievable providing everything is ready to render as soon as I get back to uni.

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  • Illustration List

    Fig.1 Humpback Whale. At: http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2008/aug/12/conservation.wildlife. Accessed on (30/9/2014)

    Fig.2 HumpbackWhale1. At: http://www.shamankayaks.com/shaman/blog_post.asp?PostID=28. Accessed on (30/9/2014).

    Fig.3 Fantasia Baby Whale. At: http://galleryhip.com/whale-gif-tumblr.html. Accessed on (30/9/2014).

    Fig.4 Humpback-Whale-BONU0001. At: http://michaelseebeck.com/whales-dolphins/. Accessed on (30/9/2014).

    Fig.5 Pacific Rock Crab Aerial Shot. At: http://www.mexfish.com/fish/rrcrab/rrcrab.htm. Accessed on (30/9/2014).

    Fig.6 rockcrab. At: http://thelilefiles.wordpress.com/2012/11/08/designing-a-scavenger-hunt-for-a-zoo-or-aquarium/. Accessed on (30/9/2014).

    Fig.7 rock-crab-aldinga-2. At: http://naturallysouthaustralia.com/tag/south-australian-marine-life/. Accessed on (30/9/2014).

    Fig.8 jms_PSKCrab_90p_P9250082_tmb. At http://www.robots4farms.com/neckpoint.html. Accessed on (30/9/2014).

    Fig.9 Enormous_Sunfish. At: http://www.origami-instructions.com/easy-origami-ocean-sunfish.html. Accessed on (30/9/2014).

    Fig.10 Sunfish. At: http://animalgals.wordpress.com/tag/sunfish/. Accessed on (30/9/2014).

    Fig.11 Sunfish. At: http://blogs.rgj.com/mostlydogs/2012/08/06/afternoon-break-swimming-with-enormous-sunfish-off-california/. Accessed on (30/9/2014).

    Fig.12 250px-Sunfish2. At: http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ocean_sunfish. Accessed on (30/9/2014).

    Fig.13 Leatherback-turtle-007. At: http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2011/aug/13/leatherback-turtles-jellyfish-welsh-coast. Accessed on (30/9/2014).

    Fig.14 leatherback. At: https://www.dosomething.org/blog/tiny-655-pound-leatherback-turtle-rescued. Accessed on (30/9/2014).

    Fig.15 leatherback-turtle_2272246b. At: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/wildlife/9388086/Thousands-of-sea-turtle-eggs-crushed-by-heavy-machinery.html. Accessed on (30/9/2014).

    Fig.16 manta_ray_ride___wip_by_sapphiresky1410-d6p4gwa. At: http://sapphiresky1410.deviantart.com/art/Manta-Ray-Ride-WIP-404995978. Accessed on (1/10/2014).

    Fig.17 manta_ray_sea_creature-wide. At: http://www.hdwallpapers.in/manta_ray_sea_creature-wallpapers.html. Accessed on (1/10/2014).

    Fig.18 manta_ray2013_01. At: http://www.islandream.com/quintana_roo_report.htm. Accessed on (1/10/2014).

    Fig.19 t2 landing. At: http://scifimusings.blogspot.co.uk/2010/05/thunderbirds-s1-ep5-uninvited.html. Accessed on (3/10/2014).

    Fig.20 tapety.joe.pl-the-life-aquatic. At: http://tapety.joe.pl/na-pulpit/rozne/nieznanego-autorstwa/the-life-aquatic/. Accessed on (3/10/2014).

    Fig.21 Octonauts. At: http://www.disney.co.uk/disney-junior/index.jsp. (Accessed on (3/10/2014).

    Fig.22 Salvador-Dali. At: http://coolartblog.com/salvador-dali-surrealism. Accessed on (3/10/2014).

    Fig 23 Trash Vortex. At: http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/campaigns/oceans/fit-for-the-future/pollution/trash-vortex/. Accessed on (3/10/2014).

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  • Fig.24 Old-School-BMX-vinyl-toys-526435_450_450. At: http://www.fanpop.com/clubs/vinyl-toys/images/526435/title/old-school-bmx-photo Accessed on (27/10/14)

    Fig.25 Toy2 At: http://www.noupe.com/inspiration/showcases/30-incredibly-beautiful-custom-designer-toys.html Accessed on (27/10/14)

    Fig.26 MMToy09-71. At: http://linearranger.com/MMPR-Toys/MMToy09.htm Accessed on (27/10/14)

    Fig.27 SH-Figuarts-Mighty-Morphin-Power-Rangers-Team-Figures-Together-e1380046552911. At: http://www.animetoynews.com/sh-figuarts-mighty-morphin-power-rangers-black-ranger-in-2014/ Accessed on (27/10/14)

    Fig.28 Audio Waveband. At: http://www.dawsons.co.uk/blog/how-do-mp3-and-wav-files-differ Accessed on (10/12/14)

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    Illustration List Cont