Research

There were many ideas not only in the world but throughout many films and TV series that inspired this island all together as well as the design. The most important is Neverland from Disney’s Peter Pan.

The Island itself inspired the structure, shape and color scheme of the island as well as the scenery. Ever since it was first released in the 50s and bringing it back in the Disney Fairies franchise, this island has become a location of magic, make-believe and happiness throughout Disney history and makes it’s audience feel similar feelings about the island. I wanted to have my island contain such traits to draw the audience into it. Many who have seen my designs and island ask weather i based it of never land which makes me happy that the design influence comes across. This island was a big help in the designing of an island for a complex and other building because the design looks natural, obviously cartoon and has a series of landscapes that could contain buildings all over.

Pixie Hollow is a spot in Neverland home to Tinkerbell and her friends. I wanted as much as i could to make my complex bare a resemblance to this magical place because it is the center of magic in Neverland and so much activity that help the fairies do their job in changing the seasons happen here. I wanted my complex to have the same purpose and looking to Pixie hollow for it’s structure helped, such as having the most important part in the middle with lots of other locations of different colors surrounding it. Working with nature is something i wanted in my complex not only for design reasons but to meet the brief of the module. Trees, streams, lights and mountains were the best choices.

Moving away from Neverland, the main purpose of the people who work and reside in the complex are rescuers, they fly to people in distress around the world and save them with their machines. Sound familiar?

Tracy Island was the main inspiration of the complex and idea of rescuers because of my love for Thunderbirds Are Go. This show is basically what started my whole universe of ideas and has expanded ever since. I thought it perfect to have elements of Tracy island such as buildings over the island, a runway platform and workings within the island added to the design of my island as a tribute to what started it all. One helpful aspect of the design that helped me was how the buildings were fixed on the island and serves a purpose. The recent release of the new Thunderbirds series was perfectly timed for this project and has inspired me to work on it better.

Another universe that i looked to mainly design and island structure was the island homes from the lego Bionicle franchise. The island, Mata Nui, Metru Nui and Voya Nui gave me some good ideas for the island. As the bioncles work with nature like the Disney Fairies it seemed right and helpful to have their islands inspire the design for my island because of their unusual and unique shapes that add a mystical and fantasy quality to the island. Having different forms of nature all over the island helped in placing certain parts of the complex and adding nature to the island, just like pixie hollow.

There are many other island, locations and environments throughout the animated movie and series universe and many of the ones i have seen and loved helped in not only the design of the island and building but getting a feel of a happy, natural and working environment. These include (in order of appearance on collage) the Island of Sodor from Thomas and Friends, Duelist Kingdom from Yu-Gi-Oh, Berk from Dreamworks Dragons, Camp Wawanakwa from Total Drama Island, Angel Island from Sonic X, Duelist Academy from Yu-Gi-Oh GX, the hundred acre wood from Winnie the Pooh and Nomanison Island from the incredibles. Nearly all of these locations have a similar design of a huge mountain in the middle, lots of different elements of nature like, sand, trees, rocks etc and having lots of building and houses around it suitable for people to live in. These are important to my island as work happens all the time on it, as well as leisure.

Not all of the design influences are restricted to just fantasy worlds from films and TV series, some real places around the world helped. I also wanted to look at real environments similar to the worlds i looked to so i can have some real traits of nature, building interactions and landscapes. Unfortunately, there were only a few i knew about and they were (in order of appearance on collage) Bora Bora, Portmarion in North Wales, The castle by Loch Ness in Scotland and Hobbiton in New Zealand. Looking at how real places looked opened up more ideas on how to design, model and animate the island. All the images i have looked at during my research have all come together to create the Island and it’s complex.