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Acknowledgements

I would like to thank my supervisor Dr Chris Barker for his generous encouragement and support over the past 4 years. One of the (many) enjoyable aspects of this research has been getting to know Chris. I would also like to thank my associate supervisor Dr Adam Nash for his insightful feedback on drafts of this document. Dr Stefan Greuter was my first associate supervisor and his generous support in the early stages of this research is greatly appreciated.

For their friendship and inspiring conversation I would like to thank all my research colleagues at RMIT including Amani Naseem, Robert Cercos, Betty Sargeant, Sara Jane Pell, Tom Penney, Matthew Riley, Andy Buchanan and Helmut Munz. For the duration of this research my workspace has been situated in the Exertion Games lab at RMIT University and I am grateful to Floyd Meuller and everyone in the Lab for providing a collegial working environment.

I would like to thank all my friends and family for their encouragement and support over the past four years and will mention some of them by name. As a friend and an experienced researcher, Dr Robyn Barnacle’s support and advice on various issues have been invaluable throughout the course of this research. Dr Pia Ednie-Brown is also friend and a researcher and, although intermittent, our discussions over many years have always been inspiring and influential. In the early days of this research Goran Popovski shared with me some of his extensive knowledge of computer programming, helping and inspiring me to pursue a greater technical understanding of 3D software.

I would especially like to thank my parents, Donna Dean and Colin Moore, who have been consistently supportive of my creative projects and personal endeavours throughout my entire life. This research project wouldn’t have been possible without them. A special thank you also to my partner, Hazel Porter, for her ongoing support and for showing me by example how much can be achieved with hard work and dedication.

There are several people whose efforts have directly influenced the final form of this document. I would like to acknowledge Michael Day who provided copy-editing; Verity Campbell for spending several enjoyable hours discussing my research themes and how best to communicate them; and Chris Knowles for his technical expertise, helping me to lay out this document in html.

At the start of this research I looked around me for an object that could serve as the inspiration for a number of different 3D animations projects. I could have chosen a car, a teapot, or a billiard ball but instead I chose my dog, a whippet called Ginger. It was a convenient choice because Ginger has been with me most of the time throughout this research. Ginger died a few months ago and, as I finish writing this document, she is no longer beside me in her bed. One of many collaborative partners involved in this research, this document is dedicated to her.