Battle Beast Contest - Thundegaar
November 26, 2013

 - Project Date:May 28, 2012

Yes, another contest entry. This one was involved creating your own Battle Beast. It was tough to decide which animal, but after many sleepless nights Thundegaar the hippopotamus took form.


Check out the link for many more images.
This contest was a lot of fun. I was a fan of the original Battle Beasts growing up so my first inclination was to replicate one of my favorites from that series. But in the end that was too limiting, I wanted to create something new.


With the entire animal kingdom open to me it was hard to settle on just one. I still have a list of other Battle Beasts to create. The hippo seemed a nice fit for a battling creature, but I also had a few ideas that "played against type," so to speak. Warrior Chilly Willy will just have to wait.


I looked a lot of reference photos for the coloring and texture of the hippo skin. It came out really nice I think. Not good enough for his own animated feature film, but pretty nice for these renderings.


For the most part, I prefer the basic Minimate form. Too many sculpted pieces seem to detract from the base appeal. However the Battle Beast line is full of these pieces. And when in Rome...


No teeth in there yet. No time to add a open-mouthed alternate head.


Every Battle Beast comes with a weapon so Thundegaar gets a two-handed staff. The head is supposed to be this energy.. crystal.. lightning thingy but there's only so much time. And since I was going to be animating it, I didn't devote too much to it.


Here are the beauty shots. I really wanted more realistic grass or a jungle setting, but like I mentioned there's only so much time. You have to make sacrifices. While it's not exactly what I had in mind, it gets the feeling across.


This is my favorite render. It uses the environment from the Site 23 series with some sunset lighting. There's a story there. I don't know what that is... maybe one day I'll be able to explore it.

All the contest entries are here.