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November 26, 2013
- Project Date:May 28, 2012
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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.
![](../img/thumb/120528_thunHead.thumb.jpg)
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.
![](../img/thumb/120528_thunTorso.thumb.jpg)
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...
![](../img/thumb/120528_thunWire.thumb.jpg)
No teeth in there yet. No time to add a open-mouthed alternate head.
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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.
![](../img/thumb/120528_thunGrass.thumb.jpg)
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.
![](../img/thumb/120528_thunSunset.thumb.jpg)
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.