BIONICLE Gali vs. Tarakava | Fan Tribute Animation

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A long-awaited (mostly by me) return to my most beloved childhood franchise, Bionicle. I wanted to make more fan works about it for a long time, especially in light of all the recent document leaks that have revealed so much behind-the-scenes information previously hidden from fans and fired up my love for this franchise even more.
Perhaps I picked the wrong time for it though, considering the fanbase is in disarray, the franchise is still as deader as before, and my YouTube statistics are the worst they've been in the past 3 years. But I needed to work on something that I actually like. Though only a minute and a half long and rendered in a lower quality, this video took over two months to make, which is too much. So this could be the last time I can dedicate this much time and effort to such a passion project.

Normally the videos that mean a lot to me get longer descriptions, so here goes...
Many fans have their own pie-in-the-sky daydream of how they would handle a hypothetical Bionicle revival or adaptation. No one will ever agree on how to do it since this franchise means so many different things to different fans. We also now have a better understanding of how frequently the franchise changed between different storytellers, to the point that early and late Bionicle can feel like they're separate properties.
I've played out the first imaginary "episode" of my personal adaptation in my head a few times, but I never bothered to write it down because it's ultimately a pointless thought experiment. This video is technically NOT how I'd handle an adaptation, but it contains elements that I consider important. This video wasn't meant to be a full fledged action scene (because that would have taken even longer), but more so a brief highlight reel.
I decided to re-imagine the Gali vs. Tarakava fight from the Mata Nui Online Game (   • MNOLG - Gali vs tarakava   ) because of the final shot in specific. I actually already made a sketch of it back in 2011. I really wanted to summarize the evolving portrayals of the Toa, first seen as unapproachable godlike figures of legend, then depicted more as action-adventure heroes, but once that initial mist of mysticism fades away, the true reveal is that they're also people, fallible, personal, and they too need to take a breather after every exhausting adventure.
I also wanted to keep the characters more toylike this time because I think that most attempts to visually "humanize" them (as they had done in the three Creative Capers films) takes away something from their immediate "creepy dilapidated robot" appeal. I never liked the idea of Gali having hands and her hooks being mere tools, and I don't think that Toa in general should be human-proportioned or have well-layered armor. I just don't want them looking "traditionally heroic". Their alien creepiness is one of the things that drew me to the brand to begin with.
Christian Faber put it well in a recent video fan interview where he explained the unconventional look of the Toa was the main intent. They came into this world unprepared, "starting below zero", searching for knowledge and using their powers to counterbalance their scrappy physical appearance. So I think keeping the toy-inspired robotic look works better to showcase this. I never understood the retcon to give the characters organs and muscles (other than that they canonically needed to breathe), so I kept those to a minimum too.
Many shots in this animation had more jittery or "dynamic" animation at first, and while I liked how it looked, it didn't fit what I was going for. Gali's run cycle originally looked more humanlike with stronger chest twists and the Tarakava also moved in a more wobbly manner like some snakelike creature. But I preferred to have them move in a more mechanical way.
I took some cues from the films too, it's very inspirational that their visual design tried to make even the cruddiest CGI look cinematic and "alive". I tried to mimic the films' colorful hazy atmosphere where there's some sort of animated effect in each shot, and I kept things like the heartlights, the moving eyes and the movie-style Turaga body and robe for Nokama. That's just a personal choice -- unlike with the Toa, I have a hard time thinking of the Turaga as their toy forms, but I kept many of Nokama's toy qualities as well. I should have redesigned the Matoran bodies because their bendy arms and fixed shoulders don't really work in certain poses, but they're not the focus of this video, so I kept them as is. I realize I forgot Takua's backpack. I modeled it once years ago, but I can't find that model anymore.
Redesigning the Tarakava more extensively would have been an interesting challenge if I had more time. But as with the Toa, I like the rough robotic Lego Technic look of the early Rahi designs.
I also added Hahli. She didn't exist in 2001 but she was retroactively added to the story, so here she is, literally blocking out Kotu.