Beastly Build

The wolf-like mechanoid beast towers far above the treetops. The pedestal it rests on is barely able to contain its fierce frame; this is most definitely not a gentle giant. This is Carbon Roar a ferocious new build from the aptly named, Be_a_St.

“The beast had to have a mane - which I think looks splendid on lions - and I also wanted some aggressive features such as fangs, claws, scars as well as an overall threatening pose,” its creator Be_a_St explains. Er, mission accomplished!

Please don't leave it near me alone.

“To enhance the aggressive look of the beast I chose carbon as one of the most prominent materials for the cyborg parts,” explains Be_a_St. It certainly carries an aura of aggression! And yet, this skyscraping cyborg monster also has an almost spiritual aura.

“I also wanted the beast to look graceful, so I tried to enhance the overall look with a light aureole. This is also a reference to me, my pseudo being Be_a_St, which can be read ‘Beast’ but also ‘Be a Saint’.”

The mysteriously raised paw of Carbon Roar, too, has some of the same ambiguity: is the beast attacking or perhaps blessing someone? Hopefully the latter.

How does one go about tackling a beast of a project like this? “I do not plan my creations, I am freestyling most of the time,” claims Be_a_St.

“For Carbon Roar I had a very rough idea of the pose I wanted the beast to have. I setup a stickman frame with spheres for the joints and started wireframing the body. When the full body was finished, I incorporated the machine/cyborg parts over the skin.

“I did these mechanical parts separately from the organic before grafting [them] to it.” Apart from claws that looked too much “like noodles” at earlier stages, Be_a_St explains that the main challenge was simply “to keep my motivation up to finish this project. Being a slow builder, I am rarely satisfied with what I do, so I always retry and retry until the build suits me the most.”

But while the creation of the beast took ‘just’ one and a half months, it would be a full one and a half years until the project was complete.

“Right after I finished it I was drained of my motivation and completely ran out of creativity,” explains Be_a_St. “I felt like there was nothing left to do so I got bored and disappeared.”

Fortunately, Be_a_St eventually overcame this crisis of faith and, after applying the finishing touches - such as adding the “pedestal with a little landscape to underline the size of the beast” - finally presented it to the community.

“This project is very much a testimony to all the unfinished projects that we have and lack the motivation to finish. If it started by being an illustration of my roaring motivation, it certainly took a different meaning thereafter.”

Be_a_St’s building career started off after discovering Minecraft in 2012 and realizing “that I was more interested into the architecture of my base and the way I could fit it into the landscape, rather than the survival mode itself.” Moving on to creative servers in 2013, Be_a_St ended up joining the NewHeaven after several years of creating maps for the major French creative server Epicube.

“I applied for NewHeaven and, after a first failed organic attempt, I built a structure that got me into the team. There I met very nice and talented people that I am still in contact with. By building with them I improved a lot but also got to realize that team projects weren’t exactly my thing. Being a very impulsive builder I really dislike doing long term projects.”

Carbon Roar has the distinction of being Be_a_St’s first large scale solo project. “I wanted to pull off a complete project on my own (my previous larger scale organic was made with a good friend) because I felt like I rarely did something fully by myself.”

He also has advice for novice builders: “Do not watch too many building tutorials because it will bias your ability to approach a project. Watch tools tutorials instead on WolrdEdit, VoxelSniper, GoBrush and others.”

“If you particularly want to improve at organics I advise you to watch a Masterclass by Hytherde on Youtube about wireframing for organics. Becoming a skilled builder requires patience and constant efforts to improve. Find a server or build team where you feel comfortable and inspired and keep it up!”

Great tips! Here's a bonus one from me: if you see any creature that looks remotely like Carbon Roar, turn around and keep running and running and running for the rest of your life. Good luck!

Renders by Matteo Paolini, Robin_rgx and Iskillia