HOT WHEELS CITY - YOUTUBE SERIES

Hot Wheels City is a stop-motion animated web series produced by Mattel and animated by Ancient Order of the Wooden Skull.  I was hired as a concept artist across multiple seasons of the show, helping to design a range of imaginative monsters, environments, and playset-inspired worlds.  My work involved creating highly stylized concept illustrations that blended the aesthetic of Hot Wheels toys with cinematic storytelling, helping bring each season’s theme (monsters, dinosaurs, robots) to life.

Client : Mattel

Credits
Animation : Ancient Order of the Wooden Skull
Concept Art : Jeffrey Bounthavong

Software Used : Maya, Zbrush, Substance Painter, Substance Designer, Redshift, Marmoset Toolbag

TRAILER - SEASON 1 "HOT WHEELS CITY"

The official trailer for Hot Wheels City Season 1 showcases the toy-based, action-packed world brought to life through stop motion animation. I contributed concept art for several key monsters and set designs that appear throughout the season.

 

OVERHEAD VIEW OF HOT WHEELS (SEASON 1)

This piece is an overhead matte painting of the entire Hot Wheels City layout created for Season 1.  It maps out the full world, highlighting the unique toy-based locations, tracks, and the various monster threats that appear throughout the series. This view served as a visual reference for layout planning and episode flow.

 

MONSTER & SET DESIGNS - SEASON 2

This set includes concept illustrations I created in Photoshop for Season 2.  I designed new monsters and environments built around evolving Hot Wheels playsets, ensuring each design matched the fast-paced, over-the-top energy of the series.

 

DINO MONSTERS AND SET CONCEPTS - SEASON 3

Season 3 focused on dinosaur-themed monsters.  My work included visual development for giant dino antagonists, blending classic prehistoric forms with Hot Wheels-style exaggeration, and set pieces that mirrored iconic toy features, now expanded into full environments.

 

ROBO ANIMAL MONSTERS AND SET CONCEPTS - SEASON 4

For Season 4, I illustrated a new roster of robotic animal monsters, each combining creature-like behavior with mechanical design.  These Photoshop concepts helped guide puppet fabrication and informed how the robotic elements would animate within stop motion constraints.

 

SET DESIGNS - SEASON 5

In Season 5, the emphasis returned to track-centric set pieces and new environments.  I developed a series of concept illustrations focused on world-building, expanding the visual language of Hot Wheels City while introducing creative layouts and new play patterns based on real toys.