················
Hey Guys,
Sorry I'm late the party on this one, was too busy reading up on what everyone thinks of SGU! I worked with the dudes/dudettes that put Udyr together, and we definitely discussed the transformation into actual animals.
One of the reasons we decided against this was how much it would change his silhouette in game. We wanted this skin to be equally awesome and readable in game so that the skin doesn't create any time of negative gameplay interaction.
Another reason we opted to not do this was because of how often you switch and how jarring it would be to be to constantly be changing from flying bird, to crawling turtle, to lumbering bear, to sprinting tiger and back again.
We felt that it is most appropriate to showcase how Udyr summons the powerful spirit of the animal to aid him in battle (with a little extra ooomph at max rank).
Really excited to see the discussion about him here, and sorry for the late response. Hope you guys like it!