The movie had 5 posters (1 of the whole cast, and another 4 each showing the cast solo against one of the movie's monsters.  This is where the eel got to shine. Even saw it on some billboards too!

The final on-screen pose appears alongside the initial concept poses I presented to the director. Sharing those early designs helped establish a clear visual identity for the creature, and that signature pose quickly became ingrained in everyone’s mind—ultimately finding its way directly into the finished film.

This creature required a significant amount of visual exploration, and I was genuinely grateful to be entrusted with leading that process. I iterated through multiple phases of form development, shader experimentation, surface patterning, and bioluminescent color studies to establish a look that felt both cohesive and striking on screen. I also designed conceptual treatments for the creature’s eye, including how the pupil would contract and respond to light.

In the end, I’m proud of how the design came together. It’s incredibly rewarding to have created a movie creature that not only made it into the final cut, but also onto a theatrical poster—even if it is a giant electric eel.

JOURNEY 2 : THE MYSTERIOUS ISLAND
2012
Studio : Pixomondo

Role : CG Artist

The Eel

This was an especially fun task because I had the chance to design the eel entirely from scratch. When I first joined the sequence, there was existing concept art, but the director wasn’t happy with it. My VFX supervisor simply said, “Just make it scary and cool.” I figured dinosaurs are always cool, so I used that as my guiding idea.

The original design leaned heavily toward a realistic electric eel, but it lacked a sense of menace. I pushed the creature toward a hybrid of moray eel and T-rex—something sleek, predatory, and powerful. The director responded really positively to that direction. After a few rounds of feedback and refinements, the design made it all the way to final shots… and even onto a movie poster, which is pretty great to have hanging on my wall!