THE EEL
The Eel is the main creature featured in Iron Lung. She's a desperate, confused, destructive entity. Comprised of the tangled bodies and minds of scientists left down in the ocean of blood, her pursuit of Simon is both out of past aspirations and primordial fear.
Directed by Mark Fischbach
Designs by Molly Brown
EXPLORATION
The Eel started from a single sketch provided to me by Mark from the Art Director. We knew we wanted this creature to invoke a sense of unease, but also a level of pain and empathy.
For my first approach, I provided an eel with subtle skulls embedded in its face, as well as these long veins from its gills to suggest it needed to process blood rather than water.
My second approach played into the illusion of two faces joined together, looking more like a usual eel at a distance and obscured by fluids.
FINAL DESIGN
Once I provided a version of the eel with a more down-turned, frowning maw, Mark was more keen to the design. It better catered to the original idea that the eel was an entity in great pain.
Now, the next line of work was injuring the eel, which occurs about halfway through the movie and plays a pivotal role in the creature's scattered, more desperate movements and state of mind.
3D MODEL
Transferring the eel's 2D concepts into a 3D model was made simpler by the fact I construct rough 3D meshes to paint over.
However, the full body was another story. Though never quite fully seen in the film, her design is entirely complete and a model was made to capture the sheer scale and horror of her mutated form.
