I was part of the design-team at Amalgamated Dynamics, Inc. which was tasked to design the hollow earth creatures for the Godzilla vs Kong. The team consisted of myself, Bryan Wynia, Justice Joseph and Xander Smith.

We only had about 4 weeks to design five creatures for the film. I was tasked to design the Rock Critter and an unsused swamp creature called Shimidah.

The Hollow Earth was conceived as one Ecosystem. The designs of each creature that lives in that isolated realm had to convey that. Because we were already locked into the Godzilla design we used texture elements of him to help develop the other creatures to feel cohesive.

Shimidah was described as a large creature, partially submerged in sand. It just moves and rises out of the sand reacting to something and then settles back in.

The mouth had to be big enough that it can grab several humans at once. I tried to come up with different ways of how this creature could trap its prey and explored the idea of a mouth that consisted of six moving parts. That way Shimidah was able to open its mouth much wider, like a carnivorous plant.

Shrimps, naked mole rats and carnivorous plants were my main inspiration for Shimidah.

After approval of the 2D sketch, I proceeded with a 3D maquette. Sculpted in ZBrush and rendered in KeyShot.

I imagined Shimidah as a larva; the first stage of a much larger creature.

For this rendering I tried to show that the body of this creature is adjusted to its environment in sand and is therefore completely helpless on the surface. I illustrated Shimidah lying on its side while it’s franticly trying to dig itself back underground.

Rock Critter

The Rock Critter was described as a camouflaged creature that blends in with the Hollow Earth rock. I immediately had a crab-like creature in mind and did a quick sketch that director Adam Wingard wanted to push further.

I added multiple claws that could move out of the shell and I experimented with different head and mouth options. One version the director liked had a beak-like mouth that consisted of four parts.

Later artist Xander Smith came on board and did a 3d model based on my designs.