Snail in the Bay

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This project marked a new phase in my animation journey.
I created it in March 2024 as part of an exercise for my 3D course at Mohole school. The assignment was to build an environment in Unreal Engine 5 and present it through animated camera movements.
I decided to go further by adding an animated subject: a snail—a quiet protagonist for this small, moody world.

After animating rigid mechanical characters (like the Pixar lamp), this was my first time exploring soft-body deformation in animation.
The snail’s slow, effortful movement represents resilience, persistence, and survival in a damp environment, right after a storm.

Although the main goal was to explore Unreal, I used the full traditional animation pipeline to create the snail:
• ZBrush – sculpting
• Maya – retopology, rig, and animation
• Substance Painter – texturing
• Unreal Engine 5 – lighting, environment, and rendering

Realism wasn’t the priority—atmosphere was. I tried to evoke a sense of suspended calm, where even a tiny creature could feel emotionally present.