Two snails live in a quiet, isolated environment until Esco is taken and used for a time manipulation experiment. A device embedded in his shell causes time to react to his movement.

After a lightning strike destroys the lab, Esco escapes and begins searching for his partner. As he moves, time accelerates uncontrollably — entire civilizations rise and collapse around him.

At the end of his journey, he falls through the remains of a dead world, reversing time back to his origin. He finds his partner again, but realizes that nothing moves. By breaking his shell, he has frozen time completely, leaving him trapped in a moment he cannot change.

The film was created over approximately five months at the FH St. Pölten as part of a team of eight.

Compared to previous semester projects, we deliberately chose a significantly larger scope, which required more planning, longer production phases and constant iteration. A large portion of the necessary skills and workflows had to be learned through self-study during production.

Despite the increased complexity and several technical setbacks, the project was completed in time for the final deadline. A budget of around €550 was provided, while rendering and hardware resources were handled by the university.

• Autodesk Maya: modelling & animation

• V-Ray: lights, SFX & rendering

• DaVinci Resolve: editing, SFX & color grading

• Adobe Photoshop: corrections & adjustments

• Adobe Illustrator: vector assets & minor fixes

• Procreate: 2D assets

• FL Studio: audio production

• Render times: Long render times made iteration slow and costly. Many issues only became visible after full render passes

• Team coordination: Allocating tasks between each other in a timely manner

• Support: Limited external support for specific technical problems

• Post-production fixes: correcting animation errors in editing and grading required additional time and creative solutions