Axolotl was my first 3D character animation for an Animation course my Sophomore year. The story takes place under water where a humanoid axolotl character is taking a leisure swim on the bottom of the sea when she finds a key sticking out of the sand. This project was my first time 3D modeling, rigging, and animating a humanoid character. She is modeled initially in Maya and brought into Blender for rigging and animation. The entire short film took 2-3 months to complete with most of my time going towards character modeling and animation. The rigging and weight painting process was especially difficult for me because it felt very technical and less artistic. I enjoyed the process of learning how to set my character up for movement and especially finally making her move.

I spent a lot of time researching swimming references and making sure my characters’ movements were fluid. Animating my character was a new process for me that I enjoyed the more I used the program.