Animatix 30 second Challenge - 🔥 النار من شبابها
In an unprecedented turn of events, I have declared it a necessity that I create a passion project that goes to a festival. Since 2022 I've been working on mostly commercial projects with clients that desired a specific outcome. However this year I decided to make something different. After securing a corporate job doing what I still love but for internal corporate communication, I found myself never working on something I truly love. This is where the 30 second challenge came from the rising Animatix Animation Festival in Cairo.
I attended Animatix in 2025 and was completely inspired. The event is small and organic. Very authentic artists expressing themselves passionately in the Arab region. Unlike any other festival in the area, this place really brought together a special kind of crowd. In 2026 my friend and colleague at my job Abdullah Rafah reminded me that I should participate this year. I immediately rushed to send my commercial project from 2024 (Saudi Film Festival Intro) and it was accepted!Â
But then also came the Animatix 30 second challenge! A challenge where contestants must finish a 30 second animation in 3 days only! With a team of 5 people max and 2 at the minimum. I immediately announced it online! and I got 5 people to join the mission! The idea was that we would get a prompt the day of and would need to produce the project in 3 days right after!
Afnan Bawyan - Writer & IdeatorÂ
Ebtihal Aqlan - Animator/Designer
Ameera Sheikh - Painter (she pulled out)
Ameera Sheikh - Painter (she pulled out)
Maha Alhamdi - Came in last minute to paint and colorÂ
Maram Alesaiyi - Motion Designer CompositorÂ
and My Wife Abrar who supported me up-close and from a distance
A team I can never dream of! The best of the best! The challenge was on!
2026 Poster
The Story
The Prompt: Fire! 🔥
The work began with writing and coming up with ideas! I wrote 5 ideas and Afnan wrote 5 ideas and we then debated the best together with the rest of the team. Afnan really liked the idea of Saudi guys camping in the desert (Kashta). I was a bit against it because of how "cliche" and overused it is. However she was convinced it was unique enough for an Egyptian audience and that we could make it crazy! At first Afnan thought we could have them fight over who pays or kills the goat to make everyone dinner displaying their generosity. As we continued to write the ideas began crystalizing. How about they all try to outsmart each other in who best cooks? They fight over vanity and showing off. Something that does happen occasionally in Saudi. I argued that it would be funnier if we showed them as more flawed and ridiculous but I had no idea how we end and escalate it.Â
The solutions came about as I was sketching the storyboards on the first day. They fail in cooking and create a huge fire! the Fire then drives them crazy as they fight over who slaughters the sheep. This escalates even more as the fire becomes stronger and the fat dude brings the goat up.Â
This is where I was stuck on the second day making the animatic....Â
This is where I was stuck on the second day making the animatic....Â
The first script had a very different way of escalation, and the ending was super generic. The food explodes and they all die..
Style Reference
The Ending!Â
The ending came about as I wondered what to do after the goat comes is brought up by the fat guy. How do I make it unpredictable.. do I go into the guy's eye and have him go insane? or....
My Wife Abrar jumped in! how about you go into the eye of the goat! and turn the tables on them! with the Fire "demon" and the goat cooking them!Â
What a TWIST! I love it! I bursted in laughter... I added the idea of a pentagram appearing in the goats' eye a reference to hellish fire and a symbol associated with evil rituals compounded by the music. I then quickly finished the storyboard and the animatic with sound and music.
Storyboards by Mahmoud ZainiÂ
Characters
Character design by Ebtihal.
Animatic
First animatic I made without the ending..
The final Animatic with the Ending!Â
Color Script
Beautiful color script by Maha Alhamdi.Â
Character Layouts
After intense back and forth with Ebtihal on the character design and emotions. She made all the cleaned layouts for the characters as we split the Animation between myself and Ebtihal to get this done. 7 shots for me and 4 for Ebtihal!Â
Backgrounds
Beautiful backgrounds by Maha alhamdi done in a day and half! Her work was amazing, simple, quick, and clean! Working based off of her color script, my sketches and with the character layouts in mind. At the same time Ebtihal and I animated while Maram assembled everything with effects etc in After effects.Â
Character Animation
Between myself and Ebtihal the idea was to work very efficiently with limited animation but strong storytelling poses. All the character animation started on the 3rd day!! The FX animation of the fire was done prior on the second day. I really thought the fire would be the most challenging, however getting done with it early really made the third day a lot less stressful.Â
Maram Alesaiye did amazing assembling everything until the last minute!
We delivered the project 5 minutes before the deadline and it got accepted!Â
We delivered the project 5 minutes before the deadline and it got accepted!Â
The reaction was supreme! We did not win the competition, but we did win our passion back! We were so happy with this accomplishment as the only Saudi project that got accepted and was screened at the festival.Â
I know for a fact that if I was paid to do this, I would not have finished it in 3 days... this project proved to us that animation is work done by the heart first and by hand second.
I know for a fact that if I was paid to do this, I would not have finished it in 3 days... this project proved to us that animation is work done by the heart first and by hand second.
THANK YOU! 🔥
