For parents who want their children to love the Ahlul Bayt (as)
We're raising $28,000 to found the studio that changes that. Watch our first film.
The Free Man · our first film
Give on LaunchGood from $25. Every donor is named in the film's credits.
My Islamic videos on @oberasco
"Please I've been praying for someone to make anime based on ahlul bayt stories"
"Our children need access to videos on Quran, hadith, and Ahlalbayt as. Teachers and parents would find it very useful."
"We are looking for a collaboration to create a complete animated series on Imam Al Hussein and his Journey to Karbala."
Dear parent,
Our children know Spider-Man's origin story better than they know al-Hurr's. That is not their fault. Nobody made the film in that style.
A child today grows up on Marvel, Disney and anime. The production is extraordinary, the storytelling is relentless, and the heroes are unforgettable.
Then they look for the people they are actually supposed to look up to, the Prophet's family, peace be upon them, and they find lectures, slideshows and talking heads. Almost nothing made with the craft that holds a teenager's attention for five minutes.
So the Imams (as) and the Prophets (as) stay abstract. Historical and distant. Meanwhile, a fictional man in a red suit feels real to them.
That is a production gap, not a faith gap. And production gaps can be closed.
The story of al-Hurr ibn Yazid, the commander who rode out to stop Imam Husayn (as), and turned his horse around on the morning of Ashura knowing what it would cost him.
Parents watched it with their children. One mother wrote the next day asking how she could support it, because she had spent years looking for something like this and found nothing.
That response is why this campaign exists.
Keep in mind, that was our test film, made on almost nothing. This is the floor, not the ceiling.
Stills from The Free Man.
"This is very emotional artwork, you are navigating spiritual narratives with an incredibly respectful and open attitude"
"Great clip! I hope you guys can produce more of these educational contents."
"I think this is an amazing idea and so necessary"
I came to Islam as a revert, excited and with no idea where to start. The hardest part was knowing which sources to trust. DeenWell began as the thing I wish I'd had: the stories of the Ahlul Bayt (as), told well, with the source under every word.
The films are the next step. The Free Man was made by one person. The Founding Year is about making the next ones properly.
وَكُلًّا نَّقُصُّ عَلَيْكَ مِنْ أَنۢبَآءِ ٱلرُّسُلِ مَا نُثَبِّتُ بِهِۦ فُؤَادَكَ وَجَآءَكَ فِى هَٰذِهِ ٱلْحَقُّ وَمَوْعِظَةٌ وَذِكْرَىٰ لِلْمُؤْمِنِينَ
"Whatever We relate to you of the accounts of the messengers are those by which We strengthen your heart, and there has come to you in this the truth and an advice and admonition for the faithful."
Surah Hud, 11:120
Allamah Tabatabai, explaining this verse in Al-Mizan, writes that the accounts are conveyed "so as to solidify your heart and to anchor your determination in the path of advocating truth." And for everyone after the Prophet (s), "the stories and lessons therein serve as an admonition from which they can draw moral lessons."
Stories were how Allah (swt) steadied His own Prophet (s). Our children are being steadied by stories too, right now. The question is whose.
Our heroes get lectures and slideshows while fiction gets studios. The Founding Year makes cel-animated films with the seriousness these stories deserve, built for the platforms young people already live on.
"That would be a dream come true" @followup_with_rayyan
Professional 2D studios quote thousands of dollars for every finished minute, so a five-minute short can run $12,500 to $25,000. $28,000 funds our whole first year of production.
Right now every film depends on one person's available hours. This funds the studio's first hire: one person who edits the films, builds the comics and checks every script against the sources.
Studio rates from Blue Carrot's 2026 animation pricing guide: $2,500 to $5,000 per minute for overseas professional studios.
Every script is researched against classical sources and checked line by line. The words of the Imams (as) are never reworded.
We never depict the Prophet (s) or the Imams (as). Where they appear, their faces are covered and nothing beneath is drawn.
Yes, the films and comics are made with AI tools, and we say so plainly. The script is written from classical sources, every shot is directed and chosen by hand, and the words of the Imams (as) are never reworded.
Every film ends with its credits. The people who founded the studio are in them, and so are the people they gave for.
DeenWell Studio presents
The Free Man
This film is dedicated to the soul of
the one you choose
and every family who gave in the Founding Year
DeenWell Studio
The same panels that build a film become the pages of a comic, made from each film's storyboard and read in the DeenWell app.
From $300, the opening page carries your dedication.
A sample page from The Free Man. The dialogue is from the film's script.
Dedicated to the soul of your mother
Iraq, the year 680.
Kufa sent a thousand horsemen to meet Imam al-Husayn (as) on the road.
shhk!
Hold.
The Free Man · 1
Every month these films don't exist is another month our children spend with someone else's heroes.
And the founding credits only go to the people who start it. When the campaign closes, the films keep coming, but the founding credit doesn't.
These show what each amount pays for. Every gift goes to the one budget below.
$25
The storyboard for a whole film.
$75
A full five-minute episode, rendered at 768p.
$150
About a day and a half of the studio associate's time.
20 dedications per film
Give $150$300
Three days of the studio associate's time.
$1,200
About two and a half weeks of the studio associate's time.
$2,500
About a month of production, the studio associate and the renders.
One per film, in the order films are made
Give $2,500Founding credits close when the campaign does. After that the films keep coming, but the founding credit doesn't.
Production, compute at the resolution these films deserve, voice and audio, and the studio's first hire, so this stops depending on one person's hours.
Every quarter we publish what was spent and what shipped, for everyone to read.
To the standard, not to a deadline. We would rather release one that lasts than four that do not.
Yes, always. They go out on YouTube, Instagram and TikTok and inside the DeenWell app, so the child who needs one can reach it. Nothing you give ever puts a film or a comic behind a paywall.
We don't promise a number. Films come out as they are finished, to the standard, not to a deadline. What we do promise is the quarterly report, so you can see exactly what shipped.
Never their faces. Where they appear, their faces are covered and nothing beneath is drawn. Every script is researched against classical sources and checked line by line.
Yes. The films and comics are made with AI tools, and we say so plainly, because that is how one person can make them at all right now. Every script is written from primary sources and the words of the Imams (as) are never reworded. Every shot is directed and chosen by hand, and every character and place is designed for these films.
Yes. From $150, a dedication goes in a film's credits in their name, and from $2,500 the whole film is dedicated to them.
No. DeenWell Studio is not a registered charity, so gifts are not tax deductible.
We'd love that. Write to oberasco@gmail.com.
A Shia studio built for how this generation actually watches, so the next child who looks for the Ahlul Bayt (as) finds them told as well as anything else on their screen.
P.S. If you can't give right now, that's fine. Share The Free Man with one family who would watch it with their children. That helps too.
