AnimChallenge

Hands MiniChallenge | April 2025
This challenge is organized on our discord server

Join our Discord server for more information and learn how to submit your animation

Join Discord
The winning animator will get a live, 1 hour one-on-one mentorship call with Remi Comtois!
The Challenge

It's time to get Hands On in this month's Mini AnimChallenge!

Agora Animation Supervisors, Anna White and Remi Comtois, want you to animate hands displaying some kind of emotion. If you'd like to learn more tips on animating hands, you can follow Anna's course in the Agora.community Course Library. 

Objective:

Create up to a 15 second animation of hands displaying emotion. Your character can be angrily slamming a fist on a table, excitedly texting a friend, or picking up a sentimental object. Really focus on the hands and how they express emotion without seeing any facial features. 

 

Rules

- Animate the hands showing some kind of emotion
- No Teams
- Try not to include the face
- No longer than 15 seconds maximum.
- Any rig and any style can be used (3D, 2D, Stop Motion)
- Upload submissions in the #challenge-submissions channel on our Discord server. 

The winning animator will get a live, 1 hour one-on-one mentorship call with Remi Comtois!
Submissions for this challenge has ended. The winners will be posted on April 28th
AnimChallenge Official Rules and Regulations

Upon submission of an animation, you hereby agree to abide by the Animchallenge Official Rules and Regulations

ABOUT ANIMCHALLENGE
AnimChallenge is a regularly-scheduled animation competition that allows animators to challenge themselves and improve their skills with creative prompts and friendly-competition. Started in 2019, AnimChallenge has gone through many evolutions, first starting as a monthly challenge, then partnering with Agora to scale up the challenges and offer studio-level assets for the challenges, and now, evolving into a format of smaller, shorter challenges with a couple of large scale challenges throughout the year. AnimChallenge has always kept it fun and creative, and we’re excited to keep that going in the years to come!

Frequently Asked Questions

This depends on the challenge! Right now, our Mini AnimChallenges can be submitted in the #submissions channel in our Discord Server. However, there will be challenges in the future where your submission will be made through the website. You’ll know where to submit via the submit button on the AnimChallenge page of the agora.community website.
Any animation that is over the duration specified for the challenge will automatically be rejected by the server. Even if it’s one frame over. However, you are free to use however many frames per second as you wish as long as your animation isn’t over the stated duration.
If you are having trouble accessing the AnimChallenge Discord channels, you may not have selected the correct role. Roles can be selected in the #rules-and-about channel, or you select them upon joining the server.
Physical prizes are created and dispatched through a 3rd party source. It can take 1-3 months for prizes to be delivered. If after 3 months you have not yet received your package, please reach out to us at info@agora.studio. By providing your email address and phone number, we can make sure that you receive delivery notifications from the dispatch company. Please note, we are not responsible for any missing or damaged items unless physically sent by us.

Digital prizes will be coordinated with you through the email address you provide, or through your Discord server account.
The 3rd party creation and delivery source will ship to almost anywhere in the world, however depending on your country, you may be asked to pay import fees by your country’s postal service.
If the challenge requires you to submit via the website, we have a manual approval process so please allow 24-48 hours for your shot to be reviewed and accepted.

If you need to submit your animation through Discord, any messages received after the advertised deadline will not be taken into consideration.
You may submit your shot until the deadline determined by the countdown timer on the AnimChallenge page on the Agora.Community website.

Please make sure you leave yourself time in the challenge to export your shot and submit it where required. Once the deadline has ended you will not be able to update your submission.

There have been rare cases where the time zone has changed during the challenge and caused an inconsistency with the deadline, in these circumstances, we may accept late submissions.
Sometimes we create rigs exclusively for the month of the challenge or have an agreement with external artists to only host during the challenge. If you no longer see the rig on the website, it is no longer available for the reasons stated above.
The use of AI created assets may be accepted, but we highly discourage the use of AI generated video. Voting happens by a team of professional artists and it is at their discretion if AI content is considered in their decision.
Having people assist you in the challenge is ok, as long as the animation created is 100% your own.

Here are a list of allowances
  • Rigging
  • Modeling
  • Texturing
  • Character Design
  • Voice Acting

And a list of of things you aren’t allowed to have a assistance with
  • Animation
  • 2D Assets like backgrounds
  • Special Effects (2D or 3D)
  • Rendering
  • Compositing
  • Lighting
  • Sound Design

ANIMCHALLENGE OFFICIAL RULES AND REGULATIONS

Sponsor: This AnimChallenge ("Contest") is sponsored by Agora.studio ("Sponsor"), located in Montreal, Canada.

Eligibility: Participants must be of legal age at the time of entry. Employees, officers, and directors of the Sponsor, its affiliates, subsidiaries, advertising and promotion agencies, and immediate family members (spouse, parent, sibling, child, and spouse of any of the foregoing) or household members of such individuals are not eligible to participate. Void where prohibited or restricted by law. All federal, state, and local laws and regulations apply.

Contest Period: The contest begins at the time of public (posted on Contest social media accounts) publication of the theme announcement video and ends on the date and time listed on the Contest webpage (“Contest Period”). Entries submitted before or after the Contest Period will not be eligible for consideration.

How to Enter: To enter the Contest, simply submit your animation in mp4 format video to the Agora Community Discord server. If the file is too large to upload to Discord directly, a public SyncSketch link containing your submission is also acceptable. Any character rigs, any medium, and no plagiarism.

If an entry is deemed unsuitable by any means of suggestive, disrespectful, or harmful content, it will be immediately disqualified from the animation challenge. We are committed to maintaining a safe and respectful environment for all participants and viewers.

The following guidelines must be followed:

  1. Appropriate Content: Submissions must not contain any explicit or suggestive material, offensive language, nudity, or sexually explicit imagery.
  2. Respectful Depictions: Entries should not depict any individual or group in a demeaning or harmful manner. This includes avoiding stereotypes, discrimination, or offensive portrayals based on race, gender, ethnicity, religion, disability, or any other characteristic.
  3. Avoiding Violence: Animations deemed to feature excessive and/or inappropriate violence, gore, or any form of graphic content will not be accepted.
  4. No Hate Speech: Content promoting hate speech, harassment, or any form of harmful behavior towards others is strictly prohibited.
  5. Protecting Minors: Submissions must be appropriate for all ages, ensuring that children and young audiences are not exposed to harmful or unsuitable content.
  6. Fair use of Copyrightand Intellectual Property: Participants may use copyrighted characters for animation within the AnimChallenge, as this falls under fair use for educational and non-commercial purposes. Entries must be original animations created solely for the challenge, without intent for monetization or commercial distribution. By submitting an entry, participants acknowledge their responsibility to comply with fair use principles, including transformative use and non-commercial intent. Agora Community does not claim any rights over copyrighted characters and encourages respectful use of intellectual property.
  7. Review and Disqualification: The company reserves the right to review all submissions and disqualify any entry that violates these guidelines.
  8. Maintaining Discretion: The evaluation of the appropriateness of an animation is at the discretion of the company and its appointed judges. Their decision will be final.

By adhering to these updated rules and guidelines, we aim to foster creativity while ensuring a safe and respectful environment for all participants and viewers. Let's work together to make our animation challenge an enjoyable and positive experience for everyone involved.

Selection of Winners: The winner will be chosen by the Host of the Contest appointed by the Sponsor. There will be 1 winner from all eligible entries received during the Contest Period. The Host will select the winner based on how well the submission addresses the challenge theme, overall quality of execution, and originality.

Awards will be determined by the selection of the challenge Host. There will be 1 winner from all eligible entries received during the Contest Period (see the Prizes section). Entries will be evaluated based on how well they address the challenge theme, as well as their overall quality of execution and originality. Participants are allowed to share their entries with their community publicly. The entry selected by the Host will be declared the potential winner.

The odds of being selected depend on the number of eligible entries received. The winners will be notified by email or Discord message within 31 days following the selection. In the event that a potential winner cannot be contacted, fails to respond within the required time period (if applicable), fails to comply with any other requirement specified in the Official Rules and Regulations document, or if the prize cannot be awarded to the winner for reasons outside of the contest organizer's control, the contest organizer reserves the right to award the prize to the next eligible winner, as determined by the judging criteria.

Prizes: The winner will receive a live, 1-hour long mentorship session with the Host of the Contest. The mentorship session may be used for the winner to ask for feedback on their Contest submission, feedback on other work, or to discuss topics pertaining to professional career development. If the Host is unavailable due to unforeseeable circumstances, the Sponsor will provide a mentoring session of the same length and setting with another host from Agora Community's line up.

Prizes are non-transferable, non-refundable, and no substitutions will be made, except by Sponsor, who reserves the right to substitute a prize (or component thereof) with one of comparable or greater value. Any physical prizes (if offered) will be shipped directly by the supplier, and any loss or damage will not be the responsibility of AnimChallenge or Agora.studio.

General Conditions: By participating, entrants agree to be bound by these Official Rules and the decisions of the Sponsor, which are final and binding in all matters relating to the Contest. Entrants also agree to release, indemnify, and hold harmless Sponsor and its affiliates, subsidiaries, officers, directors, employees, and agents from and against any and all claims, damages, or liabilities arising out of or relating to participation in the Contest or the use or misuse of any prize.

Privacy: Any personal information collected in connection with the Contest will be used by Sponsor in accordance with its privacy policy, which can be found at https://agora.community/privacypolicy. By entering the Contest, entrants agree to the collection, use, and disclosure of their personal information as described in the privacy policy.

Disputes: Except where prohibited, entrants agree that any disputes, claims, and causes of action arising out of or connected with the Contest or any prize awarded shall be resolved individually, without resort to any form of class action, and exclusively by the appropriate court located in Canada Montreal.

Contact Information: If you have any questions about the contest, please contact: info@agora.community