Dawn Images

Here's our feel-good moment of the day: a passion project of momentous scale, Usman Riaz's short film titled The Glassworker has been fully funded, thanks to 1,053 supporters on fundraising platform Kickstarter.

The backers have collectively pooled together a whopping $116,000, which is more than twice the amount that Usman hoped to raise to cover the film's production costs.

The Glassworker is a truly special film, for it is intended to be Pakistan's first completely hand-drawn anime film.

In an earlier interview with Images, Riaz revealed the crux of the film: "The film will follow [main characters, the glassworker] Vincent and [his regular customer/violinist] Alliz through their developing years as life gets more complicated and inhibits their relationship. It will be a comment on the effects of war on children and just explore the bond between the two main characters."

In his thank you note on social media, Usman said, "Looking back, The Glassworker started off as drawings in my sketchbooks and storyboards. I remember bumbling around TED 2015 carrying a gigantic portfolio with all my sketches and storyboards falling out, showing people what I am working on. Cut to a year later, I form a global production team of talented artists, architects and animators under Mano Animation Studios, we unveil The Glassworker teaser at TED 2016 and are 232% Kickstarter funded to support the making of the film."

To make his dream of making The Glassworker come true, Usman founded Mano Animation Studios, where he's begun work on the film with other artists after a year of working on the film alone.

"After working alone for so long, my team is what I am most grateful for. From the project managers to the background artists, environment designers and of course the animation team. This could not have been done without them," he further wrote on Facebook.

"Pakistan has no hand drawn animation industry. But with your support of this film, we are laying the foundation for artists to work on beautiful works of art that they can be proud of."

We will be able to see the first chapter of The Glassworker in 2017.