Youssf Hazem

YoussfHazemPaper motion graphics

I make paper move. Money stories in cut paper, sketchbook stories in pencil, in English and Egyptian Arabic.

Work with me

Paper Cents

Money stories behind the brands you know, cut from paper. English Shorts for a US audience.

  • 8 Shorts
  • English
  • Cut paper, 12 fps stop-motion
  • Code-drawn cast
Paper Cents on YouTube

  • Pepsi's $700,000 Fighter Jet ProblemCostly mistakes

  • What Happens If You Win a $1 Billion JackpotWhat happens to your money if…

  • Why One AI Chip Costs as Much as a CarAI money

  • Why Costco's Hot Dog Is Still $1.50Strange prices

  • Blockbuster's $50 Million MistakeCostly mistakes

  • What Happens to Your Debt When You DieWhat happens to your money if…

  • McDonald's Is a Real Estate Company That Sells BurgersHidden business models

  • Big Tech Will Spend Two Apollo Programs on AI This YearAI money

Waraqa

Reels for a Cairo sketchbook brand: pencil doodles, paper collage and Kroki, in Egyptian Arabic.

  • 13 reels
  • Egyptian Arabic + English
  • Pencil + paper collage
  • Mascot: Kroki
waraqa.art

  • Drawing fills the world with joyEgyptian Arabic

One film, two languages

  • What is the purpose of life? (Arabic)Egyptian Arabic

  • What is the purpose of life?English

  • Who is Kroki?Egyptian Arabic

  • Don't be afraid to make mistakesEgyptian Arabic

  • First sketchbook of the yearEgyptian Arabic

  • 5 things to drawEgyptian Arabic

  • Drawing on kraft paperEgyptian Arabic

  • What does GSM mean?Egyptian Arabic

  • Which paper for which tool?Egyptian Arabic

  • Which size is yours?Egyptian Arabic

  • Kroki tries: pencil shadingEgyptian Arabic

  • How much is a sketchbook?Egyptian Arabic

Meet the cast

Drawn in code, not illustrated. They blink, lean toward your pointer and change mood when you tap them.

The studentOutsiders and underdogsNeutral
The CEOFounders and executivesNeutral
The officialJudges and regulatorsNeutral
The customer“You”, and your moneyNeutral
KrokiWaraqa’s pencil-sketch mascot. He never speaks and always carries the maroon pencil. Point at him.

How a film gets made

  1. Script

    Seven beats, under 100 words, every number sourced.

    Pepsi’s $700,000 Fighter Jet Problem

    Paper Cents · 101 words · 7 beats

    1. HookIn 1996, a student mailed Pepsi a $700,000 check… for a fighter jet.
    2. SetupA Pepsi ad showed a Harrier jet for seven million Pepsi points.
    3. WallThat’s 190 sodas a day for a hundred years.
    4. TurnBut you see, the catalog let you buy extra points for ten cents each.
    5. ChainSo he did the math, found investors, and sent fifteen real points plus the check. Pepsi called it a joke, and they ended up in court.
    6. PayoffIn 1999, a judge sided with Pepsi: no reasonable person would think the jet offer was real.
    7. SnapAnd Pepsi’s next ad? Seven hundred million points. “Just kidding.”

  2. Look

    One style bible: palette roles, cut-paper rules, a recurring cast.

    Style bible page: the Paper Cut-out palette with colour roles, and the display type

  3. Frames

    Built in code, rendered frame by frame at 1080×1920.

    Eight frames from the Pepsi Short, in order

  4. Sound

    An AI voice first, then paper foley and music timed to every beat.

    Sound map of the Pepsi Short: the seven beats, every paper sound effect, the waveform and the spectrogram

Got a story?Let’s cut it out of paper.

Explainers, brand reels and Shorts, in English or Egyptian Arabic.

youssf.hazem1221@gmail.com