Spark Animated Short

[darkdetective]

Spark Animated - The Inventor (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSTgrGJhlv4)
This is an animated short based on my webcomic found at http://www.sparkthecomic.com (http://www.sparkthecomic.com/), about a teen superhero. Looking forward to comments and/or criticism. Thanks guys.

[darkdetective]

Nothing? : (

[Chels_Bells]

hey dude I didn't know u were on here :anime:

Btw cool short.

[Temple Fugate]

Very nice work.

The pacing and variety of shots definitely kept the short interesting. It's clear you want to push the action/comedy elements. To help them work even more, you could trim a second or two from various shots during the action/suspense sequences. (The building the circuit board shot, for instance, could have been cut in half so we see it get put into the robot faster.)

Something else of note are the fade-to-black transitions between scenes. A lot of budding filmmakers/animators fall back on these types of transitions, but in reality a simple cut to the next scene works the best. In animation, flashy or creative transitions between scenes would help keep the pace going much better than a fade-to-black, which feels like stop-and-go storytelling. (Again using the circuit board shots as an example, you zoomed in on the green of the board and then out again to transition between two shots of the board. Stuff like this could help bridge two different scenes.)

Personally, I would have liked to see fewer zoom-in shots, particularly in the exposition scene at the apartment. They detracted from the information being offered.

Finally, you need to keep an ear on your audio levels. I found myself adjusting the volume during the first third of the short because the music was blaring or the voices were too quiet.

I can definitely say I'd watch another episode if you were to make it. The length of this short is probably what you should stick to. It didn't drag on but it didn't feel rushed. The way the story played out was interesting, although simple, considering this is your first outing. All in all, it's a solid piece of work.