00:00
00:00
Upgrade Your Account!

HO HO HOPE you become a Newgrounds Supporter this year!

We're working hard to give you the best site possible, but we have bills to pay and community support is vital to keep things going and growing. Thank you for considering!

Become a Supporter so NG can see another Christmas!

Dom the Stickman Trailer

Share Collapse

The trailer for Dom the Stickman! This is my first submission so please don't post bad comments about it

Log in / sign up to vote & review!

Alright, you said it's your first animation, and not to post bad comments about it. What you're reading here is in thr review space. This is where users review your animation. I'm going to provide you with critique now.

The opening sequence is a screen readout with font discussing a security breach. Your opening frame is important, especially in a trailer, because this sets the tone of what that final animation is going to feel like.

Things to consider: where is this screen? What is this screen, to the audience?

The screen talking about a security breach implies that this is a heist or a spy thriller.

The next shot is a stick figure against a bunch of lines and some squares. It doesn't read well. Meaning, it isn't clear to the audience what is supposed to be what. He could be prone on some rooftops. He could be scaling a wall that has grooves and canals dug into it. There's no depth to the geometry and the monochrome color scheme isn't providing us with any context or hints as to where this character is in relation to the world. Plus, everything is motionless in the frame, which keeps us guessing. Make it clearer so we understand what's going on.

The next frame is just a still-shot of the stick figure doing a big ol ballerina leap off of a ledge. This retroactively informs us that it WAS a rooftop. His jump needs motion, we need camera movement so that there's a sense of scale. People are inherently afraid of falling to their deaths from great heights- show us the danger- help us feel the excitement and simultaneously sell us on this character's bravery!

The next frame is just a green wall with a metal object on it. Might be a safe vault door- it's not very clear though. And I'm guessing that there's a character holding a knife from offscreen? It doesn't make sense.

Next shot is our rooftop leaper holding an orb. No way of knowing contextualy what that object is, but it's implying this guy has access to mysterious gadgetry.

Final shot is just a text readout by the shadowy Dr. Gearlock.

We don't know who this guy is. We don't even know if he's the bad guy, he could be running a non-profit animal hospital for all we know, and orb holder is a PETA terrorist. Show us the bad guy being bad. Show us the hero being heroic.

A good trailer should at least cover the who, what, where, and the why being the motivation.

Timothee Chalamet is the Dune guy, he's on a distant world, because war is erupting over spice.

Arnold Schwarzenegger is The Terminator, sent into the 1990's to protect John Connor from an unstoppable assassin, which pursues the boy to ensure humanity's defeat in a war against AI and humans in the future.

These are called pitches. What is the pitch of your story? That should be clear in your trailer.

"Rooftop guy must stop the sinister Doctor Gearlock from stabbing this bank door, or the city will be doomed"

Help us understand- not by responding, but by making it visually and audibly clear in your trailer. The whole point is to garnish interest and promote this big thing that you're working on, right? So show, don't tell. Tell what you can't show. You can do it!

ChuckDoesMovies responds:

Thanks! I'll keep that in mind, I was expirementing with my animation software

Credits & Info

Views
136
Votes
71
Score
2.30 / 5.00

Uploaded
Sep 10, 2024
9:37 PM EDT
Genre
Action