Dude. Submit this to TEDed.
THIS is an idea worth sharing.
Reviews for "What are the odds?"
Animation: Great. Served it's purpose very well, and the typography was fun.
Engagement: Again, great. You kept us interested.
Voice acting: Excellent variety without being distracting.
Overall score and reasoning: 5/5 for an animation; you did a great job and I hope more content like this is to come.
That being said, there are some things I feel you could improve upon in future work, if you don't mind me suggesting a few things. You don't have to read on, though, if you don't want to scroll through the wall of text below haha. Just some things I feel may have made the video better.
Oh and one thing before I get into this: these things I'm mentioning are tweaks that you'd need for a more academic standpoint. You've achieved the entertainment factor superbly. While this may be out of the scope of your objectives for this video, this is what I'd suggest if someone were to use this in say, a PowerPoint for a class or something to that extent.
Getting started, one thing I found going through the video (especially towards the beginning) was confusion as to where you were going with your idea. When you were talking about evolution and especially the part where you said "What are the odds that Earth's first simple-celled organisms just spawning out of inanimate nothingness?", I felt as if you might be trying to make the point that "It's not likely this happened, so...God." This isn't at all what your point was, but I feel that a lot of people may have taken it that way at first, which causes opinions and potentially turns off people to the point. While there is the possibility that I might have been the only one who heard it this way initially, I believe that you may have wanted to have a less partial tone when talking about things people so easily react to. It just makes idiots who vehemently oppose this theory that took it the same way I did feel the need to say how right you are and how stupid science can be. Or it can go the opposite way and end up with someone telling everyone how you have it all wrong and how you're skewing the data and yada yada yada.
The point was that it might disconnect some members of the audience from your message.
A second thing that I would have liked to see would have been more sources cited than just the two that were listed at the end. When giving less intuitively quantifiable statistics (for instance, the odds that the Earth formed in the habitable zone being 1 in 800 don't exactly seem to something you could empirically calculate), it's important to have a way to substantiate these claims. I know you sourced three works in the end (and I also understand that I'm analyzing this far past it's intended purpose), but I would have liked a more specific article to see WHY it's 1 in 800. It just establishes credibility with the more skeptical listeners and again, leads to a more connected and engaged audience.
Other than those two points, excellent video. It was well put together and extremely thought provoking. I can't wait to see more from you in the future, but for now, congratulations on a well-deserved victory. You earned it, my friend.
Emrox responds:
Thanks for the helpful review! I'm glad you could look through the errors and appreciate this for what it is instead of the "zero stars because you did it wrong" that I saw countless times. If I ever make something like this again I'll probably find a whole bunch of links and put 'em in the description for people who want to learn more about the thinking behind the numbers.
Man, this animation was awesome, I heavily enjoyed the vocie acting and the animations were quite smooth.
With the facts, I wouldn't have a clue, but I understand there is alot of theory around chance, too be honest, I wouldn't worry, you succeeded in delivering a touching short, so, mission accomplished I suppose xD
--------Not a part of the review----
To Kellz5460 (The person below me twice)
Really? What is the point of writing a four letter review that has very little to do with it?
Seriously, if you're going to make a review, at least give a slight amount of feedback
it makes you think...
yeah people..., feel lucky to have me around... lol
I love it. It was really well done. It also makes you thankful for being able to live. I really enjoyed the comparing of chances at the end of it. You must have worked hard to get all of those numbers. Thank you very much for the video.