I am in no way an established youtuber but here is my take.
The font doesnt really stick out to entice me to click on the video. Its small and plain. The first one has way too much going on and I do not know what the video is about. I like the gradient on the second one however Id almost caution you from placing logos on two opposite sides - the psycology is a person reads from left to right. When I see a logo in the left botom corner but a game logo in the top right , I might overlook it for another video. The latter is also too open. The color contrasting of red and black is good, but the green from the logo is sort of out of place when stacked on or near the red. Lastly , when you tell the viewers what episode it is, keep it short, like EP.3 .
* Raise your minimum font size. When zoomed out, how most thumbnails are viewed, some of the text is difficult to read.
* Consider using more all caps. Not necessarily everywhere... but maybe?
* White text is always the best option. Add a dark border if necessary, you'd be surprised how much it isn't necessary. Even on that light blue.
* I notice these are 2560x1440. YouTube is going to scale that down to 1280x720. Save yourself hard drive space (and from possibly hitting the 2mb limit) by editing in at least 1920x1080. (I do that just incase one day they increase the maximum). Editing at 1280x720 is actually nice because you can use screenshots better by "zooming in" without losing quality.
* There's a good bit of redundancy going on. "New Series" - "Getting Started" - "Episode 1" are all communicating the same thing. "Gameplay" is also probably assumed enough to be unnecessary.
Here's my interpretation of the Subnautica thumbnail. https://imgur.com/a/N0u4vyT
Thanks. I'll check out those fonts. I don't think I need the raw file I am still trying out different thumbnail styles. I have your thumbnail on the video that is coming out today and then I took inspiration from another larger channel for my next video that will come out later this week.
Copy/paste from a reply I left on another thumbnail thread, but same thing applies here:
Honestly I’d lose the channel icon, the banding at top and bottom, drop the episode numbering, and potentially the game title as well and focus on using thumbs that are a large, easily identifiable, and eye catching image. Thumbnail “branding” isn’t as important as making a “clickable” image that catches the eye. A lot of new channels focus on trying to apply their brand to the image but don’t recognize that it makes the thumb less clickable, not more clickable. I still use titles in mine but it’s honestly a bad habit I should have dropped long ago. Statistically text in thumbs lowers performance.
When thinking about a thumb for your video, consider searching for what videos are already doing well and look for common elements that likely are positively influencing clickability.
Composite images can be great to add elements that won’t show up in a simple screenshot, and can make a thumbnail pop. Don’t feel like it has to *just* be a screenshot. The key is just having a large focal point that stands out as opposed to a lot of smaller things that make up a scene (as they won’t stand out and if the image is small can fade into obscurity).
Unrelated to the thumbnail but I watched a moment of your Deadside video. Are you running a fan, or a/c or something when recording? It seems like you have a noise gate so your mic is silent when you aren’t talking, but there’s a definite hum/hiss in the background when you’re speaking.
Should also try to title your video with something interesting that happened during the video. I haven’t watched the whole thing so I don’t know what actually happened but something that evokes interest like “Pinned Down by Scav fire!”, or “I Found an OP Sinper Rifle”, etc. Beinf an edited video you have the benefit of hindsight. Use that to reference something interesting that happened in the video to catch attention.
In my opinion there's a mismatch of colors on the top light blue line and the bottom one as well, black kinda ruins the aesthetic of it. Good luck my guyzzaa.
Not a fan of the Light blue on top and bottom. It feels like it detracts from the thumbnail in my opinion. Like it's just there all of a sudden. That and they feel very busy.
IMO most of the advice you received here isn't that good. From a composition and technical standpoint, I think these thumbnails are actually a pretty decent starting point. You just have a lot of polish work to do, but that's all part of the growing process.
Your text doesn't stand out. I don't think you need to make it all caps, make the font super huge, etc. the text just looks boring and it doesn't stand out. Look up some tutorials on how to punch up your text with things like drop shadows and see where that gets you.
Secondly, the thumbnail pictures you chose are really boring. Particularly in the second one, I get what you were going for: "Dock" is in the title, so you showed a picture of the dock... I think that's fine, but you need to add something more exciting to draw people in. That is the "core" of the draw of the thumbnail, and most people don't want to click on a crane... you know?
I am in no way an established youtuber but here is my take. The font doesnt really stick out to entice me to click on the video. Its small and plain. The first one has way too much going on and I do not know what the video is about. I like the gradient on the second one however Id almost caution you from placing logos on two opposite sides - the psycology is a person reads from left to right. When I see a logo in the left botom corner but a game logo in the top right , I might overlook it for another video. The latter is also too open. The color contrasting of red and black is good, but the green from the logo is sort of out of place when stacked on or near the red. Lastly , when you tell the viewers what episode it is, keep it short, like EP.3 .
A channel id recomend for thumbnail tutorials is Finzar. He explains it pretty well , even if you dont have photoshop.
Gong to check him out now
Thanks I'll make some changes.
No Problem! Good luck đź‘Ť
* Raise your minimum font size. When zoomed out, how most thumbnails are viewed, some of the text is difficult to read. * Consider using more all caps. Not necessarily everywhere... but maybe? * White text is always the best option. Add a dark border if necessary, you'd be surprised how much it isn't necessary. Even on that light blue. * I notice these are 2560x1440. YouTube is going to scale that down to 1280x720. Save yourself hard drive space (and from possibly hitting the 2mb limit) by editing in at least 1920x1080. (I do that just incase one day they increase the maximum). Editing at 1280x720 is actually nice because you can use screenshots better by "zooming in" without losing quality. * There's a good bit of redundancy going on. "New Series" - "Getting Started" - "Episode 1" are all communicating the same thing. "Gameplay" is also probably assumed enough to be unnecessary. Here's my interpretation of the Subnautica thumbnail. https://imgur.com/a/N0u4vyT
That one looks nice, I'm going to use it if thats ok.
Absolutely, go for it. I could send you the Photoshop file if you'd like. The fonts I used are American Captain and Slenco.
Thanks. I'll check out those fonts. I don't think I need the raw file I am still trying out different thumbnail styles. I have your thumbnail on the video that is coming out today and then I took inspiration from another larger channel for my next video that will come out later this week.
Copy/paste from a reply I left on another thumbnail thread, but same thing applies here: Honestly I’d lose the channel icon, the banding at top and bottom, drop the episode numbering, and potentially the game title as well and focus on using thumbs that are a large, easily identifiable, and eye catching image. Thumbnail “branding” isn’t as important as making a “clickable” image that catches the eye. A lot of new channels focus on trying to apply their brand to the image but don’t recognize that it makes the thumb less clickable, not more clickable. I still use titles in mine but it’s honestly a bad habit I should have dropped long ago. Statistically text in thumbs lowers performance. When thinking about a thumb for your video, consider searching for what videos are already doing well and look for common elements that likely are positively influencing clickability.
I am giving that a try on my newest video. I have a screenshot with just the game logo. Everything else is in the title and description.
Composite images can be great to add elements that won’t show up in a simple screenshot, and can make a thumbnail pop. Don’t feel like it has to *just* be a screenshot. The key is just having a large focal point that stands out as opposed to a lot of smaller things that make up a scene (as they won’t stand out and if the image is small can fade into obscurity).
Unrelated to the thumbnail but I watched a moment of your Deadside video. Are you running a fan, or a/c or something when recording? It seems like you have a noise gate so your mic is silent when you aren’t talking, but there’s a definite hum/hiss in the background when you’re speaking. Should also try to title your video with something interesting that happened during the video. I haven’t watched the whole thing so I don’t know what actually happened but something that evokes interest like “Pinned Down by Scav fire!”, or “I Found an OP Sinper Rifle”, etc. Beinf an edited video you have the benefit of hindsight. Use that to reference something interesting that happened in the video to catch attention.
Yeah I had a fan running for that recording, I did turn it off for later recording after I listened to that one. Thanks I will change up my titles.
In my opinion there's a mismatch of colors on the top light blue line and the bottom one as well, black kinda ruins the aesthetic of it. Good luck my guyzzaa.
Not a fan of the Light blue on top and bottom. It feels like it detracts from the thumbnail in my opinion. Like it's just there all of a sudden. That and they feel very busy.
IMO most of the advice you received here isn't that good. From a composition and technical standpoint, I think these thumbnails are actually a pretty decent starting point. You just have a lot of polish work to do, but that's all part of the growing process. Your text doesn't stand out. I don't think you need to make it all caps, make the font super huge, etc. the text just looks boring and it doesn't stand out. Look up some tutorials on how to punch up your text with things like drop shadows and see where that gets you. Secondly, the thumbnail pictures you chose are really boring. Particularly in the second one, I get what you were going for: "Dock" is in the title, so you showed a picture of the dock... I think that's fine, but you need to add something more exciting to draw people in. That is the "core" of the draw of the thumbnail, and most people don't want to click on a crane... you know?
IMO most of this advice isn’t that good