What is your thought process for designing a thumbnail?

Bee

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It's amazing the extent you went to make that thumbnail, but that many details I believe are entirely unnecessary and on top of that the text on the image is way to small.

The main reason I don't go to a crazy amount of work on my thumbnails and keep them pretty simple is because that much work isn't going to have any effect once it's actually used as a thumbnail. All that work will simply be lost. No one is going to notice it. Those awesome neon effects are going to look more like pink blotches.

View attachment 11753

Here is the way most people are going to see it while on youtube. You can hardly even read Prime Plays at first glance. When making thumbnails, it's important to keep in mind that it is a thumbnail, not a wallpaper.

Now don't get me wrong, the thumbnail is still great, I like it. If it had bigger text it would be even better. However, 6 hours of work ... it's not worth it. Course, if you have the time, then by all means lol. At least that is just my opinion.

Normally my average thumbnail gets 1 hour max of my time.. this was a project I was extremely excited to work on and I went and put my full talent into making it something I could be proud to use. That being said I agree with you that the text is too small. I'd likely have made it bigger but I don't want to cover her too much and its mainly my fault for not making her more to the side when I took the original shot.. I was thinking more wallpaper than thumbnail sadly xD



This is a light improvement to readability.. but your not wrong saying I could do better... I'm lucky I did everything in smart objects/vector so I could resize back up xD
 

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Brabbit1987
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Normally my average thumbnail gets 1 hour max of my time.. this was a project I was extremely excited to work on and I went and put my full talent into making it something I could be proud to use. That being said I agree with you that the text is too small. I'd likely have made it bigger but I don't want to cover her too much and its mainly my fault for not making her more to the side when I took the original shot.. I was thinking more wallpaper than thumbnail sadly xD



This is a light improvement to readability.. but your not wrong saying I could do better... I'm lucky I did everything in smart objects/vector so I could resize back up xD

I see, that's good :3 ... hopefully I didn't sound to harsh, because overall I really do like it. I think it's amazing and it makes me want to learn how to do those neon effects in gimp xD
 
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Bee

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I see, that's good :3 ... hopefully I didn't sound to harsh, because overall I really do like it. I think it's amazing and it makes me want to learn how to do those neon effects in gimp xD

Nah I like harsh feedback xD its why I post my work in the first place :)

I'm not sure how one would go about doing the neon in gimp as I used Photoshop with a Wacom Tablet... I may make a tutorial on it for GFX :)
 

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Nah I like harsh feedback xD its why I post my work in the first place :)

I'm not sure how one would go about doing the neon in gimp as I used Photoshop with a Wacom Tablet... I may make a tutorial on it for GFX :)

Well, if you do let me know. I can usually figure out how to do it in gimp if I see it in photoshop.
 
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Stretch AdventureKS

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I usually have a style for the thumbnail, having an image depending on the location in the game, the logo or title of the game on top, the character/boss on the left side, the number of the episode on the top left corner and my skull on the right side (sometimes I use different style depending on the game). That way, the viewer will know based on the character and title shown what game it is, and having my skull will show that Noby uploaded a video or plays the game.

This is from Kingdom Hearts, a very recent series of mine.



This is Adventure Time: Secret of the Nameless Kingdom



And this is from Princess 30, a side campaign from the game Half Minute Hero. It has a different style given how short the game is, it has no title so instead I put the name of the episode on top. Some may say ''it's hard to read'', but hey, I gotta work with something I guess.




I do believe in making the thumbnail bright and colorful, a reason why I love the games shown here.
 
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Koala_Steamed

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Some nice thumbnails, interesting to see how everyone comes up with them also. Everyone seems to have a slightly different method.

I take a few screen shots after recording then choose which one I like the most. Prefer keeping it simple having just a picture with a border and nothing else. I find that a lot of thumbnails just have too much in them and they show nothing of what the video is about. Especially with the type of video I make, if someone is searching for something and they can see it in the thumbnail they are going to click on that :)

For the Border each of my playlists have a different colour depending on the type of video, so if someone likes that type of video the are more likely to click on other similar ones.

Example of the thumbnail for my 2 way flying machine, can see what it is before you even watch the video.
T 2 directional slimestone 2.png
 

Indurok

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Sometimes, when the game is on Gamejolt, I will use their thumbnail for mine. Otherwise, literally all I do is take the title of the video into consideration, as well as the description. It will usually be based off a particular part of the video that I think would be good to take a screenshot of. Then I go to that part and crop it if necessary, take a screenshot, and use it as my thumbnail. That's it. Worst thumbnail maker ever.

Seriously, I don't know how to make thumbnails. And I don't really want to take the time to do so. But I also don't want to take up someone else's time to make them for me. So I'm just sticking with what I already do.
 

riganthor

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well thumbnails are actually my least favourite thing to do. Yes I make them myself but most of the times I dont know what to do here and seeing im bad at doing artsy things they dont look too good most of the times. Even though I try to enjoy it and make them good its just something I dont like to do but have to do myself because I like to keep control over things.
 

Kan

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Seeing a lot of people get down about their thumbnails I can PROMISE you they won't start out great mine sure weren't XD let's take a look at some of my early ones.... INCOMING CRINGE WARNING XD



I think personally I have improve. Remember no one starts great they work towards it :)

Also really loving the healthy fun conversations we are having! Keep them coming!
 

Bee

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Seeing a lot of people get down about their thumbnails I can PROMISE you they won't start out great mine sure weren't XD let's take a look at some of my early ones.... INCOMING CRINGE WARNING XD



I think personally I have improve. Remember no one starts great they work towards it :)

Also really loving the healthy fun conversations we are having! Keep them coming!

My first thumbnails were so bad I used to not use them xD
 
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Bee

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See XD And Bee is one of the best GFX people I know, so for those afraid your Thumbnails aren't great, don't worry they will improve! :)

Y'all will never let me live it down if I don't.... Here is one of my first ever used thumbnail back from I think 2011 or 2012. Its pretty bad.


Needless to say I've improved... anyone can improve they just need to set their mind on it and stop being afraid to try.
 
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Kan

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Y'all will never let me live it down if I don't.... Here is one of my first ever used thumbnail back from I think 2011 or 2012. Its pretty bad.


Needless to say I've improved... anyone can improve they just need to set their mind on it and stop being afraid to try.

It's not that bad XD

Also if people are going to make fun of you for their first work theirs should be flawless XD
 

Flex Bormarr

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Take a screen shot of the gameplay, add something funny that was also from the gameplay. Title, my name, maybe my face (I would upload more but it said the image was too big :( )
GTA 5 brandon.png openings.png
 

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Brabbit1987
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Seeing a lot of people get down about their thumbnails I can PROMISE you they won't start out great mine sure weren't XD let's take a look at some of my early ones.... INCOMING CRINGE WARNING XD



I think personally I have improve. Remember no one starts great they work towards it :)

Also really loving the healthy fun conversations we are having! Keep them coming!

This is one of my first thumbnails. Nothing really all that great either.

ThumbMC Ep1.png
 
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1SB2Gamer

Brabbit1987
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It does get the point across though! :)

Well, there are a few issues I have with it. The episode 1, is way too small. There is also no need for writing episode down. Could just use the number. Contextually speaking, most people will understand what the number means.

The background is just some random Minecraft image, with a default Steve skin. Nothing personalized at all.

The font, is extremely generic. There is no need to write down the full title on the Thumbnail, the video title is right next to the thumbnail. A simple Minecraft would suffice. The balance of the image is simply bad.

I later changed it to this.

ThumbMC Ep4.png

The balance is better, episode # is larger and it's a bit more personalized.

After joining a server called Nightowl, it became this.

NO3.png

It's pretty interesting how things progressed. I feel like I was trying to do too much and over personalizing it. Over complicating it. I actually took a screen shot of the clock tower, and it was centered. So the only way I could move it over was by mirroring the image on the right. XD.

I suppose I could have just gone back on the server and took another screenshot lol.

I like my newer thumbnails, they are a whole lot more simple and to the point.
 

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Kan

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Well, there are a few issues I have with it. The episode 1, is way too small. There is also no need for writing episode down. Could just use the number. Contextually speaking, most people will understand what the number means.

The background is just some random Minecraft image, with a default Steve skin. Nothing personalized at all.

The font, is extremely generic. There is no need to write down the full title on the Thumbnail, the video title is right next to the thumbnail. A simple Minecraft would suffice. The balance of the image is simply bad.

I later changed it to this.

View attachment 11765

The balance is better, episode # is larger and it's a bit more personalized.

After joining a server called Nightowl, it became this.

View attachment 11766

It's pretty interesting how things progressed. I feel like I was trying to do too much and over personalizing it. Over complicating it. I actually took a screen shot of the clock tower, and it was centered. So the only way I could move it over was by mirroring the image on the right. XD.

I suppose I could have just gone back on the server and took another screenshot lol.

I like my newer thumbnails, they are a whole lot more simple and to the point.

Simplicity sells is a very good marketing strategy I learned.
 
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