Which thumbnail would you click on?

[late portal]

I originally took the first screenshot from my video and edited it then decided to hop into a sandbox rust server and edit 2 pictures of me together to look like im grubbing someone with a lot of gear

then i saw the empty space and filled it with grub

[sharp kiln]

To be blunt: neither of them.

At the very minimum, your thumbnail needs to provide baseline expectations to the viewer on what the video is like. Both compositions are extremely unfocused and most of your elements are blending together with the background.

Before we can even talk stylization/striking design, you need to convey basic glance value to a potential viewer.

[late portal]

i feel like this conveys the expectation?

im grubbing a guy for a lot more loot than i am carrying with a bad weapon

[sharp kiln]

look what happens when I shrink your thumbnail into a youtube homepage (which is as big as it normally gets)

the grass, the trees, the corpses, none of it is distinct

you can barely make out the maggot or what it's supposed to represent

[late portal]

a grub

https://www.youtube.com/@spoonkid2169/videos

[sharp kiln]

let me get my glasses

[late portal]

okay bro

[sharp kiln]

is this to prove a point or something

[late portal]

yes

[sharp kiln]

because their thumbnails are miles ahead of yours lmao

[late portal]

theyre thumbnails are screenshots ingame the same as mine?

what does this show

[sharp kiln]

most of their screenshots are clear and have contrast with the elements they want to showcase

y'know, the things that are important are immediately recognizable and pop out?

[late portal]

they are all screenshots of the game

what is the difference between their screenshots and mine

[sharp kiln]

their screenshots obey the rule of thirds

and basic graphic design

yours don't

would you like some math

[late portal]

the rule of thirds as in take up the left or right of the image?

these are all in the middle?

[sharp kiln]

• 1 Element
• Occupies 65% of the composition
• Is framed with a background that doesn't obfuscate information

[late portal]

so the rule of thirds is 1 element

[sharp kiln]

• 2 tiny Elements (I would discount the maggot you think so highly of)
• Occupies 15% of the composition
• Framed in a manner that has tons of negative space or is an unrecognisable blur

[sharp kiln]

no you can have multiple elements, however having just the one is easier to frame

[sharp kiln]

not as bad as the others but still not good/10

[late portal]

that was the 3rd thumbnail in the post

i was simply asking if it was better than the other ones

[sharp kiln]

and i gave you my answer

[late portal]

okay

which one are you more likely to click on

[sharp kiln]

if I HAD to click on one, I'd pick the last one

[sharp kiln]

I'm not trying to be rude, the fact that you needed to ask me this means you have a lot to brush up on the subject matter

[late portal]

so what changes would you suggest to the 3rd thumbnail

and why

because all of my thumbnails so far have been ss the video highlight something glow the outline and done

[sharp kiln]

The "changes" I'd suggest would be to scrap the third thumbnail and start somewhere else lol

If I had to use it, I would crop out the player characters, then enlarge and try layering them on a different canvas/background altogether

[late portal]

the whole point of the thumbnail is to convey i am killing him when he comes out of his base

[sharp kiln]

yes and you can convey that information in a thousand different ways

instead of wasting 80% of your design space like this lmao

[late portal]

i would understand making my character closer to the guy im killing to have less dead space but to remove the base entirely when it is an important part of the setting why would i do that

[sharp kiln]

because the "base" is unrecognizable from this angle

[late portal]

how is it unrecognizable?

[sharp kiln]

hmmmmmm

i wonder if i'm repeating myself ...

[late portal]

you look at that and cant say its a base?

like that doesnt come to mind?

[sharp kiln]

i see a dark mass surrounded by foliage and a tree all of which aren't distinct from one another

[late portal]

do you play the game?

[sharp kiln]

yes I've played rust before, unironically like a decade ago

here's what the thumbnail looks like when resized on the homepage btw

[late portal]

the quality degridation is wild

[sharp kiln]

maybe your random screenshot with poor anti-aliasing and low contrast doesn't make a good canvas

[late portal]

This is the same resolution so why is it much better quality?

the quality is not that poor

[sharp kiln]

ah yes the image artifacting isn't present anymore

a good takeaway from all this