Comparing 3 Thumbnails - Need Feedback

[night reef]

I’d love your feedback on which of the three thumbnail options works best for my latest AMV, titled "Friede’s Final Goodbye – Pokemon Horizons AMV (Ep. 89)."

The thumbnail should capture the essence of the video and complement the title effectively.

➡️ Please let me know your thoughts on which one stands out the most and aligns with the content. Your input would be greatly appreciated!

I have attached the link to my most recent video for reference. Currently it is set to the test feature where it'll randomly give the viewer a thumbnail between the three.

https://youtu.be/KDotRekp6Oc

[sand egret]

I think the second thumbnail works best. It's aesthetically pleasing and a little more in line with an AMV style, while the others almost imply you're analyzing an anime. Not to mention the word "dead" spoils the climax of your AMV (which I watched in full and thought it was cool nonetheless, so not a huge deal, just nit picky)

[night reef]

Okay, thank you for your opinion! I've been recently redesigning my other old thumbnails (like the first one) into the style of the second, and they seem to be doing well too

I just don't really trust YouTubes test and compare thumbnail feature tbh.. I feel like it's 30-50% accurate

[sand egret]

Nothing beats trail and error after all

[night reef]

You right

Just wanted others opinions, so thanks!

[night reef]

Oh, and did you have any gripes with the video itself? Obviously it's slower paced and not as flashy as some of my others as this one is more like a tribute.

[sand egret]

Sure, like I said before I thought it was cool overall, but since you were just asking for feedback on the thumbnail originally I thought i wouldn't delve too deep into it.

However since you asked:
0:29 Missed opportunity to change scenes in sync with the piano key in the music
0:40 Hard to tell if there was a mess up in transition or you tried using your own sound effect. It came off looking like an imperfection that takes away from the main sound stage
0:51 Edits like this is where I think you have potential to improve the AMV, because at it stands it's kind of a stretch to call it an AMV. It's more like you're sharing a normal scene, but with a filter. I don't want to undermine that the video and audio editing did does look really cool, but I think adding even more scenes featuring the memories of these characters instead of just letting the original clip play for so long could have come off as more impactful and original. If possible, I'd recommend toning down the filter a bit too since it was hard to discern what the flashing scenes were at first

[night reef]

1. Yeah, you're right

2. There was originally a scene there but I noticed a drop in retention there as I had out of place sound effects. I edited it out afterwards in YouTube Studio, though I'm going to try to re-edit it so it doesn't feel abrupt.

3. Yeah, I see what you mean. Thank you for the advice, I'll definitely turn down the filter a bit in my next one. Do you mean the scanlines, the glow, colors? What about the filter?

[sand egret]

I don't use resolve so it's hard to get the terminology right on the filter, but it's like the scenes come by as too blury. It's not sharp enough for the brain to recognize it at a glance, especially at the speed it's going. If you got the effect by messing with saturation then maybe try turning it up slightly to help the eyes recognize even a little color might help. It'll take some playing around. Either way this is something I learned when making gaming edits, people care about the content most and sadly the work we do on cool special effects goes underappreciated. Less really is more sometimes.

[night reef]

Yeah, you're definitely right

I'll definitely have to turn the saturation up a bit to add more color

Rn the saturation is turned all the way down and I have some CC filter

Thank you frank

[sand egret]

No problem. If you ever want more feedback again then feel welcome to DM me future content for critique. Us anime content creators could stick together, if you like

[night reef]

Yes please, I agree lol

[night reef]

When referring to your point at 0:51, what more could I have done? I had the zoom effect with the different memories, but that's all I really had in mind before his last words and the main scene

[sand egret]

I'd like to first emphasize that it's actually the best part of your AMV and overall really good, but the nit picky improvement is that the zoom effect hinders the clarity of the flashing scenes. Another idea is maybe mask out the characters so the zoom effect only applies to the background and it should help highlight the characters better. They need to be crisper and clearer to help recognize that it's flashbacks of the same characters