Still new to the art of thumbnails. What would you change?

[inland hedge]

Hey all, you guys helped me quite a bit with my last thumbnail so I thought I'd do another one of these. Down below is a concept thumbnail for my next video. It tries to incorporate some of the lessons from the old thumbnail while also targeting a "fleeing" vibe that works best for this type of video. I'm not sure on the video title yet but it will be something to do with running away or being chased by tornadoes. To those who haven't seen my last thumbnail I make videos on a storm chasing game called outbrk, and this video is targeting the storm chasing/weather community.

What are some things that work here? What doesn't? How would you change it? Any feedback is appreciated!

[split lantern]

Nice feedback post! Please keep in mind that all feedback is provided out of the good will of the community, so it may take some time for you to get a response.

Please avoid reposting or begging members in other channels to check out this thread.

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[severe nova]

I feel like at first glance, the "NOW!" seems off, I can't quite put my finger on it right away. Maybe because it's covering up the top portion of the vehicle.

[lusty badge]

One good rule of thumb is to be purposefully vague so imo the text should be changed to

Already dead
Or
It’s over
Or
Biggest one yet

[limber parcel]

Second this. Looks like the Drive had been blurred. I would also not place the lettering over a main part of the thumb

[inland hedge]

alright, how does this look. I'm just worried now that the text might be too small

[severe nova]

To me, the placement is better. You may want to see how the font looks with stroke effect rather than the drop shadow. My thought is that a stroke effect rather than the drop shadow will make the text pop more. I don't really understand the audience but if "Drive Now" is a clickable phrase then I think you are almost there.

[limber parcel]

I agree

[severe nova]

Are you using photoshop for the design? Do you have a psd file for it?

[inland hedge]

nah I'm using gimp

[severe nova]

Ah ok, I was going to take a stab at trying to play with the text

[inland hedge]

I got to this now. I wonder if I can do the text placement kinda like this to keep everything visible

[severe nova]

I think the "Hit the Gas" text reads better to me. Can you apply a stroke outline to the text?

[inland hedge]

Sure, I think I found a plugin that does that. (I apply the text with pain.net after making the image on gimp just cuz I find paint.net’s text tool easier to use)

Which thumbnail lighting do you like better btw? First or second?

[severe nova]

This new one with the gradient text snd lighting looks much better. You've came a long way from the first one. Great job.

[inland hedge]

found a nifty little text plugin that let me do the stroke effect you were talking about that I was looking for BUT ALSO all this other fun stuff so it was pretty cool lol

[severe nova]

You could also do 2-3 and then run the a/b testing to see which one performs better.

[inland hedge]

Nah a/b test is pretty ineffective for a channel my size uncortunately

The last time I did one the test came back inconclusive after the first thirty days due to not enough data