Which thumbnail style should I go with?

[WolfWraith]

I'm not good at making things from scratch but I'm planning on updating my thumbnails for a series I've been doing, specifically a highlights series.

I'm tossing up between 2 different styles which are:

Style 1 (Style I'm currently using) Simple screenshot I pick that I feel stands out with some simple text.

Thumbnail version:



Style 2 (style I plan on using but changed 1 vid already) requires me to take 10 screenshots that I like or want and place them into a collage type thing, but there's no text, I tried testing it with text but I found that it sort of didn't look right, this version is more time consuming as each thumbnail will have screenshots unique to the video it's for:

Thumbnail version:


I find style 2 is a little more creative and I'm leaning more towards it, but I'm just not sure if it's enough from a viewers point of view, from mine it looks fine but I need to know from a less biased view.

EDIT: I should have pointed out that I am aiming more for creativity and something eye catching as opposed to getting a topic accross given the nature of the videos, they're just highlight videos and the titles I associate with them are a mix of what happens in the video and to give the video a unique name if I need it for future reference, but if you feel like either thumbnail degrades the chances of someone watching the video, don't hesitate to let me know.

 

[Michael]

I really like style 2 but if its going to take a while to make each one it could be easier doing the other, it looks fine the first one but the second one if each is unique will look great. The downside to style 2 is not having the text at the top left. Theyre both good to me but if I had to choose it would be style 1 for ease of creation and it can include text. On style 2 I would just put it at the top left me.

 

[Conso1727]

I would go for the first one, it gives a better idea on the video's topic.

 

[WolfWraith]

I really like style 2 but if its going to take a while to make each one it could be easier doing the other, it looks fine the first one but the second one if each is unique will look great. The downside to style 2 is not having the text at the top left. They're both good to me but if I had to choose it would be style 1 for ease of creation and it can include text. On style 2 I would just put it at the top left me.

Awesome thanks for the feedback, which text are you refering to? The video title? Or the Watermark? I put the watermark in the bottom right as that's where the video time will cover it. Style 1 is unique to each video too, I just take a screenshot from that video and change the text to be the title. lol But the video title itself will have it which is why I don't mind not having it in Style 2. I'm also not fussed about the time it takes to make them, just as long as it doesn't take me a few hours just to make 1 thumbnail lol It only takes me a few minutes to sit down and screenshot some parts. I like when I can be as creative as possible without doing something outside of my capabilities.

I would go for the first one, it gives a better idea on the video's topic.

Damn, that was something I was worried about, that it wouldn't be too clear, the + side is that there isn't entirely a specific topic persay, it's just the title for the video that I associated with that particular video. I probably should have pointed out that I'm aiming for something more eye catching and creative as opposed to getting a topic accross, given the nature of the videos but that does help to know. I may need to look at other options, I've already tried doing a thumbnail for that particular video that revolved specifically around bikies, but it didn't look too good lol. Thanks for your feedback.[DOUBLEPOST=1409735592,1409735220][/DOUBLEPOST]Also, here's a snippet of the other video thumbnails in the same series for a slightly better overview of what they originally looked like:

 

[Michael]

I mean the thumbnail text in style 2, it would be good if you could have it at the top left

 

[WolfWraith]

I mean the thumbnail text in style 2, it would be good if you could have it at the top left

Oh you mean the GTA Online logo? Sadly it's the way the template had to be designed. The original poster that I got the idea from looks like this:


I had to make mine from scratch sort of, I did the lines manually but the problem is, behind the logo, I can't see where the lines were meant to end or meet and when I try to make it without the logo, due to the shapes of each box, it doesn't really give me room to match the lines up properly, otherwise it's gonna have parts that are all zig zaggy :/ so I grabbed the logo and shrunk it down as much as I could to cover up the mismatched ends, which I'm assuming is what Rockstar originally did. If I could have, I would have not used the GTA Online logo at all. I might try and fiddle around with it if I can 1 more time to see if I can match it up. It might look odd lol

 

[TheDoctor_13]

I could see positives in both really. I really like the creativity in style #2, and I think it would look nice to have a uniform thumnail style I think, as long as its not too much work. But I also like the simplicity of Style #1, I agree with @Conso1727 saying it's easier to understand. But also it comes off as one of the more generic thumnails you can do on Youtube.

 

[WolfWraith]

I mean the thumbnail text in style 2, it would be good if you could have it at the top left

Okay I literally just spent the time between my last post and now tweaking it a fair bit. I think I was able to make the lines match quite well but these were the results I played with:


I didn't like the bit where the line sort of invaded the long, middle box or 2nd box to the right from the bottom left lol So this is the modified result:


I also tried moving the logo to the top left as well, but I'm not sure if I like it there, it sort of covers an entire image and if I shrink it anymore I think it'd be too hard to read and eventually redundant but this is what it looked like:

I could see positives in both really. I really like the creativity in style #2, and I think it would look nice to have a uniform thumnail style I think, as long as its not too much work. But I also like the simplicity of Style #1, I agree with @Conso1727 saying it's easier to understand. But also it comes off as one of the more generic thumnails you can do on Youtube.

That's why I wanted to update it. I don't think the thumbnails look ugly but it's just a screenshot from the game with text, nice and simple and each screenshot I try to pick specifically to stand out from the video but as you said, it's pretty generic. I always intended to use them as a temporary custom thumbnail. I can be more creative, like I've had so many ideas for each of the thumbnails I've done for GTA Online, but my lack of ability to put what I imagine onto paper is a hurdle that I've always struggled to overcome. I'm sort of in a damned if I do damned if I don't situation, stick to generic and I don't have anything to stand out, go with slightly more creative but sacrifice conveying the topic of the video more. Otherwise my other option is to wait until I can afford to pay an artist who's willing to deal with my s**t and make thumbnails for me, hence why the generic thumbnails were meant to be temporary. lol

 

[ForMyLove]

Ya i like the latest one you did with the writing in the top left corner, looks very cool!

 

[WolfWraith]

Ya i like the latest one you did with the writing in the top left corner, looks very cool!

Thanks. I'm gonna have to play with the text some more. Or just put an image I don't like behind it xD