In order to make my animations look more professional I decided to make thumbnails for them. While YouTube does give a selection of three thumbnails to chose from when you upload a video, these images are just a random selection of still from the video and don’t wholly encompass what my animations are about, which is why I decided to create my own.
Screen shots of creating thumbnails
Below are a collection of screen grabs that show the different design styles that I experimented with before deciding on the final thumbnail images.
For the first animation the is discussing what mental health is, I thought that it might be a nice idea to add my main character into the thumbnail and so below is the result of my first attempt creating a thumbnail for my first animation. I’m not overly happy with the outcome of this attempt as there is a lot of blank space and image just looks quite empty.
For this attempt I decided to try adding my logo for that animations and then putting the title of the animation over the top. While I definitely think that this attempt looks a lot better than my first one, i’m still not happy with it. I don’t think that the text works being placed over the top of the logo as it makes the centre look too cluttered and messy.
Thumbnail for animation one
After experimenting with different layouts I finally decided on this thumbnail for my first animation. It is simply my main logo and then the title of the animation below. This image clearly represents what my animation is about through the use of my mental health logo and having the title of the animation on the thumbnail in a clear and legible typeface that is also used with the actually animation itself. By using this design I will also be keeping in consistency with my animations and brand due to this image actually featuring within the title sequence of my animation.
Thumbnail for animation two
In order to keep my animations and style consistent I decided to use the same approach for the thumbnail of my second animations as I did for the first. This meant that they only element that needed changing was the title of the animations.
I am very happy with how these thumbnails have turned out. By doing this I have made my videos and the YouTube channel dedicated to these animations look more professional and sophisticated, which is an essential quality when creating education resources.