RE:Design -My Thumbnails

So, I’m a perfectionist.

I know this, just as I know it can be as much a curse, as it can be a “good” thing to be. I’m almost never happy with my designs, & if I AM, I’m immediately suspicious of it.

A lot of times though, I’ll sit and look at my pieces – even those that have been “out in the wild” for a while – and think, “It’s not quite right. How can I make this BETTER?”

It’s because of this, that I went and redesigned three of the thumbnails of my recent “Ye Olde Dragon Reviews…” videos. It was simply a case of changing the focal elements – usually me & a representation of the items being reviewed – but I think it improved them.

Now, remember – I’m a One-Dragon operation here. I don’t have photographers, or videographers, or editors to help me out, so I made due with what I had at the time.

At the time, it was using my Logitech 920C Webcam – despite it being on its last legs – to take selfies to put into my thumbnails. Case in point:

As you can see, the result is a rather poorly contrasted, non-vibrant shot of myself (this was AFTER adding vibrance & saturation, even).

Shortly after this had been completed & the video posted, I received an ElGato Facecam as a gift. I hadn’t used it for the “selfies” yet, but I DID capture a frame from the video review of the Wizkids Death Giant Necromancer & used THAT as the focal point, seen below:

World of difference, no?

From there, I went on to make three more videos, for reviews of Wizkids’ Dracohydra, Adult Green Dragon, and Adult Silver Dragon.

To be honest, I wasn’t completely happy with the designs I came up for them, as they utilized the same basic selfy, and a different Dragon figure in the yellow starburst, to varying degrees of ‘acceptability’. I was REALLY unhappy with the way the Silver Dragon thumbnail was turning out, so I figured on trying something else. What I did, was recording a short video of myself, holding the box for the figure (which is pretty big). I then scanned thru the video & picked a frame to screen grab. I brought it into Affinity Designer and put it into the design. I opted to make the pic somewhat flush with the right side, though its frame’s right side is off screen, as seen below:

As you can see, my coloring’s a LOT better (I look somewhat healthy, even), and the image is more dynamic, as I’m interacting with it.

I liked it so much, the next day, I went back & took similar shots for the Dracohydra & the Adult Green Dragon.

I was faced with the same dilemma by these boxes, that I had during the making of the videos – my green screen KILLED them! I decided to just turn the chroma key filter off. I didn’t trim around the screen, but I think it looks fine. They certainly look a lot better than they WERE!

In truth, the Dracohydra presented me with a challenge of being such a long box, making me need to condense the size of the product copy, which in turn forced me to center the title, and put a balancing DV logo in the opposite corner.

Remember – Design never stops evolving. Even when you THINK you’re finished.