THUMB WARS #2018-2019 (Patreon)

Hi all! So this is a series of posts where I revisit past thumbnails and explore their design process, including the ones that were changed and altered over time. So lets kick off with my first video essay!

Crap Thursday (Rik Mayall)

So before the Eddache character hosted the regular format, it took a break from comedy sketches and animations to gush about my favourite comedian, Rik Mayall.  I wanted the thumbnail to have this pop-punk aesthetic. Obviously I'd approach this 2017 video different today, but this is where it began for me.

Now, lets get to the first proper "Eddache" video essay!

How To Solve Who Shot Mr Burns

Bold of me to put a gun and blood into a thumbnail with how YouTube love demonetising videos! Perhaps the red half-tone background helped! But this was the video that started it all. I did plan to have this red half-tone background be a constant for the thumbnails, figuring it'll be good branding and make it instantly recognisable as one of my videos but I'd later drop all that in favour of the Eddache character to be the branding instead.

Donald vs Daffy: How Roger Rabbit Made The Greatest Crossover

I love this thumbnail. I used to love commissioning artists to help illustrate the thumbnails for me. This was done by KenDraws. 

How She-Ra Does Character Design

Artwork by Feli Tomkinson. Notice the Eddache character was always the same in every thumb?

Collab With My 7-Year-Old Self 

And now the Eddache pose is different! This is my only animated storytime. My plan was I'd back and forth between animated storytime and video essay since the concept for the Eddache video essays was to be a blend between the two. So if the Eddache was in the previous pose, the video was an essay and this pose here would be for animated storytimes. However, I lacked the self confidence to make more storytimes and I think it's too late to suddenly drop a new one.

Common Comments: How To Solve Who Shot Mr Burns

Here's another abandoned concept, the "Common Comments". This was an idea where if a video reached a million views, I'd do a FAQ for it. But by the time my next video to reach a million views (Spoof Movies) I didn't want to do these anymore, saving my responses for Directors Commentary here on the Patreon.

How To Bring Walt Disney Back To Life

What an amazing pun.

Who Really Won Wacky Races?

Here's some variations! So originally I stuck to the characters but it just didn't come together very well. 

So I commissioned some artwork from 2damn2giveaglam. But I then flipped the characters and it felt right.

How To Make A Live Action Remake

This isn't a good thumbnail. But the video underperformed as well (hence why I never followed up the "to be continued" ending), so I cut my losses with this one.

Overthinking Kids TV Shows

To combat the dullness of the half-tone background, I started to flood it with background effects and elements, like the purple smoke here. Peppa having red-eye was a last minute alteration!

The CRINGE History Behind My Username

Arguably my only other animated storytime? But this was a fun thumbnail! Artwork by Ockeroid who very much despaired at the commission "Solid Snake and Kenny from South Park but with massive boobs".

See you next week for the next batch of thumbnails!