Allow me to gaze upon your channel...

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Klink

Klink

I've Got It
Greetings everyone! Although I am new to YTTalk I'll be more than happy to check out any of your channels and offer my advice and honest critiques about them. A fresh pair of eyes just might be what your channel needs.

There are no stirct guidelines. Your channel can be about anything, target any demographic and be of any size. I'll offer my constructive criticisms regarding content, branding, art or technical issues.

Shall we begin?
 
@Mason Sheppard

Overall I'm noticing a lot of inconsistencies with the art and audio. Allow me to elaborate.

From an art perspective, the key to good branding is consistency. In the thumbnails of your earlier videos and in the ending sting, your text logo consisted of a mix between Agency FB and another slimmer typeface. This is completely different from the channel art, Facebook and Twitter which uses a more thicker, rounded 'futuristic' typeface.

This inconsistency carries over to the thumbnails themselves, starting off with that same treatment you used for your in-video logo in your earlier videos and then changing completely with the later videos. Personally, while the text was hard to read in your earlier thumbnails, the overall design was on the right track. Using different colours for different videos/series is a nice touch. If you returned to a similar design but with a thicker typeface your thumbnails will be perfect for your targeted demographic.

Also, remove the Gaussian Blur. I get the impression you'd like your brand to have a futuristic or at least a very modern feel but this feels at odds with the excessive Gaussian Blur. Even with your actual logo, I highly recommend removing the Gaussian Blur and removing all treatment you've done to it. Keep it simple, plain white with a very slight and very light drop shadow. It'll give it that modern look I think you're shooting for.

With the videos themselves, audio is inconsistent. It's absolutely fantastic that you've got a decent quality mic but I have noticed a lot of background noise bleeding through. You can knock out a lot of this noise by first recording at least 10 seconds of room noise (no talking, just switch the mic on, hit record and let it record the natural sounds of your room), then using that sample to 'cut' it out of your main recording. This however is highly dependent on which audio program you use, so definitely check out some tutorials or guides to see if the program you're using can remove noise.

One last audio critique - the audio mixing needs work. It's most noticeable when the ending sting starts and in the intros for a few of your later videos. The transition between you talking and the music kicking in completely is instantaneous. Try to level your speech volume to the same volume as your music, and when you want to transition your music from background noise to the main focus, add a crossfade instead of stepping up the volume. It'll become less jarring to your viewers and give off a more professional feel to your channel.

Other than that, you seem to have nailed the audience you're targeting your videos for and are doing so with relative success. If you fix the inconsistencies with your branding and audio your channel will improve immensely.

Hope this helps and good luck with your channel!
 
@GammingPandaMan

Audio all around is holding your channel back completely. In your "Game Dev Tycoon" video, you're almost inaudible for most of the video and there are also long periods of complete silence. With "Let's Play" channels like yours, it's important to keep talking but most of all, be engaging. If there are long periods of silence, it would be better to add jump cuts to get to the more exciting parts.

You definitely improved with your Agar.io video but again the audio is inconsistent. Your voice is quiet compared to the music which is blaring in comparison. You need to mix the audio in such a way that the music is loud enough to be heard but quiet enough that it doesn't drown out your vocals.

It's great that you've bought yourself a decent mic but you should also buy a pop-filter for it. It'll help knock out the plosives in your voice (Bs and Ps specifically) and make the vocals a lot clearer.

I can see that as you've progressed you've been doing a lot more editing with the videos which is great. It definitely gives more life to the videos, however the images you've edited into the videos need work. Leaving left over artifacts from trying to remove a background but not removing the shadows is unprofessional.

Typefaces across your channel header and thumbnails are consistent and your branding is cute. I would advice caution though. If you created the panda drawings yourself or commissioned them from an artist, great! If not, you will run into copyright issues which could shutdown your channel. The same can be said with using licensed music.

You're definitely improving with every video you upload and you will keep getting better the more you do it. If you are persistent and fix up the issues I've highlighted your channel will no doubt grow further.

Good luck and more importantly, have fun!
 
I'd love to hear your, and anyone else for that matter, feedback. Sense I am a small channel then every little peice of advice helps. Thank you.
 
@Mithril

Your voice is fantastic. The way you read the stories, your enunciation, your timings, all of it is absolutely spot on. The way you've designed your ending card serves as that gut-punch after a shocking revelation at the end of a story, like in the video "Disturbing Art." That being said you need to make the audio a bit louder for the ending card as it is quiet compared to your voice.

I understand juggling school work, work or life in general on top of doing YouTube content creation is hard. Hell, I do it myself. If you're persistent and keep a regular upload schedule your channel will do just fine. You may consider mixing things up a bit by doing themed releases on certain days, ie Tuesday is for CreepyPasta, Thursday is for fun etc.

Overall though, holy crap I'm impressed. Keep it up!


@Jordan Rhodes

The videos are visually impressive and are of a high quality. Camera angles and colour grading on certain videos are great, although certain shots are overblown (Hoverboard, Dead Friend and Wonderful Time of the Year come to mind). If you're able to, invest in a stabilising rig for those tracking shots or at the very least a tripod to remove some of the camera shake. Not that I need to tell you since you've clearly studied film, the further you get your hands away from the camera, the better stabilised your shots will be. I'd also recommend investing in a shotgun microphone as the on camera audio doesn't do the videos justice.

Your branding is consistent, the logo is well designed and the colours are great. Keep up the uploads and your channel will do fine.


@Wiggly Cinema

What jumps out immediately is that there's no clear branding. Your channel art/header should reflect Wiggly Cinema in some aspect. Looking at a nice picture of Mass Effect doesn't exactly tell me what your channel is about or what it is you do.

It may not seem like it, since YouTube is mostly a visual medium, but audio is just as important if not more so than the actual video itself. Using a headset microphone simply won't cut it. I highly recommend you invest in a condenser microphone. You can pick up some decent USB condenser microphone for pretty cheap but if you really want to take your audio to the next level, using a pro-condenser microphone using an XLR cable connected to a USB interface will do wonders. The downside is that it's a hell of a lot more expensive.

What you should also do is create visually appealing thumbnail images. Screencaps from the videos don't really work and it gives off the impression the channel is more of a vlogging one than a gaming one. Your later videos do have custom thumbnails but to be honest they don't really stick out to me and they're visually busy. Think about typefaces (fonts), colours, branding, some designs that you think look cool but also reflect what your channel is all about. I definitely recommend asking for advice in the 'Branding and Channel Design' and the 'Graphics, Intros & Music' forums here on YTTalk. If you have to, commission some artwork, music or an overall branding designer to help your channel. After all, if you want to make money, you have to spend money. It's an unfortunate reality with business but if you're serious about making money off YouTube it'll be a worthwhile investment.

Like every other channel I've looked at in this thread so far, your videos have clearly gotten better as time has gone on and if you keep doing it you'll no doubt get better. Good luck!
 
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