George Chen
Liking YTtalk
thanks I'll give that a shot! Though it's a bit time consuming but i'll try to see if i could squeeze that in.
Allow me to gaze upon your channel...
- Thread starter Klink
- Start date
- Status
DevinLandis
Liking YTtalk
Would you be willing to give my content a look and give some suggestions? I think this is really cool what you are doing and I really appreciate it. I know I am a bit younger than most, but I feel that I can still make good content.
SnowTigressMusic
Just a girl who loves creating music:)
Wow, you give really nice channel reviews, that's awesome of you! Could you review mine when you have time? I'd appreciate it, thanks so much! 
Wiggly Cinema
Liking YTtalk
Hey guys, I'm currently at 40 subscribers and I've been doing youtube on and off for almost 2 years. I'm kinda discouraged seeing as I only want to get to my first 100 subscribers. Any advice/help?
Klink
I've Got It
@Rashawn Bass
The first thing I noticed was that your shots are completely out of focus. The second thing I noticed was that your green screen and keying techniques need work. I'm sure you've noticed this as well; there's a lot of jagged edges surrounding you and certain hotspots in the screen itself which is showing in the video. I've linked this video in this thread already but it's a great video to educate you on how green screen a lot better:
What the video doesn't mention but heavily implied, make sure your green screen is as flat as possible. Any creases or wrinkles will create shadows and hotspots which will in turn effect the video when you apply your chroma key.
For the focus, it's hard to do it by yourself but depending on what camera you're using you can easily solve the issue. If you're using a DSLR camera, your lens should have a guide close to the focus ring which shows numbers. These numbers are your focal lengths. If it shows a 3, stand 3 feet (or 3 metres) away from the camera and your focus should be perfect. Practice to see which focal lengths work for you. Once you've got your distance set, make a marking on the floor to help guide your position and make sure never to step forward or behind that spot. Side to side movement can work but generally you'd want to stand exactly in that position and just move your arms around for dramatic effect.
Your channel branding also needs work as your channel header, avatar and thumbnails have no real correlation with each other. Using low quality images from Google that you've resized to make larger looks incredibly cheap. Choose a colour, a typeface/font that you like and feel best represents you and create a logo (which you have) and use it as the basis of your branding going forward.
Good luck!
@XenithDragon
Your channel header and avatar look great and it's a shame to see none of the design elements being carried over into your thumbnails. You should consider using the diamond shape as the basis for your brand going forward. As an example, in the top left hand corner of your thumbnails you can have one diamond with your logo in it while in the bottom right corner you can have another diamond showing the number of the episode for that particular playthrough.
Content wise there's nothing much I can advise you on. You've got 60fps video which is great for gaming and your microphone quality is high, resulting in good, clean audio. At this point all you really need to do is work on your branding and keep a consistent upload schedule.
You've got potential. Good luck with your channel!
@ControllerBreak
Wow. Your channels' branding is completely rock solid! Great logos, unique brands for each show ('Let's Go Retro' and 'Controller Break') and beautifully designed logo stings. Well done to everyone involved!
My advice to you is to keep uploading content and try not to force yourselves to be comedic or force commentary. The more you do this the more confidence you'll gain and thus the more natural your commentary will become.
Also, you should try commissioning a few musical artists for unique tracks for your shows. I love the fact that you're using Montee's 'Retro Time' but it's not a unique track. I can tell you for a fact that Montee is a pleasure to work with, as I've commissioned him in the past for a unique track for one of our shows (you can find that particular track here: http://audiojungle.net/item/funky-time/14439201 ; we haven't launched the show yet but as you can read from the comments, while we did commission the track and own the license to use it, we don't actually own it so others are free to purchase their own licence to use it).
You do have to pay quite a bit for it though; I paid Montee $200US for that track. Each artist you approach for commission can vary their prices and it could potentially cost more than that. It never hurts to ask and it's a small price to pay but it's worth it to ensure your shows stand out from everyone else on YouTube.
Overall, I'm absolutely impressed. Fantastic work to everyone involved!
@Indiear
Good to hear another audio chanel trying to showcase musical artists. I know you don't own any of the tracks and you've asked permission to upload them to your channel to help them gain exposure.
That being stated, your channel branding isn't really consistent - your avatar and earlier video thumbnails are the same but it's completely different to your channel header. On top of that, the text used within the design elements is inconsistent with the channel name (INDI_ear vs Indiear). You need to re-work your brand to ensure that everything is consistent, perhaps even create a simple "IE" logo to use in your avatar and in a corner of your thumbnails.
For the videos themselves, you need a more exciting audio visualisation for the tracks. The dots flying from the centre line isn't that exciting to look at. What you need are more visual elements to denote the various elements of the musical track. Example, having the dots fly with the bass of the track while having something else to denote trebble or certain frequencies. Here's a video that you can use as inspiration for the direction of your channel and to give you an idea of what I'm referring to:
@Spryite
Starting with your videos, you need to save up some cash and invest in a pop filter. The sock-over-the-microphone trick is servicable but it still doesn't beat out a proper pop-filter. You also need to work on your audio mixing as you tend to get quite loud in your videos which peaks the audio causing a lot of nasty distortion.
Content wise you just need to get back into the swing of things. As you mentioned in your 'THIS CHANNEL IS DEAD' video, you've only recently come out of a 1-2 year hiatus, so a lot of the followers you gained early on have practically forgotten about you or no longer care (subscriber burn out). Keep a regular upload schedule and you should be golden.
@SnowTigressMusic
Nice work on the track! It sounds great!
2 pieces of advice. First, change your YouTube home page so that when viewers first come to your channel they can instantly hear what you have to offer. You can rotate out the preview video (or 'Channel Trailer') with your latest tracks to keep potential viewers interested in your channel.
Second, work on your visualisations. The centre audio band animation is nice but that background is completely distracting. Either have a simple coloured background or use non-intrusive background animations/stock footage. An example is something like this: http://videohive.net/item/pink-tulips-in-early-morning/16130806?s_rank=2
It's a great start to your channel and I know it'll grow as you produce and upload more music!
The first thing I noticed was that your shots are completely out of focus. The second thing I noticed was that your green screen and keying techniques need work. I'm sure you've noticed this as well; there's a lot of jagged edges surrounding you and certain hotspots in the screen itself which is showing in the video. I've linked this video in this thread already but it's a great video to educate you on how green screen a lot better:
What the video doesn't mention but heavily implied, make sure your green screen is as flat as possible. Any creases or wrinkles will create shadows and hotspots which will in turn effect the video when you apply your chroma key.
For the focus, it's hard to do it by yourself but depending on what camera you're using you can easily solve the issue. If you're using a DSLR camera, your lens should have a guide close to the focus ring which shows numbers. These numbers are your focal lengths. If it shows a 3, stand 3 feet (or 3 metres) away from the camera and your focus should be perfect. Practice to see which focal lengths work for you. Once you've got your distance set, make a marking on the floor to help guide your position and make sure never to step forward or behind that spot. Side to side movement can work but generally you'd want to stand exactly in that position and just move your arms around for dramatic effect.
Your channel branding also needs work as your channel header, avatar and thumbnails have no real correlation with each other. Using low quality images from Google that you've resized to make larger looks incredibly cheap. Choose a colour, a typeface/font that you like and feel best represents you and create a logo (which you have) and use it as the basis of your branding going forward.
Good luck!
@XenithDragon
Your channel header and avatar look great and it's a shame to see none of the design elements being carried over into your thumbnails. You should consider using the diamond shape as the basis for your brand going forward. As an example, in the top left hand corner of your thumbnails you can have one diamond with your logo in it while in the bottom right corner you can have another diamond showing the number of the episode for that particular playthrough.
Content wise there's nothing much I can advise you on. You've got 60fps video which is great for gaming and your microphone quality is high, resulting in good, clean audio. At this point all you really need to do is work on your branding and keep a consistent upload schedule.
You've got potential. Good luck with your channel!
@ControllerBreak
Wow. Your channels' branding is completely rock solid! Great logos, unique brands for each show ('Let's Go Retro' and 'Controller Break') and beautifully designed logo stings. Well done to everyone involved!
My advice to you is to keep uploading content and try not to force yourselves to be comedic or force commentary. The more you do this the more confidence you'll gain and thus the more natural your commentary will become.
Also, you should try commissioning a few musical artists for unique tracks for your shows. I love the fact that you're using Montee's 'Retro Time' but it's not a unique track. I can tell you for a fact that Montee is a pleasure to work with, as I've commissioned him in the past for a unique track for one of our shows (you can find that particular track here: http://audiojungle.net/item/funky-time/14439201 ; we haven't launched the show yet but as you can read from the comments, while we did commission the track and own the license to use it, we don't actually own it so others are free to purchase their own licence to use it).
You do have to pay quite a bit for it though; I paid Montee $200US for that track. Each artist you approach for commission can vary their prices and it could potentially cost more than that. It never hurts to ask and it's a small price to pay but it's worth it to ensure your shows stand out from everyone else on YouTube.
Overall, I'm absolutely impressed. Fantastic work to everyone involved!
@Indiear
Good to hear another audio chanel trying to showcase musical artists. I know you don't own any of the tracks and you've asked permission to upload them to your channel to help them gain exposure.
That being stated, your channel branding isn't really consistent - your avatar and earlier video thumbnails are the same but it's completely different to your channel header. On top of that, the text used within the design elements is inconsistent with the channel name (INDI_ear vs Indiear). You need to re-work your brand to ensure that everything is consistent, perhaps even create a simple "IE" logo to use in your avatar and in a corner of your thumbnails.
For the videos themselves, you need a more exciting audio visualisation for the tracks. The dots flying from the centre line isn't that exciting to look at. What you need are more visual elements to denote the various elements of the musical track. Example, having the dots fly with the bass of the track while having something else to denote trebble or certain frequencies. Here's a video that you can use as inspiration for the direction of your channel and to give you an idea of what I'm referring to:
@Spryite
Starting with your videos, you need to save up some cash and invest in a pop filter. The sock-over-the-microphone trick is servicable but it still doesn't beat out a proper pop-filter. You also need to work on your audio mixing as you tend to get quite loud in your videos which peaks the audio causing a lot of nasty distortion.
Content wise you just need to get back into the swing of things. As you mentioned in your 'THIS CHANNEL IS DEAD' video, you've only recently come out of a 1-2 year hiatus, so a lot of the followers you gained early on have practically forgotten about you or no longer care (subscriber burn out). Keep a regular upload schedule and you should be golden.
@SnowTigressMusic
Nice work on the track! It sounds great!
2 pieces of advice. First, change your YouTube home page so that when viewers first come to your channel they can instantly hear what you have to offer. You can rotate out the preview video (or 'Channel Trailer') with your latest tracks to keep potential viewers interested in your channel.
Second, work on your visualisations. The centre audio band animation is nice but that background is completely distracting. Either have a simple coloured background or use non-intrusive background animations/stock footage. An example is something like this: http://videohive.net/item/pink-tulips-in-early-morning/16130806?s_rank=2
It's a great start to your channel and I know it'll grow as you produce and upload more music!
Klink
I've Got It
@DevinLandis
You're young and so is your channel but I can already tell you've got incredible potential to succeed on YouTube. Your editing techniques are fantastic and for a mostly one-person crew, your filming is pretty spot on. As you get older and save up some more cash definitely consider investing in better camera gear, audio equipment and start purchasing music licenses and typeface/font licenses to give your channel a unique branding to seperate yourself from your competition.
Not much more I can add. I'm impressed with what you have so far. Keep a regular upload schedule and do your best to learn as much about filming as possible. There are plenty of great resources online to help you get a good head start (Film Riot on YouTube as an example).
Best of luck to you!
@LyanGamer
Your channel avatar and header look solid. Well done with that! Your thumbnails still need a bit of work as just slapping on unfiltered text onto screenshots or clipart looks incredibly cheap. You should think about using the 'paw' print motif (similar to what you use in your videos with the 'Subscribe' annotation) in your thumbnails, perhaps even turn that into a 'LG' logo.
Content wise you've got some decent gear and for 2 months worth of work you're doing quite well. Clean up your thumbnails, unify your branding and keep a regular upload schedule. You'll do absolutely fine on YouTube.
Good luck!
@Wiggly Cinema
Good to see you in this thread again. You've definitely improved a lot since the last time I looked at your channel but you still have much more to do to improve. Your avatar, channel header and video thumbnails, while created by yourself and not just promotional images of games, still look incredibly cheap. Check out this website to gain inspiration for possible logo designs and branding ideas: https://logopond.com
Content wise, I can tell you've got a better microphone for your 'Let's Play' content which is great to hear. For your Vlog videos, I know you're using a 720p webcam but there's still a lot of noise in your footage which shows a lack of lighting. Add some more lights to help knock out the noise and give your videos a cleaner look.
As for being discouraged about your low subscriber count for how many years you've been doing this, don't be. It took my channel 3 years to even come close to 100 subscribers. Getting popular or getting any kind of recognition on YouTube in this day and age is extremely difficult. You have to remember that when you're starting a channel now, you have to compete against those who have been creating content for YouTube for over 5-7 years. Their techniques, their equipment, their personalities and their commentary have been completely honed in to perfection. Before you even begin to start a channel, you need to invest a lot of time and money to at the very least match what they currently have before you even think about trying to surpass them.
All you can really do is learn from those around you. Watch your favourite channels and take inspiration from them. Look at how their art assets are designed, listen to how natural their commentary is, learn from what they have done and apply it to your own channel. The only way to succeed is to keep pushing forward and never give up. Persistence will eventually pay off.
@DukWin
Right off the bat, remove the 'Battlefield' stats from your channel header. Resizing a small image to the frame of the channel header looks incredibly cheap and tells your viewers absolutely nothing about your channels' content. Using a low quality .gif image for your avatar isn't doing you any favours either.
What you need is a unique, unified brand that you can use across your entire YouTube channel and social media accounts. Find a typeface/font that you like, create yourself a logo and choose 1 or 2 colours that you can use as the basis of your brand. Extend that into your thumbnail designs as currently all you've got are simple screenshots with unfiltered text slapped on them. Look at your favourite channels and take inspiration from them.
Content wise there's no real cohesiveness to it. You've got glitch clips, music videos, small 'Let's Play' videos with no commentary and your earlier videos where you do have commentary, your microphone is low quality and peaks often causing a lot of distortion. What you need to do, what is most important for you to do, is nail down exactly what it is your want your channel to be about. Nail down your content, nail down your branding and your channel will grow.
You're young and so is your channel but I can already tell you've got incredible potential to succeed on YouTube. Your editing techniques are fantastic and for a mostly one-person crew, your filming is pretty spot on. As you get older and save up some more cash definitely consider investing in better camera gear, audio equipment and start purchasing music licenses and typeface/font licenses to give your channel a unique branding to seperate yourself from your competition.
Not much more I can add. I'm impressed with what you have so far. Keep a regular upload schedule and do your best to learn as much about filming as possible. There are plenty of great resources online to help you get a good head start (Film Riot on YouTube as an example).
Best of luck to you!
@LyanGamer
Your channel avatar and header look solid. Well done with that! Your thumbnails still need a bit of work as just slapping on unfiltered text onto screenshots or clipart looks incredibly cheap. You should think about using the 'paw' print motif (similar to what you use in your videos with the 'Subscribe' annotation) in your thumbnails, perhaps even turn that into a 'LG' logo.
Content wise you've got some decent gear and for 2 months worth of work you're doing quite well. Clean up your thumbnails, unify your branding and keep a regular upload schedule. You'll do absolutely fine on YouTube.
Good luck!
@Wiggly Cinema
Good to see you in this thread again. You've definitely improved a lot since the last time I looked at your channel but you still have much more to do to improve. Your avatar, channel header and video thumbnails, while created by yourself and not just promotional images of games, still look incredibly cheap. Check out this website to gain inspiration for possible logo designs and branding ideas: https://logopond.com
Content wise, I can tell you've got a better microphone for your 'Let's Play' content which is great to hear. For your Vlog videos, I know you're using a 720p webcam but there's still a lot of noise in your footage which shows a lack of lighting. Add some more lights to help knock out the noise and give your videos a cleaner look.
As for being discouraged about your low subscriber count for how many years you've been doing this, don't be. It took my channel 3 years to even come close to 100 subscribers. Getting popular or getting any kind of recognition on YouTube in this day and age is extremely difficult. You have to remember that when you're starting a channel now, you have to compete against those who have been creating content for YouTube for over 5-7 years. Their techniques, their equipment, their personalities and their commentary have been completely honed in to perfection. Before you even begin to start a channel, you need to invest a lot of time and money to at the very least match what they currently have before you even think about trying to surpass them.
All you can really do is learn from those around you. Watch your favourite channels and take inspiration from them. Look at how their art assets are designed, listen to how natural their commentary is, learn from what they have done and apply it to your own channel. The only way to succeed is to keep pushing forward and never give up. Persistence will eventually pay off.
@DukWin
Right off the bat, remove the 'Battlefield' stats from your channel header. Resizing a small image to the frame of the channel header looks incredibly cheap and tells your viewers absolutely nothing about your channels' content. Using a low quality .gif image for your avatar isn't doing you any favours either.
What you need is a unique, unified brand that you can use across your entire YouTube channel and social media accounts. Find a typeface/font that you like, create yourself a logo and choose 1 or 2 colours that you can use as the basis of your brand. Extend that into your thumbnail designs as currently all you've got are simple screenshots with unfiltered text slapped on them. Look at your favourite channels and take inspiration from them.
Content wise there's no real cohesiveness to it. You've got glitch clips, music videos, small 'Let's Play' videos with no commentary and your earlier videos where you do have commentary, your microphone is low quality and peaks often causing a lot of distortion. What you need to do, what is most important for you to do, is nail down exactly what it is your want your channel to be about. Nail down your content, nail down your branding and your channel will grow.
- Status