I don't have a genuine audience to critique me sooo...

TrayVayh

Active Member
Joined
Nov 18, 2016
Messages
29
Reaction score
4
Age
22
Location
United States of America
Channel Type
Gamer
I only have two subscribers and I'm afraid my friend doesn't want to hurt my feelings, but I need some (constructive) criticism, so if you don't have anything to do or are just bored, your criticisms are welcome. I'm looking on getting an intro soon, and working on getting an actual profile picture. But other than that, critique my videos, my backdrop, thumbnails, and my channel in general. Whatever you have time for. (And tell me if my newer videos are better/more funny than my older ones.) I want to hear honest criticisms (what you like AND dislike) so please check it out.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: Dominik Vodicka

Sin B

2017 blows
Joined
Nov 5, 2016
Messages
600
Reaction score
271
Age
30
Channel Type
Gamer
Well I'll give you my 2.5 cents here as someone also trying to make it in gaming, so I'll throw in my opinions and general advice I've gotten over the weeks;

First off your channel profile pic and the banner are not great, kinda looks like something made in paint (and not in a cute way - like gradeaundera), so as soon as possible should look into either buying a set from some of the talented graphics designers here on the forum, or just use a pre-made template that you can find on youtube (tho you would need photoshop to edit them in most cases) (if you do have PS tho, then you can edit them, tweak the colors and so on...)
Basically it just makes everything look more professional, adds a lot more quality and so on...

Now the thumbnails, for the most part they're alright. I can see your style is to have extreme text placement and then lesser imagery, is that a good thing or a bad thing hard to say. I'm sure some would like it more than others. It's something you can work on over time anyways, just continuously polishing your own style of artwork and such.

So moving on to the bread an butter of the channel the actual gameplays;
INK:
First minute into the video, it's super boring, you sound like you're at gunpoint and just forced to play it. Very bored sounding tone to your voice. Whether that is the case or not , dunno, but with no facecam the viewer has to go with what the voice is showing, and it was showing me that you're already bored and the video just started. Then skipping through it there's a lot of empty spaces where there's zero commentary at all, and overall it's making me wonder do you want to be somewhere else.
Action Henk:
First 30 seconds are better as far as energy goes, but then you get lost in your own commentary and the beginning stretches out for another 30 seconds before the gameplay even starts, which is not a good thing to attract new subs. Skipping ahead the game chops and lags a fair amount, which makes me think you're trying to play on high settings but your PC can't handle it and the recording, so you have to find a better balance between that. (It happens to all of us, so shouldn't worry too much, but you definitely gotta fix it)

Overall the Action Henk video I found not watchable due to all the choppiness and lagging, it would help a lot if you had much more enthusiasm while recording, and practice with editing more so videos aren't too long, and to not have a lot of pauses in them. Cutting out parts that don't offer entertainment and so on...

Hope I'm not too harsh, not trying to be mean here, those are just my general concerns with the content as a viewer/creator. Keep on working on it and I'm sure you'll improve greatly.
 

TrayVayh

Active Member
Joined
Nov 18, 2016
Messages
29
Reaction score
4
Age
22
Location
United States of America
Channel Type
Gamer
First off your channel profile pic and the banner are not great
Yeah I,m trying to buy some graphics.

Now the thumbnails, for the most part they're alright. I can see your style is to have extreme text placement and then lesser imagery
Any tips on how to make them better? I don't really like my thumbnails all that much anyway...

First minute into the video, it's super boring, you sound like you're at gunpoint and just forced to play it. Very bored sounding tone to your voice.
but then you get lost in your own commentary and the beginning stretches out for another 30 seconds before the gameplay even starts
This was what I was afraid of. I've been told that before. I'm trying to improve that aspect of my videos.

which makes me think you're trying to play on high settings but your PC can't handle it and the recording
Really? I've never noticed that before. Ig it doesn't show while I'm actually playing the game. Other than the BF4 gameplay, my framerates are like 45-60 fps.

Overall the Action Henk video I found not watchable due to all the choppiness and lagging, it would help a lot if you had much more enthusiasm while recording, and practice with editing more so videos aren't too long, and to not have a lot of pauses in them. Cutting out parts that don't offer entertainment and so on...
Thank you for some tips. I will try to implement those.

So ig the sound quality is good then?

Hope I'm not too harsh, not trying to be mean here
No, I asked for criticism. i need it to improve and get more people to actually subscribe. Thank you for taking the time and effort to actually respond with valid criticisms and help me to get better. I wanted your type of criticism because you were thorough, you noted ways I could improve, and you seem like you know what you're talking about.

Keep on working on it and I'm sure you'll improve greatly.
Yeah, I'm guessing even Jacksepticeye had some bad videos in his early days. Ty for the feedback, I will take it and improve on it.
 

Sin B

2017 blows
Joined
Nov 5, 2016
Messages
600
Reaction score
271
Age
30
Channel Type
Gamer
Yeah I,m trying to buy some graphics.
Any tips on how to make them better? I don't really like my thumbnails all that much anyway...
This was what I was afraid of. I've been told that before. I'm trying to improve that aspect of my videos.
Really? I've never noticed that before. Ig it doesn't show while I'm actually playing the game. Other than the BF4 gameplay, my framerates are like 45-60 fps.
Thank you for some tips. I will try to implement those.
So ig the sound quality is good then?
No, I asked for criticism. i need it to improve and get more people to actually subscribe. Thank you for taking the time and effort to actually respond with valid criticisms and help me to get better. I wanted your type of criticism because you were thorough, you noted ways I could improve, and you seem like you know what you're talking about.
Yeah, I'm guessing even Jacksepticeye had some bad videos in his early days. Ty for the feedback, I will take it and improve on it.
Yeah, in game you wouldn't notice much change, but the recording software itself will drop heavily if you don't got enough power to run it. It happened in some of my earliest videos where playing was fine so I didn't think much of it but then in editing or uploading I notice that its laggy as hell. So nowadays when I record I play in windowed mode everything and monitor OBS for CPU usage and frame rates in case of any massive spike in quality drop.

How to improve thumbnails, hard to say, what I did for a while was checked all the top channels and looked at their style, then I had that in mind and played around with it to make something my own that I like. I usually start out with a high quality image from the game that is centered around a character or a really "eye catching" scene, like in my outlast series I grab the monster from each episode as the main focal point. Then I add my face to it in a much smaller capacity, tweak colors, contrasts, etc to my liking and go with that.
Basically it's trial and error, and learning/practice, getting to know your photo editing software and take inspiration from your favorites.

One thing I forgot in last post is the balance between your commentary and game audio needs some minor tweaking, when the game volume hits a spike it completely overpowers your voice, it's just too loud for a softer commentary.

Oh yeah, Jack's early videos were balls deep in shiet. The webcam and mic an all were crap, but he managed to get upwards of 2k subs or so in the earlier days of YT with that quality of content, then he grew a fair amount from pewdiepie's shoutout and that let him boost his video quality, audio quality, etc and as time went on he got more confidence and his content became what we know today.
In all honesty I think most YTT tubers videos are higher quality day 1 then old tubers had in their first year even, maybe more. But since YT is such a battlefield now, it's hard to breakthrough even knowing that, people are accustomed to much higher quality from their favorites.
 
  • Like
Reactions: TrayVayh

TrayVayh

Active Member
Joined
Nov 18, 2016
Messages
29
Reaction score
4
Age
22
Location
United States of America
Channel Type
Gamer
Okay! Thank you for reviewing my content! It helps having someone that isn't worried about hurting my feelings critique my stuff! I will try playing in windowed mode, or ill just get a crappy monitor to send OBS's window over to. Also, who made your banner/profile pic or who would you recommend? I need to find someone and Ive posted but no one's messaged back.[DOUBLEPOST=1479654937,1479653673][/DOUBLEPOST]@Sin B
who made your banner/profile pic or who would you recommend? I need to find someone and Ive posted but no one's messaged back.
in case you didn't see it
 
Last edited:

Sin B

2017 blows
Joined
Nov 5, 2016
Messages
600
Reaction score
271
Age
30
Channel Type
Gamer
Okay! Thank you for reviewing my content! It helps having someone that isn't worried about hurting my feelings critique my stuff! I will try playing in windowed mode, or ill just get a crappy monitor to send OBS's window over to. Also, who made your banner/profile pic or who would you recommend? I need to find someone and Ive posted but no one's messaged back.[DOUBLEPOST=1479654937,1479653673][/DOUBLEPOST]@Sin B

in case you didn't see it
I got a template from Soap https://www.youtube.com/user/CRGSoap and tweaked it a bit to fit me more. Not really in a position myself right now to be able to afford some unique artwork, but I found Soaps stuff to be good enough to interest people early on at the very least. Just need photoshop and can do wonders with the templates.