Opinions on my YT channel art!?

[Former Member]

All opinions welcome!

I saved as a .PSD just in case I need to edit some more. But I spent like 3 and a half hours on this. Getting the images gathered. edited, etc. Then applying them and rasterizing them into one image, along with bluring the outlines to make it a little more realistic. My Grand Then Auto V character still looks off. I might need to make a new image for him, there was a light glare in my garage in-game and it kinda messed it up, otherwise he looks a little off with the red theme. The Soldier is from CoD Ghosts, and obviously that is a Mage from Minecraft. The Orange logo in the middle is Q-Dance. The Hardstyle radio I listen to, and represents Hardstyle.




The Soldier if closer due to the YouTube Picture being displayed in the open space on the left.

I'm sorta happy with it, but the GTA character is kinda off I think. Thoughts?

tldr: What are your thoughts on the image above?

tldr: thoughts?

tldr: ?

[Kami]

Well... what sort of opinion are you looking for? Like, more a, "Is this aesthetically pleasing", or "Is this designed well", or "Would you buy something with this on it" or... what?

I guess the bigger question is what you were going for? Like... I'm not really sure what this banner is supposed to represent. I get that it's youtube but I'm not entirely sure what darkmage4 has to do with an on/off power symbol?

Also, if you're not really sure what you're doing -- it doesn't look like you design much? -- you can always look up contemporary tutorials for banners and signature images.

Edit: Also, shouldn't this go in the graphic design board? ;x I know you want to drive traffic to your YT and stuff but you're asking for reviews on an image you made so.

[Former Member]

I think the clever bit is how you got your avatar to be in the place of the head of that minecraft thing or w/e

that's clever

and I can imagine a REAL pain in the butt to get right

[Former Member]

Dec 5, 2014 2:21:44 GMT -8 Kami said:

Well... what sort of opinion are you looking for? Like, more a, "Is this aesthetically pleasing", or "Is this designed well", or "Would you buy something with this on it" or... what?

I guess the bigger question is what you were going for? Like... I'm not really sure what this banner is supposed to represent. I get that it's youtube but I'm not entirely sure what darkmage4 has to do with an on/off power symbol?

Also, if you're not really sure what you're doing -- it doesn't look like you design much? -- you can always look up contemporary tutorials for banners and signature images.

Edit: Also, shouldn't this go in the graphic design board? ;x I know you want to drive traffic to your YT and stuff but you're asking for reviews on an image you made so.

There is a graphic design board still!?

Its the characters that I use or represent the video games I play, the gtav character and Minecraft character are personal characters that I use to play Minecraft and grand theft auto with. You read the tldr part right?

No, I don't design much anymore, yes I do know what I am doing.

That isn't an on/off symbol. Its the Q in Q-Dance. A large symbol known to hardstyle listeners. I.e. (look at my mini-profile) Q-Dance is from the Netherlands if that gives am idea.

Dec 5, 2014 5:16:43 GMT -8 @zar said:

I think the clever bit is how you got your avatar to be in the place of the head of that minecraft thing or w/e

that's clever

and I can imagine a REAL pain in the butt to get right

Its my actual character from Minecraft. I just loaded up Minecraft took a screen shot and took the surroundings out.

[Graham]

i suppose one question is: Do you need/have permission to use the images? Just thinking from the angle that if you now or in the future you monetise your videos then they may claim you are using their copyrighted images for your commercial gain.

Just throwing it out there.

[Former Member]

Dec 5, 2014 5:41:20 GMT -8 Graham said:

i suppose one question is: Do you need/have permission to use the images? Just thinking from the angle that if you now or in the future you monetise your videos then they may claim you are using their copyrighted images for your commercial gain.

Just throwing it out there.

The million dollar question

maybe literally

[Former Member]

Dec 5, 2014 5:41:20 GMT -8 Graham said:

i suppose one question is: Do you need/have permission to use the images? Just thinking from the angle that if you now or in the future you monetise your videos then they may claim you are using their copyrighted images for your commercial gain.

Just throwing it out there.

Well I'm assuming I have permission from myself to use the Minecraft. No? Imma sue my self now. Brb.

You can use your characters as an image for your YouTube, especially gtav. Many top youtubers have their characters there. The soldier is freely to use as anyone pleases.

Q dance logo is the logo of the radio station which can be freely used. The rest are gradients I used in Photoshop.

[Former Member]

Although in fairness worrying about the copyright of a banner for a channel that is entirely based on copyright infringement seems a bit like making sure the table looks nice whilst the ship is sinking!

wow that's a big sentence

AND BREATHEEE

[Former Member]

Dec 5, 2014 6:04:05 GMT -8 @zar said:

Although in fairness worrying about the copyright of a banner for a channel that is entirely based on copyright infringement seems a bit like making sure the table looks nice whilst the ship is sinking!

wow that's a big sentence

AND BREATHEEE

Not necessarily. It is indeed a gray area for Game Commentary YouTubers. But if I have not gotten strikes yet after a year of this. Then I am in the clear. Yes, copying a reproducing, copyright yada yada. But its really not. The gaming industry doesn't make a big fuss like the Music industry. You'd get strikes with music you upload to YouTube. Why? Because sticklers.

Gaming youtubers are more than enough encouraged to show off and reproduce the game. Minecraft is highly encouraged. Developers of Grand Theft Auto V encourage it. Even a few developers played live stream and YouTube stream with youtubers on twitch and YouTube.

The PS4 comes with recording/livestream capability.

A few games like Call of Duty Black Ops 2 allows live streaming in-game! They even have it in the options! So yes. Gaming Commentators are encouraged to show the Developers work off!

The way they see it is.

1. YouTube
2. Game Commentators
3. Free advertisement
4. ??
5. Profit

I've gone out and bought a game because I watched several youtubers play it and thought it was fun.

We are the advertisers of Video Games.

Edit: Oh and for reference Graham. I am a YouTube partner. I am able to monetize all of my videos.

[Graham]

Dec 5, 2014 6:00:33 GMT -8 @dmage said:

Dec 5, 2014 5:41:20 GMT -8 Graham said:

i suppose one question is: Do you need/have permission to use the images? Just thinking from the angle that if you now or in the future you monetise your videos then they may claim you are using their copyrighted images for your commercial gain.

Just throwing it out there.

Well I'm assuming I have permission from myself to use the Minecraft. No? Imma sue my self now. Brb.

It starts with a complete lack of understanding of copyright law...but thankfully you seems to be ok according to Mojang's Brand Guidelines (though these are over a year old so doubtless they have change at some point).

[Former Member]

Dec 5, 2014 6:30:02 GMT -8 Graham said:

Dec 5, 2014 6:00:33 GMT -8 @dmage said:

Well I'm assuming I have permission from myself to use the Minecraft. No? Imma sue my self now. Brb.

It starts with a complete lack of understanding of copyright law...but thankfully you seems to be ok according to Mojang's Brand Guidelines (though these are over a year old so doubtless they have change at some point).

Nothings changed. Microsoft acquired Mojang in the past few months. They said they wouldn't stop YouTubers from uploading Gameplay. Its highly encouraged from Microsoft. Commentators are the heart of Minecraft now. Microsoft would be stupid to stop and make it infringing material. There would be an uproar, chaos in the gaming community against Microsoft.

Other games are just as well susceptible to non-infringement. If you make money from a certain game, and a company requests part of that money, you have to relinquish part of it. Which most youtubers have not had to do so.

But anyways, my banner. Its been awhile since I've done an in-depth work. The last time I've done anything like this was 5 years ago when I ran a role play forum.

I did find the Graphic design board. If this needs to be moved to that board then a staff member can do so.

I want opinions on it. As many designers on here, how do you think it looks? Could it use better editing? More characters, less characters? More contrast? What?

[Kami]

Well, if you're looking for an opinion from a designer, then from a design perspective this banner is not very well done and rather outdated in technique. It is quite apparent that you haven't designed in a while because this style of graphic went out of vogue several years ago. 

The primary issue is lack of focal point. Right now you have five disjointed images on one canvas -- three different characters in random places, a band logo, and your name superimposed on it. Logically, this would indicate that you want your name to be what the viewer concentrates on, but this is not accomplished because of the way the other images are placed in your composition.

To illustrate my point, I showed your banner to my fiancé. He does not know you, and he did not have any context for you banner. All I asked him was, "If I told you this was a YouTube banner, what would you think this channel was about?" He studied it for a few minutes and had trouble guessing. I eventually had to guide him to a response by giving him different genres of YouTube channels, after which he finally guessed it was for your personal vlog. I don't think that is what you intended viewers to think, is it?

A secondary issue is that I'm not really sure what this banner is supposed to be. Even from a design perspective only, this is very important. Yes, I understood and read your OP about what the images are from but that doesn't answer what you wanted to achieve with your banner. If your goal was to create just a for fun image, then I'm sure you've accomplished it if you like your banner. You don't even need to care about other peoples' opinions if this banner is just a personal, for fun thing. But if you had another purpose -- say, creating your brand or something recogniseable about your channel, or even hypothetical future monetisation -- then this is something that has not been achieved.

And lastly, but no less importantly, is that overall the banner just isn't very well done. I appreciate the time it took for you to cut out those renders -- I use precut renders myself because I don't have the patience for such a thing -- so it's not that I'm discounting your effort. However, the font is very hard to read, especially with the effects you put into it. The actual design of the banner itself seems slapdash; three characters, a band logo, and a name. It's not very creative and it's not very interesting.

Since you're asking for a design perspective, then from a design perspective I think you really really need to look up at the very least basic composition and effective whitespace use. Contemporary Technique tutorials would probably be good too. EDIT: You may also want to have a lookyloo at google fonts for some free-to-use fonts that would be much more interesting than the font you're currently using, which is what, Arial?


{{PS: For what it's worth, you're wrong about copyright. While many developers do not have a problem with the sharing of videos, monetising those videos do not frequently qualify under their idea of fair use. Before using a copyrighted image or even a copyrighted likeness for monetisation, you need to double-check policy. I had a friend who drew her own images in the likeness of copyrighted characters and sold a calendar -- a majority of the proceeds went to charity, but the parent company and IP holders still issued her a cease and desist and threatened legal action if she did not immediately halt any and all production of the calendars. Considering you can't even argue parody use, you're gonna want to brush up on your copyright knowledge before you get into trouble.}}

[Former Member]

Uhm.. What? Personal vlog? No. Why would I use video game characters on a vlog channel when it should just be my face?

I even asked a complete stranger what they thought my banner was about in YouTube. Oblivious to who I am, they guessed Video Game commentator. Unless you don't watch video game commentators then I guess you wouldn't know. But I did indeed specify what it was for.

Yes it was for fun, and isn't for some major brand. I would have done a lot more differently if that was the case. Go to other peoples youtubes. More specifically game commentators.

Also if that was the case, pewdiepie, and many other game commentators would be in huge trouble. They're not, nor have they ever been.

This wasn't for professional or official use.

[Kami]

lololo okay. So you're not looking for opinions, you're looking for people to tell you they like it. Bye.

[Former Member]

Dec 5, 2014 21:21:10 GMT -8 Kami said:

lololo okay. So you're not looking for opinions, you're looking for people to tell you they like it. Bye.

I think I either word things wrong, or people take me wrong.

I guess if it is out of date, many other youtubers must be told about this too.


www.youtube.com/user/uberhaxornova

www.youtube.com/channel/UCK376qNDlNZZDNHsnaWuTeg

www.youtube.com/channel/UCcWl6q7rcJ9WoF_Kwmxg23A

www.youtube.com/user/stampylonghead

www.youtube.com/user/TheDexterManning


Just a few. Obviously looking at their YouTube and then looking at their banner, you're gonna know what it's all about.  Yeah, quite a few are drawn. But, I am not a drawer. I also have basically the same thing as the rest of these. Characters I use, or represent the games I play.

As well as No. I didn't ask, nor am I forcing you to like it. I understand from a Designers point of view that it's an eye sore. I'm NOT looking for professional opinions. I just want to know in your opinion if it flows, especially the GTA character. Which doesn't look like it does.

Darkmage4 is obviously my Alias, it definitely isn't that hard to read. Unless you are hard of seeing. Then I could understand. I could also have it reflecting like how images used to be 5-6 years ago. Which I see many professional companies to this day still create.