Among Us - SSundee (Sketch Examples VS Final Art)

My full thumbnail portfolio with analytics: https://ytjobs.co/talent/vitrine/438230

In 2022 I joined SSundee's YouTube team to create thumbnails for his Among Us gameplay videos. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLz7GQsHwn5sohr6fp7GiGgx8uXNNsoKGk

They wanted to make the art more exciting and engaging than what they previously had. Each video was based on a different Among Us mod that SSundee's in-house development team created, so there was always something new to explore. The thumbnail artist position with this team is high-impact, with millions of eyes on the art each week (as of this writing SSundee has >25M subscribers). You want to make sure the first impression is good.

With every video, I gather my references (video title and screenshots from the upcoming video itself/Google) and produce a series of quick sketches. Sometimes I nail the idea on the first try, but iterating and applying feedback from the team is a must. When possible, we try to go for some type of shock value / drama / point of interest that would entice a viewer to click into a video. I use Photoshop to illustrate these pieces.

The weekly upload schedule meant I needed to work quickly, and sometimes the team needed quick updates after a video went live. I fulfilled those duties and became a trusted team member.

Across the years I've created thousands of thumbnails for them, though they weren't always for production. The majority of illustrations I made were for A/B testing and creating test thumbnails for videos they might want to make in the future. Most of these tests allowed me a lot of creative freedom to interpret simple prompts from the team.

At the same time, I was also creating Among Us thumbnails for @BumpyPlays, one of the channels within SSundee's network of collaborators. Even if the video was the same theme, I made sure Bumpy's video had alternate thumbnail art.