01
The colour is the cut
Each scene takes the next of the app's seven colorways, the way the studio rotates them per project. Every seam is that colour sweeping across, tilted like a sticker, carrying its own name.
experiment 007 · code
Thumbnail Studio · Showreel
27.1s · 1920×1080 · 30fps · 6 scenes
A motion reel for Thumbnail Studio, a local-first packaging studio for YouTube. The colorway rotates: every cut sweeps in the next of the app's seven colours as one brief becomes seven thumbnails, a duel, a 168 px test and a title scored against the winner.
Music and sound effects. No spoken dialogue. On-screen text carries the story.
scene breakdown · select a scene to play
The study
Show the studio's argument in its own design language: one brief, seven genuinely different thumbnails, tested the way a viewer sees them, and a title that shares about half its words with the winner.
- tools
- HyperFramesHTMLCSSGSAP
- techniques
- Colorway rotation wipeSticker slapsLive overlap meter
process notes
02
The studio's real results
The seven options are the studio's real output for one episode. Option D won the arena, option F was flagged for muted colours at 168 px, and the title overlap moves from the original pair's 17 percent to the shipped re-cut's 50 percent.
03
Cut to the track
The music's drop lands on the Test scene and its final hit pops the seven-colour strip. Typing, the countdown and the overlap meter are each driven by one time-based painter, so every frame renders the same.
04
Attribution
Andrew Warner appears with his permission. Thumbnail Studio was not commissioned by him: the thumbnails are demonstration artwork based on episodes of his channel, The Next New Thing, and feature those episodes' guests. No affiliation or endorsement is implied.