10 YouTube Channels You Should Follow in 2020

Summary

In this video, the host reflects on the year 2019, highlighting ten YouTubers who significantly inspired him in various creative fields. From Matt D'Avella's productivity tips to Tash Sultana's music, each creator influenced the host's approach to content production. The host also discusses his venture into music and pixel art, emphasizing the importance of learning from others to enhance one's craft. The video concludes with a sponsorship plug for Brilliant, an educational platform promoting active learning in math, science, and computer science.

Takeaways

• 🎥 The video is sponsored by Brilliant, offering a discount to the first 200 subscribers.
• 📚 The speaker reflects on 2019 as a year of inspiration and growth in various areas, including music and video production.
• 🤝 Matt D'Avella is mentioned as a significant source of inspiration, particularly in improving production processes and gear.
• 🎼 Tash Sultana's music and live looping techniques greatly influenced the speaker's approach to music in 2019.
• 📹 Linus Sebastian and Linus Media Group inspired the speaker to make significant improvements in video production.
• 🌟 Rubidium from the Crimson Engine provided deep technical insights into cinematic lighting and camera settings.
• 😂 CalebCity's sketch comedy channel demonstrated the power of creativity within limitations and inspired the speaker.
• 🎹 Andrew Wong's passion for music and prolific content creation motivated the speaker to take music more seriously.
• 🎶 Corey Arnold's 12tone channel, especially a video on lyric writing, helped the speaker with a songwriting project.
• 🎵 Nahre Sol's classical piano performances and exploration of different music genres inspired the speaker to learn more about music.
• 📚 Pixel Pete's channel helped the speaker learn pixel art, a new skill picked up in 2019.
• 🎬 Christopher Rhodes' YCImaging channel provided insights into music video production, furthering the speaker's interest in the field.
• 🧠 The importance of learning new skills and building a wide base of knowledge for creative problem-solving is emphasized.
• 🔍 Brilliant is recommended as a platform for building mastery in various subjects through interactive problem-solving.

Q & A

What is the main theme of the video?

The main theme of the video is to share the top 10 YouTubers who inspired the speaker in 2019 and to recommend their channels to the audience.

What special offer is mentioned for the first 200 people who sign up for Brilliant through the provided link?

The first 200 people to sign up using the link in the description will receive a 20% discount on their annual premium subscription to Brilliant.

Who is Matt D'Avella and how did he inspire the speaker?

Matt D'Avella is a good friend of the speaker and a YouTuber. He inspired the speaker to improve his own production process and gear setup through his content and personal discussions about his production techniques.

Why does the speaker mention Tash Sultana in the context of music?

Tash Sultana is a live looping artist from Australia who inspired the speaker to get back into music and take it more seriously by learning about live looping and the use of multiple instruments in a live setting.

What did the speaker and his editor Tony learn from spending a day with Linus Sebastian and his team?

They learned detailed insights into how Linus Media Group makes their videos, which inspired them to make significant improvements in their own video production process.

What is unique about Rubidium's channel, the Crimson Engine, and how did it help the speaker?

The Crimson Engine focuses on cinematic lighting setups and detailed technical insights from Rubidium's experience as a filmmaker. It helped the speaker to improve his production quality.

Why is CalebCity's channel considered inspiring by the speaker?

CalebCity's channel is inspiring because Caleb does almost everything on his own, demonstrating how limitations and constraints can lead to creative solutions and engaging content.

What aspect of Andrew Wong's content particularly inspired the speaker?

Andrew Wong's passion for exploring all aspects of music, his creativity, and his prolific work ethic as a musician inspired the speaker to up his own game.

How did Corey Arnold's channel, 12tone, assist the speaker in his music-related project?

Corey Arnold's video on how to write lyrics helped the speaker with a project where he had to write a song, despite having little experience in writing lyrics.

What did the speaker learn from Nahre Sol's channel about playing the piano and music exploration?

The speaker learned about realistic practice sessions of a professional pianist and was inspired by Nahre Sol's curiosity and willingness to explore different genres of music and learn from various artists.

How did Christopher Rhodes' channel, YCImaging, influence the speaker's interest in filmmaking?

Christopher Rhodes' channel, which features professional music video production and finished work examples, helped the speaker understand the process of making music videos and inspired him to learn more about this level of filmmaking.

What is the common thread among the YouTubers mentioned in the video?

The common thread is that they all taught the speaker new technical skills that he could apply to improve the quality and creativity of his own content.

What does the speaker suggest as the foundation for becoming a creative and competent problem solver?

The speaker suggests practicing solving tough problems and building a wide base of knowledge from various areas as the foundation for becoming a creative and competent problem solver.

How does Brilliant, the sponsor of the video, aim to help users improve their problem-solving skills and knowledge base?

Brilliant is a learning platform offering hands-on courses in math, science, and computer science that engage users in storytelling problems, code writing challenges, and interactive problems to actively learn the material.

What does the speaker encourage viewers to do after watching the video?

The speaker encourages viewers to subscribe to his channel if they haven't already, check out his music channel, and watch more videos by the YouTubers he mentioned for inspiration and learning.

Outlines

00:00

🎥 Inspiring YouTubers of 2019

The speaker begins by mentioning that the video is sponsored by Brilliant and offers a discount to the first 200 subscribers. The main theme revolves around the top 10 YouTubers who inspired the speaker in 2019. They discuss their personal growth in various areas, such as music and filmmaking, and attribute this to the influence of other content creators. The list includes Matt D'Avella, a productivity expert, and Tash Sultana, a musician known for live looping. The speaker emphasizes the importance of learning from others to improve one's own creative process.

05:00

🎼 Music and Creativity in Content Production

The speaker continues with their list of inspiring YouTubers, highlighting Linus Sebastian and his team for their video production techniques. They also mention Rubidium from the Crimson Engine for his detailed insights into cinematic lighting and camera settings. The speaker then discusses CalebCity, a sketch comedy channel, and Andrew Wong, a music educator, both of whom have influenced the speaker's approach to music and creativity. Corey Arnold's channel, 12tone, is also praised for its music theory and analysis, particularly a video on lyric writing that helped the speaker with a personal project.

10:02

🎹 Embracing Music and Expanding Musical Horizons

The speaker talks about Nahre Sol, a classical pianist whose videos on different music genres inspired the speaker to take piano more seriously. They also mention Pixel Pete for helping them learn pixel art and Christopher Rhodes from YCImaging for his professional insights into music video production. The speaker concludes by emphasizing the importance of learning new skills to become a creative problem solver and promoting Brilliant, a learning platform that offers courses in math, science, and computer science, as a way to build a wide base of knowledge.

Keywords

💡Inspiration

Inspiration refers to the process of being mentally stimulated to do or feel something, especially to do something creative. In the video's context, the speaker is inspired by various YouTubers to improve and expand his skills in different areas such as filmmaking and music. The term is used to describe the motivational influence these individuals have had on the speaker's personal and professional growth.

💡YouTubers

YouTubers are individuals who create and upload video content on the YouTube platform. In this video, the term is used to describe the people who have inspired the speaker throughout the year. The speaker highlights specific YouTubers who have influenced his approach to content creation and personal development.

💡Productivity

Productivity is the state or quality of being able to do things efficiently and effectively. In the script, the speaker mentions being inspired by Matt D'Avella's productivity, particularly in terms of his production process and maintaining efficiency in work, which has motivated the speaker to enhance his own methods.

💡Music

Music is an art form and cultural activity whose medium is sound organized in time. The video discusses the speaker's renewed interest in music, influenced by Tash Sultana and other music-related YouTubers. It's highlighted as a significant area of personal development and content creation for the speaker.

💡Live Looping

Live looping is a music technique where a musician records and plays back sounds in real-time, layering them to create a song. The speaker was inspired by Tash Sultana's use of live looping, which led him to explore music more seriously and incorporate it into his content.

💡Cinematography

Cinematography is the art of photography and camerawork in film production. The term is related to the speaker's interest in improving his video production quality, inspired by channels like the Crimson Engine, which provides detailed insights into cinematic lighting setups and camera settings.

💡Workflow

A workflow refers to a sequence of industrial or artistic processes through which a product or service is produced or an outcome achieved. In the video, the speaker talks about learning new workflow techniques and hacks from other creators, which has helped him to improve his own content creation process.

💡Creativity

Creativity is the use of imagination or original ideas to produce something new and valuable. The video emphasizes the importance of creativity in content creation, with the speaker drawing inspiration from various sources to enhance the originality and appeal of his work.

💡Pixel Art

Pixel art is a form of digital art where images are created on the pixel level. The speaker mentions learning pixel art as a new skill, inspired by Pixel Pete's YouTube channel, which helped him understand color palettes and the art of creating images from individual pixels.

💡Music Theory

Music theory is the study of the practices and possibilities of music. The speaker was inspired by Corey Arnold's channel, 12tone, particularly a video on lyric writing, which helped him understand the fundamentals of songwriting and apply them to his own musical projects.

💡Problem Solving

Problem solving is the process of finding solutions to difficulties or obstacles. The speaker concludes by emphasizing the importance of problem-solving skills in creativity and content creation, suggesting that learning new skills and being exposed to various areas can enhance one's ability to solve complex problems.

Highlights

Video sponsored by Brilliant, offering a 20% discount for the first 200 subscribers.

Reflects on the inspiration gained from other YouTubers in 2019 to improve various skills.

Shares a list of 10 YouTubers who inspired the speaker and recommends checking them out.

Mentions Matt D'Avella as a significant influence on improving production process and gear.

Tash Sultana's live looping artistry inspired the speaker's music and Instagram content.

Linus Sebastian and Linus Media Group's production techniques were influential.

Rubidium's the Crimson Engine channel provided detailed insights on cinematic lighting and camera settings.

CalebCity's sketch comedy channel demonstrates the creativity born from self-imposed limitations.

Andrew Wong's music education channel inspired a deeper dive into music production.

12tone's music theory and analysis, particularly a lyric writing video, had a profound impact.

Nahre Sol's classical piano performances and genre explorations were inspiring.

Pixel Pete's channel helped the speaker learn pixel art and color palettes.

Christopher Rhodes' YCImaging channel provided insights into professional music video production.

The common thread among the YouTubers is teaching new technical skills for content improvement.

Brilliant is a learning platform for mastering math, science, and computer science through active problem-solving.

Brilliant's daily challenges encourage daily problem-solving and exploration of new areas.

A special offer for the first 200 subscribers to Brilliant via a provided link includes a 20% discount.

Transcripts

- This video is sponsored by Brilliant

and the first 200 people to use the link

in the description down below to sign up,

are gonna get 20% off their annual premium subscription.

I had an intro joke planned but I don't need it anymore.

So welcome to the last video of the year

and I gotta say 2019 was a year in which I was very inspired

to improve my craft in many different areas.

I got into music, I upgraded my camera setup, my studio,

and that was in no small part due to inspiration

I received from other YouTubers that I follow

and in some cases know in person.

So what I'm gonna do with this video is round the year off

by sharing 10 of the YouTubers who really inspired me

and pushed me to grow in many areas this year

and I would highly recommend checking out

each and every single one of these people.

And I'll have them linked all in the description down below.

So the first person on my list is somebody

who I would be very surprised

if you haven't seen on YouTube before.

He is my very good friend Matt D'Avella.

I believe Matt and I met in 2018 when I went on his podcast

to talk about general productivity.

But this year I flew back out to LA

and I did an interview with him

that was all about his production process.

And in general how he stays productive.

And after I created that video,

I got really inspired to improve my own production process

and make some improvements in the gear that I was using.

I was kind of using a lot of the same gear

that I've been using for several years,

kind of using static shots not really pushing myself

in terms of filmmaking.

And I gotta say Matt more than anybody else inspired me

in both the way that he makes his own content

but also through talking to me about how he does it

to improve my own process as well.

Now I'm kind of cheating with the second person on my list

because they aren't really a full fledged YouTuber.

They're actually a full time musician,

but I gotta give a shout out to to Tash Sultana.

If you haven't heard Tash Sultana,

they are a live looping artists from Australia

who really kind of blew up last year

and blew up even more this year.

And my head writer Ransom actually introduced me to them

in June and literally everything that I did this year

with music which if you look at my Instagram is quite a lot

in comparison to previous years was really inspired by Tash.

When I learned about live looping,

when I learned that I could mix multiple instruments

together in a live setting.

But also when I just got inspiration from the way they use

multiple instruments and a looper pedal

to create just these amazing songs.

It really got me back into music

and it made me take it a lot more seriously.

Alright, number three on the list is Linus Sebastian

and in fact the entire team over at Linus Media Group.

And I'm gonna tell you something

that I haven't talked about yet before.

But earlier this year, my editor Tony and I

flew up to Vancouver and spent an entire day with Linus.

He was kind enough to let us kind of come into the studio

see exactly how they make all their videos.

And that video is coming in January of next year.

So I'm really excited to share all that with you guys.

But just like with Matt going

and spending a day with the Linus Media Group team,

seeing how they do things in a very detailed way

inspired us to make big improvements in our own process.

So one tip that I would give you is if you wanna improve

your own process and whatever kind of work you're doing,

go and watch how other people that you look up to do it

because you are undoubtedly going to learn techniques

and workflow hacks that you hadn't thought up before

and they're probably gonna improve your own process.

Number four on my list is a guy named Rubidium

who runs a channel called the Crimson Engine.

And this is a bit of a smaller channel but I think more than

any other channel I started watching this year,

the Crimson Engine has helped me to up my game

in terms of production quality.

Now Matt and Linus really, really inspired me

but the Crimson Engine goes through

cinematic lighting setups in detail,

goes through different camera settings that you can use.

How to properly expose, how to shoot in RAW,

how to light a scene dramatically,

how to use things like reflectors like this

or where to place the mic.

And what I love about Rubidium is he's an actual filmmaker.

He's made feature films in the past

and his channel is all about sharing the very, very deep

technical insights and information that he's gained from

doing those bigger budget projects.

Number five on my list is quite a different channel

than the other ones I've mentioned so far

because it's actually a sketch comedy channel.

It's called CalebCity.

And I would be surprised

if you haven't seen this channel as well.

But what really inspired me about CalebCity

was the fact that with very few exceptions,

Caleb does almost everything on his own.

It's just one guy doing all the acting, all the filming,

he plays multiple characters.

And in an earlier video that I made this month,

I talked about how one of the biggest lessons

I sort of learned or really, really relearned this year

was that limitations

are a very beneficial thing to creativity.

When you have very little to work with,

when you have a lot of constraints,

some great stuff can come out of it

because you really have to focus and hone your attention

on what you have to work with.

And to me, CalebCity is one of the best exemplars

of this principle.

Again, he's just one guy making videos

and with very few exceptions,

he doesn't have anybody holding the camera.

He doesn't have anybody really helping him

do these things at all.

And yet his videos are so entertaining

and I almost never find myself clicking out of one

before I've completely finished it.

So go check his channel out.

And if you're looking for some creative inspiration,

I think you're going to get it there.

Number six on my list,

and I think I'm holding up the right number of fingers. Yep.

It's one of the best music educators in my opinion

on the entire YouTube website.

And that is Andrew Wong.

Now I have been watching Andrew's content

for more than a year.

But this year again,

I really started taking music a lot more seriously

than I had in the past.

So I started watching a lot more of Andrew's content.

And what inspires me about Andrew is just how passionate

he is about exploring all aspects of music.

He's into synthesizers.

He's into music production,

he's into playing multiple instruments,

and he loves to share all of what he learns with the world.

And he's also just incredibly prolific.

I mean he releases videos on a pretty consistent schedule.

But in addition to that, if you go over to his Spotify,

you're gonna see that he has created dozens

if not hundreds of songs in just the five years

that he's been on Spotify.

So in addition to his creativity,

in addition to his curiosity,

Andrew's work ethic and his productivity as a musician,

as a full time creative really inspires me

to up my own game as well.

Number seven on the list is Corey Arnold over at 12tone,

which is yet another music channel.

And in this case,

the channel is kind of all about music theory

and music analysis.

But there is one video in particular

that really, really helped me out this year

and got me inspired,

which was this video on how to write lyrics.

And it's kind of funny because if I'm not incorrect,

I remember Corey telling me

or saying somewhere on the internet that

that video wasn't something he had planned on making.

He had this really ambitious video planned

and he wasn't able to get it done when the deadline came,

so instead, he just made this lyric video

and I guess he's not a huge lyricist himself.

So he had said that the video wasn't one of his favorites,

but personally, that video of his has helped me out

more than any other because I had a project this year

which I'm gonna be talking about in the near future

where I went and wrote a song

and I really had very little experience writing lyrics.

So I didn't know how to do it

and I certainly didn't know how to do it competently.

And Corey's video gave me sort of the push that I needed to

sit down and write some lyrics that I was kind of proud of.

And I also have to recommend Nahre Sol's channel.

So Nahre Sol if you haven't heard of her,

she is a classical pianist who is incredibly talented.

If you have ever seen one of her videos

where she actually performs some of the music she's written,

it's kind of mind blowing to be honest.

But this year, I started to play piano

again, started taking music a bit more seriously.

So Nahre Sol's channel was one that I started watching

because of that.

And she's really inspiring to me

for a couple of different reasons.

First, she has this video that kind of goes through

a realistic practice session of a professional pianist

and I really liked that video.

But just like with Andrew Wong,

I was really inspired by Nahre's curiosity and willingness

to branch out into different genres of music

and to learn from different artists and performers.

She has this entire series on her channel

where she does like,

Flamenco dissected by a classical musician

or synthesizers dissected by a classical musician.

All these videos are absolutely fantastic.

And I do wanna shout out the synthesizer one in particular

because it is the video that inspired me

to learn how synthesis works,

which was always kind of something

that I just thought was magic.

And I never really understood kind of how

you build the kind of tones you want.

But once I watched her video,

and then went down a rabbit hole

of watching some other videos, I got it.

And I finally realized like,

oh, it's just oscillators and you're just kind of like

adjusting the voltage that's applied to an oscillator,

you're adjusting filters and huh,

like that's the foundation of all like atmospheric pads

and all kinds of different sounds you hear

and lots of songs you've heard your entire life.

So I definitely wanna give a shout out to her channel

and just her general curiosity and tendency

to explore different areas of music

because it has definitely benefited me.

And that brings us to channel number nine

which I'm actually going to let my friend Martin

tell you about.

- This year I picked up a new skill, which is pixel art.

I've been interested in pixel art for a long time

since I was a kid but I never really took it seriously.

And this year I finally decided that

I wanted to start taking it seriously

but I ran into some problem points

and I found Pixel Pete's YouTube channel

to be particularly helpful there

especially a video called pixel art 101 color palettes

because I had never really thought about how you could take

different colors and make them feel

like they belong together.

Check out my SoundCloud.

- [Frank] You don't have SoundCloud anymore.

Didn't you delete it?

- I did delete it.

I don't have a SoundCloud.

Okay, and that brings us to the final channel on my list,

which is going to be Christopher Rhodes over at YCImaging.

So 2019 was definitely the year of the camera for me.

Like I said, Matt was kind of the main guy

who inspired me to upgrade my camera setup,

upgrade my lighting game,

all kinds of stuff like that,

but because I also really got more serious

about music this year,

I kind of naturally gravitated towards

getting interested in how music videos were made.

For me making a YouTube video where I sit down

and talk to the camera, I totally get that.

But watching music videos,

especially really well made ones

I've always kind of been like,

that's a whole different level of filmmaking.

I don't really know how that's done at all.

And what I love about Christopher's channel

is that he is a professional music video producer,

and he kind of breaks down the lighting setups that he uses,

the camera settings, all kinds of stuff like that.

But what separates Christopher from a lot of other YouTubers

is that he actually posts finished work on his channel.

So in addition to videos

where he's teaching you how to do things,

he will post finished and polished music videos,

and it's great to see little clips, these music videos

that he uses as examples during his educational content.

It's great to see these being made and then get to go see

the final product

because your brain sort of makes a connection.

You're seeing how things were made.

You're seeing the final product and you kind of go,

oh, that's how we did that.

And that is what you can do with these techniques

if you apply them properly.

Now if there's a common thread to be found

between all the YouTubers on my list,

I would say that for most of them,

they taught me new technical skills that I was able to use

and able to really combine together to improve

the overall level of quality and creativity in my content.

And that's really what inspires me,

learning new skills from various areas,

and then combining them.

And this is really the foundation to becoming a creative

and competent problem solver.

You want to number one, practice solving tough problems.

But number two, build a wide base of knowledge

that you can draw from.

And a great resource for helping you

do both of these things is Brilliant.

Brilliant is a learning platform that helps you

to build mastery in math, science and computer science

through an incredibly active hands-on library of courses

that throws you into storytelling problems,

code writing challenges,

all kinds of interactive problems

that really get your brain working actively

to learn the material instead of just kind of sitting back

and passively intaking it,

which really isn't all that efficient.

Now Brilliant's library has more than 60 in-depth courses,

including a complete suite of math courses,

ranging from the basics of number theory,

going to algebra, geometry, trigonometry,

and shooting all the way up to the very complex

advanced math topics like calculus

and differential equations and high level statistics.

They have science courses, including waves and light,

gravitational physics and computer science courses,

including a brand new course on how search engines work.

So if you've always wondered how Google works,

well, you actually get the chance to build a simpler version

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actually learn how a search engine

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And in addition to that library of courses,

there's also a feature called daily challenges

where every single day you're gonna get a new problem

from a different area of science or math

or computer science, which number one

helps you to make problem solving a daily habit.

But number two can get you interested in areas

that you hadn't considered before

and can help you broaden your horizons.

So if you wanna start learning for free today

and support my channel,

you can go sign up for Brilliant by going to

brilliant.org/thomasfrank

and their free plan gets you access

to those daily challenges every single day.

And if you're one of the first 200 people

to use that link and sign up,

you're gonna get 20% off their annual premium subscription,

which gets access to that entire library of indepth courses.

Thanks as always to Brilliant for sponsoring this episode

and being a supporter of my channel.

And thank you for watching as well.

Thank you for an awesome 2019

and I will see you in the new year.

If you haven't subscribed already,

you can get subscribed right there

or check out my music channel right over there.

If you're looking for some pretty cool music I guess.

Otherwise I'm gonna put one more video over here

and another video right over here.

That's right two videos,

and you can smash your face and your phone screen

to watch those.

Otherwise, go do your thing.

I'm not your dad.

And I'll see you later.