Don't Be Afraid To Make A Thumbnail

konisbored

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I personally enjoy making thumbnails.
It's my 2nd favorite part of Youtube (after recording) :D
Oh, and I use a combination of GIMP, Paint, and Google Images. :wavespin:
 

StoeDan

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Ok i'll give it a try :)
My thumbnails are made with a thumbnail generator :p
But it's a pretty cool and easy tool to make thumbnails fast.
But you can only add numbers to the picture. That's the thing what bothers me.
I think it's only for Let's Player because you can type in
for example 1-20 and if you click save, it saves 20 numbered Thumbmail Pictures

Have a nice day @everyone :D
 

babyteeth4

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I enjoy making thumbnails too! I learned how to use Paint.Net by watching lots of YouTube tutorials, because Paint.Net isn't always intuitive!

To me, the thumbnail is extremely important. Once I got monetized I really liked the idea of having total control of the FIRST IMPRESSION my video has on a potential viewer. The best thumbnail is one that makes the viewer want to click on it--sounds simple, right? But so many people seem to skip this important step. I did an experiment a few months ago where I uploaded a video with a random frame of the video as the thumbnail. After a few weeks I changed the thumbnail to something I thought was more interesting. This quadrupled the views overnight! It really makes a big difference.

My tips would be:
- keep it simple and "iconic"
- show something either cute, cool, or outrageous
- make it look fun!
 

Fieel

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I'm making ALL of my thumbnails right now, never used them xd, feel free to visit my channel and critic, i'd appreciate a lot, they're quite "particular"
 

babyteeth4

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I'm making ALL of my thumbnails right now, never used them xd, feel free to visit my channel and critic, i'd appreciate a lot, they're quite "particular"
I like the font and how the colors inside the lettering is a shade different as if we're looking through stained glass! That shows attention to detail and gives me a sense of a strong channel brand. Good work!
 

Jacobbarnard

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Don't be afraid to make your own thumbnails. I feel that people are kind of intimidated to make their own thumbnails, they don't even TRY to make a thumbnail. Don't make the excuse: "Oh, well I don't have [insert expensive editing program here]". I'm no artist or designer, I even use a free program to make my thumbnails. I just started making thumbnails yesterday...So as you can see, it really isn't that hard. You just have to do it. The most time-consuming part of making a thumbnail isn't the designing part, it's trying to find images and a background that will look good. Here are a few tips that help me when designing a thumbnail:

1 - This is very important, look at other people's thumbnails! I've spent hours just looking at thumbnails here on this website. By looking at really good thumbnails around here you acclimate yourself to that kind of quality and style, and when you go to make a thumbnail you are on par with their style and quality.

2 - Getting frustrated and can't seem to make things look good? When this happens to me, I look at other people's thumbnails for inspiration. Maybe it's a way they aligned their font, or a certain way they placed an image. It really helps get the creative juices flowing. If you still can't get creative, then take a break. Sometimes you just work to hard or too long and your brain is tired, go read that book you have been meaning to read or play a video game. Do something stress free.

3 - Google it. Yep, obvious isn't it? We often forget what a great resource google is. We have access to a whole lot of tutorials on font effects, background effects, image effects, beginner tutorials, etcetera! I use google all the time to figure out how to do a certain text effect or make a cool shadow. If you can see it in your mind, but can't make it happen, try googling what you see.

4 - Ask! If you see something in a thumbnail that looks amazing, but can't emulate it. Don't be afraid to ask the creator, chances are that they will gladly tell you how to do it and perhaps even give you some extra tips!

5 - Fonts. Fonts can make or break a thumbnail, it's really important that the font you use is very visible and legible. DO NOT USE THE DEFAULT FONTS. You can pretty much take it to the bank that most of the default fonts are a no no for thumbnails. The default fonts are for typing up essays etcetera...NOT thumbnails. I usually get my fonts from dafont. These days there are so many fonts out there that if you are playing a specific game, they probably have a font for that game. You want to make sure that the font can relate to the game you are playing. Example: You don't want to use a exciting, happy font if you are going to be playing a dark, zombie game.


This is what helps me, what helps you? Has this post encouraged you to try your hand at thumbnails? Tell me about it!
Yes that's all good information, cheers. But what about copyright? How do we avoid it? I can't just go on a website, say minecraft and copy the logo to use in my thumbnail because that would count towards copyright? Confused
 

babyteeth4

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Just find a font that's similar, put some bricks and blocks around it, etc. You're going to have to try to be artistic for ten minutes!
 

Fieel

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I like the font and how the colors inside the lettering is a shade different as if we're looking through stained glass! That shows attention to detail and gives me a sense of a strong channel brand. Good work!
Thank you, i appreciate it! I was skeptic as they are really "alternative" XD
 

BattleOfTheVideos

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Well the new channel im going to do is different... we are going have to use certain thumbnails to distinguish between teams.