How to Make Awesome Thumbnails

Erkipsi said:
Hey guys, a lot of people have been asking, so I though I'd share a bit of my knowledge about making thumbnails with PS, and how to make them amazing looking that are bound to get your videos a few more views!
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*Make sure the dimension size is 1920 by 1080 (for best quality)

1). Firstly, make sure not to do what I call typical styles. Now by this I mean don't do what has been done a million times before, like using the same overlays everyone always does. Though some are great and should be used, try testing out with a few and changing them up a bit. By doing this your text will have a smooth, unique look to it

2). Though this is pretty obvious, USE STROKE AND DROP SHADOW! No doubt without these your text will look so much worse. Pretty well everyone uses these, but it truly is vital to use them.

3). Thirdly, be sure to add extra textures and overlays to your text. Download some pattern overlays, and use them with your text. It will look amazing if you put down the opacity of the overlay, so it doesn't distract the viewer from the actual text and the rest of the thumbnail. Download some transparent flashes, and add them to the sides of the text, or behind! All little things like this can make thumbnails incredible... but only if they are done correctly.

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1). For the rest of thumbnail, you must make sure it is clean. By this I mean be sure not to add too much or too little. If you are doing a thumbnail for a let's play, behind your text possibly have a picture of the game (if it is a unique custom drawing it's even better). Don't add lots of text, but enough so the viewer knows what he is watching.

2). If you are doing a custom colour background, possibly and a pattern with low opacity for a great effect!

3). Just make sure no parts are blurry: you want full HD!

I really hope this helped. If you have any problems what so every comment down below! And subscribe to my channel if you like, I do lots of GFX and give free thumbnail, banner, and intro templates!
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Really great information, thanks for sharing. I usually use drop shadows with all my texts
 
Never really thought about these. Plus I'm a technophobe. But I might get my more design-minded friend to help me out using your advice. Thanks for the insight.
 
I haven't been using drop shadows until my most recent videos' thumbnails, although I've used outlines extensively.
I'm now also diverging from using the Impact font every single time since I've found out there are other "impactful" fonts installed on my computer. :)
Lately I mostly use Inkscape for creating thumbnails. It's much quicker and allows for a similar style to my previous GIMP-made thumbnails. I've underestimated Inkscape until recent times.
 
I have gone through so many different variations of thumbnails but have yet to hammer out a good one. I believe my thumbnails make people scream and smash their phone or computer.
 
This tutorial would be better if you provided pictures to demonstrate what you're saying. I understood all of it, but not everyone knows what they're doing and we should keep that in mind, especially with tutorials. ;)
 
Generally, you wanna put in eye-catching colors or patterns. Like the game grumps do a good job with that. The orange of their videos makes them stand out and grab peoples attention.
 
We use to create ours in photoshop. Now we create and edit straight from our phone and it's incredible how efficient it is.
 
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