What are thumbnails to you?

[Star Wars Geek]

Yes that's perfect dude! Keep up the hard work

Thanks!

 

[Zesty]

I'm finding it difficult actually. The right font color kills me and ideas for them as well. I think they are very important though and spend about five minutes thinking about them.

 

[adams eats]

I always take my time to get the best photo I can for my recipes. I'll then correct the image in gimp before adding the text. I recently changed how my thumbs look to make them more consistent by having a bar on the left, with the recipe title and my logo. Looks much more professional I think.

 

[lazy vlogger]

i spend very little time on them although ive only ever made one but my general out look on them is they are click bait aids lol not that thats a bad thing but they definitely need to be eye catching where some one looks at it and says yeah ill watch that based on judging a book by its cover

 

[Idec Sdawkminn]

To me, thumbnails serve different purposes for different situations. The 2 situations for me are looking for a new video to watch and looking for a specific video I've watched before.

If I'm looking for a new video to watch, I'll primarily look at thumbnails to give me a sneak peak at what I'll see when watching it, kind of like looking at screenshots on the back of movies or video games. If the thumbnail doesn't show anything from the video and instead is a completely fabricated one, such as just someone's logo and some words or some other picture that doesn't appear anywhere in the video, I'll be slightly put-off, but if it looks pretty decent otherwise, I'll still watch it if the title and subject of it sounds interesting.

I'm I'm looking for a specific video I've watched before, I'm mainly looking at the thumbnails to recognize the video.

For my channel, I dislike making thumbnails. They are just another tedious step to me, like thinking of descriptions. I like the video-making part, but I wish everything else was automatic. I still make thumbnails for every video, though, because I think it is important. But to minimize the time and work needed to do it, I follow a consistent format with each one. I use the TubeBuggy Chrome extension to generate a thumbnail after the video is finished processing. I pick a screenshot that has the clearest and creepiest face I can find, zoom in or out to make it full frame, add a red border and my logo in the upper left corner, as you can see in my video in my signature.

 

[Shawn Gossman]

At first, I just chose the better picture that YouTube suggested to me. Now I am trying to make my own. The video in my signature is an example. It is nothing fancy but I think the added text is better than just having the picture alone.

 

[Switchbox]

I'm not the best at making thumbnails, but I LOVE to make new banners!
I can just sit for hours fiddling with my banner without realizing it

 

[Portajerzey]

I agree, sometimes I spend time making thumbnails, I enjoy making them, and I think there important, because if you make a creative one it could catch people's attention and make them click on you're video

 

[MasterEth]

So me personally I enjoy making the thumbnail more than creating the video! I spend so much time in them and that's not necessarly editing them it's thinking of weird and wacky ways to just make them look hilarious or I hope they are. I try to make them as eye catching as possible and the way I link them together is using my little avatar in everyone. So tell me what are thumbnails to you? How much time is spent on them? Do you have fun making them?

What are thumbnails to you?

To me, they are a way to showcase the video, without people even watching the video. If you have a bad thumbnail, then it will be more difficult for people to want to click on your video.

How much time do you spend on them?

As long as it takes to upload a video, since I always make my thumbnails while the video is exporting.

Do you have fun making them?

Of course! It's especially fun because I always listen to music while making thumbnails, which always helps me!

 

[babyteeth4]

Thumbnails are very important to me, I spend about 15 minutes although taking the photos is the most important step. Most are staged but often just a screen grab of that perfect moment will do. I enjoy making a good thumbnail!