- Video thumbnails.
They're one of the biggest topics
we talk about here at vidIQ
and during our weekly channel audit live streams,
that's the thing we scrutinize most.
And you ask us, how do we make thumbnails?
So, from start to finish,
this is how we make thumbnails that look like this.
Let's do this.
- [Voiceover] vidIQ, vidIQ, vidIQ.com
- Hello, I'm Rob, and welcome to vidIQ,
the YouTube tool and channel
that aims to educate you on your YouTube journey.
Today's video is part of a series
all about improving thumbnails on your YouTube channel.
Because readers judge books by their covers,
viewers judge videos by their thumbnails.
You have a very small graphic
and a very small amount of time
to convince somebody to click on your video,
so you have to use it as wisely as possible.
Now, this particular video is a little bit
of a twist on thumbnails,
because it is not a tips and tricks expert guide.
It is my personal journey
through the adventures of making thumbnails.
My thumbnails used to look something like this.
(mimics vomiting)
I knew I had to improve them,
and I've spent the last year doing just that.
And the audience seems to agree.
Clickthrough rate on our channel
has increased 100% over that time.
I would call myself a thumbnail enthusiast at this point,
but I still have a lot to learn
and there could be tips and tricks and extra advanced skills
that could make them even better.
But, for now, this is what I know
and this is exactly how I do it.
(relaxed music)
My thumbnail creations always start with two things:
a plain cream wall to use as a temporary background
and this ring light.
For me, personally, purchasing a ring light
was the game changer.
You find these in cosmetic shops
and a lot of beauty channels
use these to blast a lot of concentrated light
over a confined amount of space.
This is the newer RL 18 ring light
and it has two dials which allow you to control
the exact amount of light you want to use
and whether it has that warm, soft orange look,
or a more cool, clinical white appearance.
The ring light kicks out a lot of light,
so you only need to have it on a low setting
for it to have dramatic effects.
One thing you do need to keep an eye on,
however, are android eyes.
The closer the ring light is to your face,
the more chance the viewer has
of seeing white circles in your eyes,
which might be distracting or intentional.
Oh, and if you're wondering what all of this is about,
my girlfriend decided to paint
one of my fingernails last night
and I forgot to wash it off.
To get rid of this android circle eye effect,
what you can do is place the ring light
further away from you and turn up the brightness.
And you should get the same effect
with less white eyes.
Now it's time to put on your best YouTuber face,
if you intend to be in the thumbnail.
Think of it like this:
whatever expression you intend to use,
crank it all the way up to 11.
It will never look quite as stupid as you imagine
when you're holding the pose,
and it will look perfect for the thumbnail.
Trust me, every YouTuber practices this
around three hours, is he pointing at me?
Ugh!
When you're ready, set your camera to burst mode
so you have a collection of pictures to chose from.
I take three pictures at one-second intervals
and I leave the camera on automatic mode.
The camera I use is a Panasonic G7 with the kit lens.
(camera clicking and beeping)
(sighs) This right here, Rob,
this is what proves you're an idiot.
No memory card!
Never blame your tools, folks.
Never blame your tools.
When you do remember to insert a memory card,
you'll get pictures that look like this.
(camera snapping)
All of these are bright, colorful, well-expressed poses,
and I've decided I'm going to go with this one.
But now we need to get rid of that background
because it's, well, to be honest, quite boring
and it's too similar to my skin tone.
So let's jump onto a computer and turn this
into something that starts to resemble a thumbnail.
(upbeat electronic music)
When you create a contrast between
a foreground and a background,
each element of your picture really starts to pop.
So what we want to do is get my YouTube pose
stuck onto this blue background,
just to demonstrate how powerful this can be.
To do this, we need to cut me out of this image
as if cutting a picture out of a newspaper.
The best way to do this through Photoshop,
which is what I used here at vidIQ,
is the Magnetic Lasso Tool.
All you need to do is click on a starting point
and then draw your mouse around the shape,
and you will see anchor points automatically
create themselves with lines attached to each one.
Photoshop does a pretty good job
of working out these cut points automatically,
but, occasionally, you will need
to click a point manually,
especially if there are two edges or lines
with distinct colors that are close to each other.
Hair can also be particularly tricky to draw around,
especially if you have long, uh, nevermind about that.
(upbeat electronic music)
Once you've joined the dots, so to speak,
click on your starting point to complete the trace,
and then use the Cut command.
Next, go to the background image
and paste that bad boy in.
Boom.
Now you can maneuver your image into place
and clean up any bits, such as this area here,
which has a bit of a wall background.
(buzzer buzzing)
Fortunately, in this case, I can use
the Magic Wand Tool to sort that out.
You can, of course, use the Magic Wand
to clear the whole background,
but it's not as accurate or reliable
as the Magnetic Lasso Tool.
Now let's add a bit of magic sauce to my image.
Go to Filter at the top, then select Sharpen,
followed by Unsharpen Mask.
This will draw out all the detail.
The lines, the contour of the face.
And, to be honest, at full size,
it may look a little too sharp.
But remember, 99.9% of your audience
will see this image at postage stamp size.
And this Unsharpen Mask really brings out the detail.
Alright then, the thumbnail is taking shape,
but we need to make it a vidIQ thumbnail.
And that's done through branding
and elements that we use in every single thumbnail.
What we need for that is a template.
While this background is okay,
it doesn't quite match the company blue.
So we're going to move my image
over to our template thumbnail.
What we have here is a background
that we use on every single thumbnail.
The vidIQ logo in the bottom left-hand corner,
that we use in every single thumbnail.
And this font type and color that we always use
whenever we include text in a thumbnail.
This establishes branding and consistency
throughout our artwork, so you know instantly
when you see one of our thumbnails,
you know it's a vidIQ video.
I haven't quite decided whether
to use text in this one yet,
so I'm going to leave it in there for now,
drag my image into a template,
resize it, and rotate it a little bit,
to make sure my surprised pose is looking
at whatever objects I'm going to insert
on the left-hand side of the thumbnail.
Next is a little personal touch
I like to add which can divide opinion.
If you bring up Layer Styles,
you can add an outline to images,
such as a shadow, outer glow, or stroke effect.
I like to do this because it hides
some of the rough imperfections
in the process of cutting the original image out,
and, personally, I just think
it makes me stand out even more.
In this example, I'm going to add
a white stroke effect, adjusting the line thickness
to get it the way I like it.
Alright, now we have the hero or the persona
in the image with a strong, evocative pose.
We need them to be drawn to something.
I'm conscious that the video title
is going to be something along the lines
of How to Make a Thumbnail,
so I don't want to repeat that text in the thumbnail.
So I've decided to go for a construction theme,
and this is how I'm going to build it.
I've got a construction sign image here
that I'm going to pull in, remove the white background,
and then make nice and big
to fill the right side of the thumbnail.
Now to add some YouTube flavor to the mix.
I'm going to bring in the logo
and I have two choices, here.
Either I can cover up the tools,
or hang the logo above the text.
I think covering the tools looks best.
Now I'm adding a small black stroke effect
to give the YouTube logo an outline
and, because I already have some text
in the sign, I'm going to delete
the default font and its banner.
Yes, this is a rare occasion
when I'm not using our default font.
Now I have more space to play with,
I'm going to make the sign stand out some more
with a drop shadow, increase the size,
and rotate the whole thing around a little bit.
And this is the finished product.
Three dominant colors, blue, yellow, and red,
that I think contrast well with each other,
and a very simple design.
And that is the key because, remember,
nobody sees your thumbnail at this size.
(descending whistling)
They see it at this size.
I think, at a maximum, your thumbnail can include
three points of focus.
Any more and they're too complicated.
Oh, and because we use branding and consistency,
can you spot the other vidIQ thumbnail, here?
(bell dinging)
So that is how I make vidIQ thumbnails.
But I've gotta be honest with you, folks.
I'm not a huge fan of this particular thumbnail.
I think the execution is absolutely fine,
but I think it's lacking in concept and creativity.
By itself, it's not really clear
what's under construction.
Is it YouTube as a whole?
This is where the title is really
going to have to help complement the thumbnail.
Now, I could be more explicit,
and that's what I attempted to do
with this thumbnail that you can see onscreen now,
with the green arrow pointing to my thumbnail,
my literal thumbnail.
But it just looks weird and the lighting doesn't look right,
and I wasn't really keen on the idea.
Another idea I've just thought of,
is having two construction ribbons
running across the image that say, under construction.
But, to do that, I'd have to go back to the drawing board
and start this video all over again.
Yeah, thumbnails are not easy to create
and, in this particular occasion,
I got thumbnail creator's block.
So I'm satisfied with the final product,
I'd give it a B minus, but I could do better.
As I said at the beginning of this video,
this is a journey through my thumbnail creating process,
and it doesn't always go 100% to plan.
If you have any questions or would like to add
your own tips, tricks, and strategies
to the thumbnail conversation,
let us know in the comments below.
We've got another thumbnail video over here.
We'll see you on either of those videos right now
while I jazz out to this music.
(upbeat music)