How long do you take to make thumbnails?

[Gods of Odds]

I am going to be getting photoshop soon but I was wondering how long do all of you take to make a thumbnail for a video. Also how do you make the thumbnail? Do you use photoshop or do you make a thumbnail some other way?

 

[Jac Morton]

Hi Gods,

I use photoshop for all my thumbnails and once you have a template set, e.g a background, logo and editable text plus an image you can change for each new video. It is pretty quick and keeps your thumbnail branding consistent.

If you get stuck give me a shout I should be able help.

 

[Gods of Odds]

Hi Gods,

I use photoshop for all my thumbnails and once you have a template set, e.g a background, logo and editable text plus an image you can change for each new video. It is pretty quick and keeps your thumbnail branding consistent.

If you get stuck give me a shout I should be able help.

Thanks for the offer, I could definitely use some help, thumbnails are probably the hardest thing for me at the moment, I literally don't have a clue what to do about them. At the moment I just do a screenshot of whatever game I'm playing and then add text.

 

[Jac Morton]

Thanks for the offer, I could definitely use some help, thumbnails are probably the hardest thing for me at the moment, I literally don't have a clue what to do about them. At the moment I just do a screenshot of whatever game I'm playing and then add text.

Admittedly when I first started making video I was pretty lazy and just dump a block colour and some text on them. When I got a bit of time I looked at some design templates like this one;

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/7b/4e/da/7b4eda96172e52d185eb4a939b54d834.jpg

and then once I have an idea of where to go with the design I create my own templates. Just have a google for Youtube thumbnail designs and see which ones you like the most and adapt them to your style.

 

[Gods of Odds]

Admittedly when I first started making video I was pretty lazy and just dump a block colour and some text on them. When I got a bit of time I looked at some design templates like this one;

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/7b/4e/da/7b4eda96172e52d185eb4a939b54d834.jpg

and then once I have an idea of where to go with the design I create my own templates. Just have a google for Youtube thumbnail designs and see which ones you like the most and adapt them to your style.

Thanks but if I take images of Google images is that not copyright because obviously I don't want to risk my channel being shut down or something.

 

[Jac Morton]

Thanks but if I take images of Google images is that not copyright because obviously I don't want to risk my channel being shut down or something.

I wouldn't take the images straight from google, I take them in to photoshop and use the layouts as reference for my content.

So for example if I really liked the placement of some circles in a thumbnail. I would put that in as my background layer, copy the circles layout and then start to add the other bits in I want, like a logo, images etc. I then adjust all of the elements until the layout works.

The templates are a great place to start and get inspiration from, there are free to use templates if you are worried about copyright. You can also buy some that are quite cheap and they come as editable psd's.

Hope that clears up my miss information.

 

[Gods of Odds]

I wouldn't take the images straight from google, I take them in to photoshop and use the layouts as reference for my content.

So for example if I really liked the placement of some circles in a thumbnail. I would put that in as my background layer, copy the circles layout and then start to add the other bits in I want, like a logo, images etc. I then adjust all of the elements until the layout works.

The templates are a great place to start and get inspiration from, there are free to use templates if you are worried about copyright. You can also buy some that are quite cheap and they come as editable psd's.

Hope that clears up my miss information.

Ok thanks and do you know any websites where I can get free templates? Also if I take an image of google images and edit it whether I change it a lot of even just add text to it will it still be copyright I'm guessing yes?

 

[Jac Morton]

Ok thanks and do you know any websites where I can get free templates? Also if I take an image of google images and edit it whether I change it a lot of even just add text to it will it still be copyright I'm guessing yes?

Here is a site with a few different templates on;

Banners

http://www.designsave.net/2016/01/new-youtube-layout-banner-templates-psd.html

Gaming Thumbnails

http://esbuzz.net/trends/video/photoshop-gfx-free-gaming-thumbnails-thumbnail-templates

I would be careful using images straight off of google with text over. If it is say Dooms logo or artwork and you video is about Doom then I wouldn't worry about it. They only thing you will have to look out for is fan art, if you are using fan art ether contact the owner and ask permission.

If you can't find out how to contact them, put a link to where you find it in the descriptions.

 

[Jalepengo Playz]

I take hours. buts thats because i suck at thumbnails XD

 

[Gods of Odds]

Here is a site with a few different templates on;

Banners

http://www.designsave.net/2016/01/new-youtube-layout-banner-templates-psd.html

Gaming Thumbnails

http://esbuzz.net/trends/video/photoshop-gfx-free-gaming-thumbnails-thumbnail-templates

I would be careful using images straight off of google with text over. If it is say Dooms logo or artwork and you video is about Doom then I wouldn't worry about it. They only thing you will have to look out for is fan art, if you are using fan art ether contact the owner and ask permission.

If you can't find out how to contact them, put a link to where you find it in the descriptions.

Thanks for the help.

 

[Jac Morton]

Thanks for the help.

No worries bud.

 

[Folke Siren]

I am going to be getting photoshop soon but I was wondering how long do all of you take to make a thumbnail for a video. Also how do you make the thumbnail? Do you use photoshop or do you make a thumbnail some other way?

It depends Usually 5-20 minutes sometimes longer. I use photoshop

 

[UnstoppableFrost]

I use paint.NET and the template thumbnail for the whole series usually takes around 10 minutes then anything after that just takes about 3 mins because I add a picture saturation and change the number

 

[Gods of Odds]

I use paint.NET and the template thumbnail for the whole series usually takes around 10 minutes then anything after that just takes about 3 mins because I add a picture saturation and change the number

Where do you get your thumbnail templates from?

 

[UnstoppableFrost]

Where do you get your thumbnail templates from?

I make them from scratch

 

[Gods of Odds]

I make them from scratch

Ok that sounds quite hard at least if they are very detailed.

 

[UnstoppableFrost]

Ok that sounds quite hard at least if they are very detailed.

It's not really that hard once you're used to the software you're using and know which sites to use for the text, font, images etc.

 

[Patronus]

You can check my channel and look at my thumbnails to decide if you like them or not. I try to make a good title in my thumbnail, and I focus a lot on lighting due to photoshop being a 2d program. I love photoshop. You can pretty much do anything in photoshop, so do whatever you really want to make your channel unique
P.S. It takes me about 15 minutes to make a thumbnail right now. It used to take me way longer

 

[Zexus]

Personally, I use Photoshop. It takes me about 5 minutes to make my thumnails

 

[Kratos Aurion]

Once I find a base image to use as my series thumbnail it takes literally a few seconds to make my thumbnails.

Finding the base image can often be the tricky part though as sometimes the internet doesn't always have the best pictures to use so every now and then I'll use an in game screenshot of the title screen as my base image for the series thumbnails.