“Don’t judge a book by its cover”, that statement is the opposite of what people do, people judge your content by the image in the thumbnail, so is really important to pay attention in design it, in a way that summarizes your content in one single image. In the help section, Google said “Video thumbnails let viewers see a quick snapshot of your video as they're browsing YouTube.”, and that’s NOT true, the purpose is to grab the spectator attention enough to at least make it read the title of the video and help the viewer to decide if he wants to watch the video or not. Next, I will show some strategies that can help to create an attractive thumbnail.

 

To upload a custom thumbnail, you must verify your account on YouTube, you can see next a link in which google explained how to do it.

 

THE SIZE

YouTube recommends a resolution of 1280x720 for your thumbnail, so keep that resolution, if you want to try different proportions is better to place black bars, but not change the image size.

COMPOSITION

There is not a perfect rule when it comes to how you should compose a frame. There are, however, several guidelines you can use to help improve a composition. My purpose with this tutorial is NOT to teach all the composition techniques, but some simple examples that can help you create effective appealing compositions . But what exactly is composition? It refers to the way you can place various elements within the frame to make it pleasing to the eye.

 

Let’s start with probably the most well-known composition technique:

 

Rule of Thirds

This is a simple technique that helps you place the most important element in your composition in a place with the greater visual impact. In the graphic you can see four red circles, these points are the ones in which the eye tends to stay longer. “Lunática” has a great tip on how to place these "Rule of Thirds" lines perfectly in any CSP work area.

Negative Space

Negative space, is the space around and between the main subject of the frame, this space is the one you’ll use to place the text for your composition, this space is really important because lets the image bread and allow placing additional elements to create a balanced composition.

Frame Within the Frame

Creating a ‘frame within the frame’ is an effective way to create depth in a scene. This technique is interesting because you make the object pop out of the canvas, which is an illusion that makes the composition more appealing and conveys an elevated meaning.

 

But there are lots of different techniques like Leading Lines, Symmetry, Patterns and Textures, Juxtaposition, etc. The usual mistake that lots of people make is to use a screen capture of the video as thumbnail, this is quite weak and don't catch the attention of the viewer.

 

USE OF TEXT

You can argue that, text is even more important than the image in a thumbnail, this is because a clever sentence can catch the attention of a person and create the need of seeing what’s all about it. This is why there are so many CLICKBAIT titles on YouTube. I'm not suggesting using misleading titles to your videos but to show that a good clear sentence can improve the traffic of your videos. (Disclaimer: I’m not an expert on YouTube, I barely understand the basic use of the platform. This is my advice of graphic design).

 

The most important advice for a good composition is to keep a BALANCE FRAME, what this means is that the arranging of both positive and negative elements in the space are placed in such a way that no one area of the design overpowers other areas. Every element of the composition has weight and fits together in a seamless whole. The elements I'm using for these composition are, Clip Studio logo, the phrase (MERMAID Concept Design), a background and the illustration of my character. There are many ways of composing with text, I’m going to show you four commonly used techniques that are simple to apply and have nice results.

 

Neutral Background

When you have a neutral background, like a flat color of a soft texture, is easy to place texts and keep good readability. In this example, because the Clip Studio logo is asymmetrical and really heavy in the left side, I place the logo in the top left part, with the text "MERMAID" in bold capital letters, the purpose is to reinforce the importance of the character. The text "Concept Design" is placed below with title style. The size of the texts for this particular use are 195 for “MERMAID” and 105 for "Concept Design", unfortunately, this doesn’t mean anything because the text size varies depending on the font and Clip Studio do not let you see the properties of the layers, like high, length and position in the canvas; in my opinion really important data for people that use the software for graphic design. The thing is that the size of the text must be as large as the composition allow you, remember this thumbnail is going to be presented in different size, depending on the screen in which the spectator is looking at the content.

Bright or Textured Background

In a background with brightness variation or texture, sometimes text is not legible, so to increase legibility you can use a border in the text, in this case, I use a white border in the word “MERMAID”, after I place the text I use the “Border Effect” and rasterize the layer to cut the black letters and paste it in a new layer to decrease de opacity, achieving a different look in the text. In the phrase “Concept Design” I duplicate the layer, change the color to black, then raster the layer to apply a blur effect to create a shadow effect for the rest of the phrase. I decide to place the Clip studio logo under the texts because the first word was too heavy and, in this way, the final composition is balanced and easy to read.

Textured Background Option 1

When there is a heavy texture in the background, another option is to create a box that contains the text, in this case, I create three white frames for the words and the logo, to dynamize the composition I place the texts diagonally. This option allows you to choose the color of the font and create a neutral background for easy legibility.

Textured Background Option 2

Another option for heavy texture backgrounds is to create a box that separates the elements of the illustration from the texts, this can be obtained by creating a box that separates the two parts. In this case, I created a diagonal white division that allows me to place the texts and logo in a region that has no distracting elements in the background, allowing maximum readability and harmonious composition.

 

These are just some techniques often used in YouTube thumbnail, but there are infinite options, my aim here was to show some of the alternatives for you, if you are uninspired or unsure of what to do.

Thank you, I hope this tutorial is easy to follow, if there is any doubt please let me know.