So true! Just like hollywood movies have their posters that get us hyped to watch it, thumbnails serve a very similar purpose. All about finding that unique style that fits to the content you're creating, but continues to be eye-catching enough to encourage new viewers to stop by!
really I don't know how this channel had only 8.5k subs with all this big and amazing works on it ( video , voice , editing , subject ) all of them are better than millions of channels had more subs , keep this amazing channel .
When you are creating your thumbnail in Photoshop next time, try it at 1920x1080 but when you go to export use the Save for Web option or Ctrl Alt Shift S is the shortcut, a dialog box will open with a preview, top right you can set your optimisation, bring the quality down til the preview size says it will be smaller than 2MB. Also another tip, if you're saving your thumbnails out as PNG format, they're usually double the file size to JPG as they're uncompressed. When bringing your quality down in the JPG format, I wouldn't go below 70% hope this helps. Just found your channel, you're creating savage work. Mark
Great advice! What I've been doing for the past few months is using 1920 x 1080, but saving as a .jpg and just making sure that the file size doesn't exceed the 2MB limit. I'll try your method and see if the quality is even better 👍
How this channel only has 10k subs is beyond me. You deserve and will get a million one day, no doubt. Great content, amazing presentation. Very inspiring. Thank you :)
I'm loving your content, Tom... especially the videos that incorporate hand-lettering! Thank you so much for your entertaining AND practical videos! Can't wait to watch more and see your channel continue to grow!
I got here from @Peter Lindgren Vlogs community tab suggestion to check you out. Then I noticed how amazing your thumbnails are. So good! Really, really good! I've been watching videos including your banner and end screens video, and now I've discovered your thumbnail video. Looking forward to learning from you in this vid ' cause yours are great!
2MB is the size limit. If you have photoshop you can keep it 1080 but downscale the output (if needed). Only program I've used so far for thumbnails so I"m not sure about others. When exporting There are max and min res options. I keep it high as I can. Sometimes its max other times its a step or two down.
@@tombuck Seems to work fine that way for me. You could always add a very subtle sharpening filter to it if the quality seems to drop (since thumbnails are generally watched on tiny screens) but I dont think I've had to.
This one's a bit longer, but I had an oddly gigantic amount of fun making it! Time Markers: 0:00 - Why Thumbnails Matter 1:59 - Where to Begin (Find What Works) 2:56 - Taking a Thumbnail Photo 4:03 - Using Lightroom and Photoshop 5:50 - Using Procreate on the iPad Pro for Titles 7:51 - Hand Lettering Basics 8:49 - Putting It All Together With Photoshop 12:04 - Fix a Broken Thumbnail 12:46 - It's Not About the Views
Having your face in Thumbnails definitely works in my experience ! And using custom thumbnails give you so much space for standing out, I think of it as a free banner ad sometimes if that makes sense.
Thank you for this! I am new to the channel (because I saw a review of the Rodecaster Pro that you did), and I subscribed for that. Then I quickly discovered all of the other amazing content you have, here. I was specifically wondering how you made these thumbnails, so this was excellent to watch. Your thumbnails have a great style and are immediately identifiable! :)
Thanks! I’m really glad to hear that. Thumbnails are always a struggle, and I second guess them all the time. But they’re so important! I’m glad you’re here! 😎
Love the thoughts and process in this video Tom! So awesome to see this! Looks super fun too! I really wanna try hand lettering for myself and maybe even my videos! :) Thanks so much for putting this together!
Woah you gotta me 🙃 I spent a bunch of time on what the font dot com looking for the font you were using! Now I gotta do a Tom Buck deep dive about hand lettering - there goes my Saturday
Hi Tom, i found you channel listening to your podcast with Peter (great job btw) great video, i had no idea that you spent so much time and details on your thumbnails. great tip about using the ipad with procreate, i will definitely try this in the future.
@@tombuck it entertaining because of both of yours personalities, and i really like that you try to stay away from the negative and focus on the positive. and it provide some great insight and "tips" to up and comers thereby providing value :) anyway looking forward to following your journey. also you mention in the first episode that you are still pending a lot of the big podcasting platforms, the whole podcast scene is pretty new to me. would you consider doing an episode explaining the inns and outs in creating something like that ? (yes i know there are a ton of content on the subject but would be cool to hear it from you guys)
Hi Tom, I have been subscribed for a little while. I have been enjoying your content and have found a lot of useful information through your channel. I have been loving your thumbnails and they are beautiful and coherent and they are like the perfect textbook examples of how TH-camrs should create their thumbnails because I can tell those thumbnails are from you right away when they pop up in my subscription box. I was wondering how you create your thumbnail and so happy that you have made a video on this already. That being said, I think many people have said it, your channel is definitely underrated since the production quality is so high and I absolutely adore your personality. Keep up the good work!👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻
WOW! Thank you for this, I really appreciate the kind words. Two additions: 1. Since this video, I've started using the Light Pen in Procreate to create neon outlines around subjects in thumbnails. 2. This comment REALLY helps because I'm literally struggling to finish a thumbnail right now and it's great motivation. 🙏
hahahah seriously! 0:42 Don't we all just hate that intense all of a sudden drop! Damn, Algorithm! Also, Thanks for sharing your thumbnail process, loved it.
I’m glad you can relate to the mysterious ways of “The TH-cam Wizard” 😕 Glad you liked the video! Your channel is taking off like crazy, and your thumbnails are always on point.
This is great content as ALWAYS! Thank you Tom! :o) Do you have a video or a reference to the process you use to create the "glow' you use around some of your thumbnail image elements? Like when you outline a product?
Awesome... Actually the coloring damn good on your videos. Could you please share if there is a video I can refer for lighting setup + background coloring ? Thanks
I’m working on a video for my camera settings, but truthfully I don’t do much other than some minor exposure adjustments. I did make a studio tour video a few weeks ago that goes over all my gear and how it’s setup 👍
@@tombuck Great. Thanks I was looking for the studio setup. the simple lights you have used with camera (noticed that while taking thumbnails), then the background shadow lights. Just curious :)
Yep, that’s the one! The only thing that’s changed is I just got an Intellytech Pocket Cannon Mini to use as a backlight. It’s a really small spotlight that I mounted in the ceiling and I love it.
Dear Tom, It is not clear how you got to the grid screen or canvas, so I open a canvas typed in it dimensions 1270 X 720 (Yes I know the image on photoshop) but that was not explained, I deleted the background white layer and I have a grid but it is very tight not like yours. Help me out here.
I’ve been using jpegs, but I think my resolution was too high? I managed to get a 1080 thumbnail uploaded for a new video I’m working on, so that’s good news! I didn’t realize it was a 2mb limit- that’s tiny.
Could be res size. I use 240. By the way, your channel looks great from top to bottom and you seem to have checked all the boxes. Keep it up. When I come across channels like yours it reminds me how challenging it is to grow on TH-cam.
Great Video! I love your hand-drawn titles and I love seeing other people's process of thumbnail creation and design! I have a question for you, then a suggestion. Question: Have you ever dropped your photo into Procreate and drawn your letter on a new layer directly over your photo? That might be interesting to try. Suggestion: You might already be aware...if so...disregard this suggestion, however, a great way to handle those titles instead of rasterizing and erasing would be to drop both of those title layers in one group after you have already masked out the "nails" and "thumb". Then add a layer mask to the group! As I said, you are probably already aware, but when I started using groups to add my masks and even my effects...it was a game-changer for me! Now, I am off to watch your hand-drawn lettering videos......man I need to learn how to get better at that! lol
I have drawn directly in Procreate before, and it works fine, I think it’s more of just habit at this point to use Photoshop. I made a video about editing movies on an iPad, and I did the thumbnail all on the iPad too. Great tip about the groups/mask! Super simple, but didn’t cross my mind. That’s always the trick with photoshop- there are many ways to to everything. 😱
@@tombuck Yes, I've always said, that with Photoshop there are 100 different ways to get the same results. lol It's just finding what works best for you!
ha all my videos with between 100k-80k views have no thumbnails from years ago....all my videos with thumbnails are no where near that....sad face. time to update
So true! Just like hollywood movies have their posters that get us hyped to watch it, thumbnails serve a very similar purpose. All about finding that unique style that fits to the content you're creating, but continues to be eye-catching enough to encourage new viewers to stop by!
Exactly! I didn’t even think of comparing them to movie posters, but it’s the same thing!
really I don't know how this channel had only 8.5k subs with all this big and amazing works on it ( video , voice , editing , subject ) all of them are better than millions of channels had more subs , keep this amazing channel .
I absolutely took a screenshot of this to use as a positive reminder when needed. Thank you!
When you are creating your thumbnail in Photoshop next time, try it at 1920x1080 but when you go to export use the Save for Web option or Ctrl Alt Shift S is the shortcut, a dialog box will open with a preview, top right you can set your optimisation, bring the quality down til the preview size says it will be smaller than 2MB. Also another tip, if you're saving your thumbnails out as PNG format, they're usually double the file size to JPG as they're uncompressed. When bringing your quality down in the JPG format, I wouldn't go below 70% hope this helps. Just found your channel, you're creating savage work.
Mark
Great advice! What I've been doing for the past few months is using 1920 x 1080, but saving as a .jpg and just making sure that the file size doesn't exceed the 2MB limit. I'll try your method and see if the quality is even better 👍
How this channel only has 10k subs is beyond me. You deserve and will get a million one day, no doubt. Great content, amazing presentation. Very inspiring. Thank you :)
Wow, thank you! I really appreciate it. 😬
Dude! Loving the shift in videos lately. I'm jealous of both your thumbnails and video quality.
Haha, thank you sir! 👍
I'm loving your content, Tom... especially the videos that incorporate hand-lettering! Thank you so much for your entertaining AND practical videos! Can't wait to watch more and see your channel continue to grow!
Thanks Hanna! I’m glad you like the lettering, that’s one of my favorite things to do. 👍
I got here from @Peter Lindgren Vlogs community tab suggestion to check you out. Then I noticed how amazing your thumbnails are. So good! Really, really good! I've been watching videos including your banner and end screens video, and now I've discovered your thumbnail video. Looking forward to learning from you in this vid ' cause yours are great!
Thank you so much! Peter is such a great guy, so I'm happy you found me through him!
This channel is more professional than many others. Well done.
Thanks so much 🙏
You Nailed it! Great video Tom. The black bar under the text looks really good. A nice touch.
Thanks! Your thumbnails are definitely high quality and interesting.
Thank you! I really appreciate that!
2MB is the size limit. If you have photoshop you can keep it 1080 but downscale the output (if needed). Only program I've used so far for thumbnails so I"m not sure about others. When exporting There are max and min res options. I keep it high as I can. Sometimes its max other times its a step or two down.
That’s what I’ve been playing with! Turns out, turning the quality to 11 instead of 12 seems to do the trick. 👍
@@tombuck Seems to work fine that way for me. You could always add a very subtle sharpening filter to it if the quality seems to drop (since thumbnails are generally watched on tiny screens) but I dont think I've had to.
@@tombuck yes also with you can use PNG or click "save for web" as this gives you more options for quality and file size
This one's a bit longer, but I had an oddly gigantic amount of fun making it!
Time Markers:
0:00 - Why Thumbnails Matter
1:59 - Where to Begin (Find What Works)
2:56 - Taking a Thumbnail Photo
4:03 - Using Lightroom and Photoshop
5:50 - Using Procreate on the iPad Pro for Titles
7:51 - Hand Lettering Basics
8:49 - Putting It All Together With Photoshop
12:04 - Fix a Broken Thumbnail
12:46 - It's Not About the Views
This was excellent. Thanks so much for sharing.
You’re welcome, glad you liked it!
Having your face in Thumbnails definitely works in my experience ! And using custom thumbnails give you so much space for standing out, I think of it as a free banner ad sometimes if that makes sense.
Exactly 👍
Great video Tom. Doing some practice here; what brush style and properties you use on this tutorial??
Thank you for this! I am new to the channel (because I saw a review of the Rodecaster Pro that you did), and I subscribed for that. Then I quickly discovered all of the other amazing content you have, here.
I was specifically wondering how you made these thumbnails, so this was excellent to watch. Your thumbnails have a great style and are immediately identifiable! :)
Thanks! I’m really glad to hear that. Thumbnails are always a struggle, and I second guess them all the time. But they’re so important!
I’m glad you’re here! 😎
Well explained! This video gave me some idea to come up with my own style of thumbnails. I've become a fan of your channel :)
I’m really glad to hear it! Hopefully you’ll find more helpful stuff here. 👍
Love the thoughts and process in this video Tom! So awesome to see this! Looks super fun too! I really wanna try hand lettering for myself and maybe even my videos! :) Thanks so much for putting this together!
Thanks Eric! Lettering is super fun. I worked as a sign artist as Trader Joe’s in college and fell in love with it.
Woah you gotta me 🙃 I spent a bunch of time on what the font dot com looking for the font you were using! Now I gotta do a Tom Buck deep dive about hand lettering - there goes my Saturday
I swear, this is the best video EVER!😃😃😍🙌🙌 so fun, entertaining, and thorough ! I love this idea! So professional! 😎 Thank you for creating this!
Wow, thank you! I actually took a screenshot of this comment to keep because it’s so dang nice. 😁
@@tombuck Awww, you’re welcome! 😃😊😊 oh really?! 🥰 You definitely deserve more subscribers! 😊👍 Love your content!!
"nobody is going to care or notice" it actually is the first thing i noticed when i first visited your channel
I'm happy to be wrong in this case!
So good! Thank you for sharing your process; this helps a lo!
You’re welcome 😎
Hi Tom, i found you channel listening to your podcast with Peter (great job btw) great video, i had no idea that you spent so much time and details on your thumbnails. great tip about using the ipad with procreate, i will definitely try this in the future.
Awesome, thank you! I'm really happy to hear you're enjoying the podcast, it's a super fun project.
@@tombuck it entertaining because of both of yours personalities, and i really like that you try to stay away from the negative and focus on the positive. and it provide some great insight and "tips" to up and comers thereby providing value :) anyway looking forward to following your journey. also you mention in the first episode that you are still pending a lot of the big podcasting platforms, the whole podcast scene is pretty new to me. would you consider doing an episode explaining the inns and outs in creating something like that ? (yes i know there are a ton of content on the subject but would be cool to hear it from you guys)
Hi Tom, I have been subscribed for a little while. I have been enjoying your content and have found a lot of useful information through your channel. I have been loving your thumbnails and they are beautiful and coherent and they are like the perfect textbook examples of how TH-camrs should create their thumbnails because I can tell those thumbnails are from you right away when they pop up in my subscription box. I was wondering how you create your thumbnail and so happy that you have made a video on this already. That being said, I think many people have said it, your channel is definitely underrated since the production quality is so high and I absolutely adore your personality. Keep up the good work!👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻
WOW! Thank you for this, I really appreciate the kind words. Two additions:
1. Since this video, I've started using the Light Pen in Procreate to create neon outlines around subjects in thumbnails.
2. This comment REALLY helps because I'm literally struggling to finish a thumbnail right now and it's great motivation. 🙏
@@tombuck you got this, Tom! Your thumbnails have been really coherent so just follow your intuition 👊🏼
Your thumbnails stood out to me cuz of the colorful background and colorful font and style
That’s great to hear! Thank you!
hahahah seriously! 0:42 Don't we all just hate that intense all of a sudden drop! Damn, Algorithm!
Also, Thanks for sharing your thumbnail process, loved it.
I’m glad you can relate to the mysterious ways of “The TH-cam Wizard” 😕
Glad you liked the video! Your channel is taking off like crazy, and your thumbnails are always on point.
Is there an app for the Note 10 you can recommend ? For writing
Hmm, I’m not too familiar with Android, but I think google has a notes app that’s pretty great. And Evernote is always nice to use. 👍
This is great content as ALWAYS! Thank you Tom! :o) Do you have a video or a reference to the process you use to create the "glow' you use around some of your thumbnail image elements? Like when you outline a product?
I don’t have a video about it yet, but it’s the light brush in Procreate. Maybe I should make an updated version of this...
@@tombuck Thank you! If it’s in Procreate I think I can figure it out! I love the effect.
Lovin the production quality on your vids bro. I hope to be on your level one day!
I took a screenshot of this comment because it totally made my day. Thank you so much!
Great video thanks. Helped a lot 👍🏼
Tom if you see this, I have that same overhead rig you have. A few months back they came out with a 4ft long top bar t o make it wider.
Oh wow, I didn’t hear about that! Awesome.
Hello Tom,
How do you determine what the little pixelated segment is that appears when you mouse over the thumbnail?
KEN
I think that's just TH-cam being TH-cam and trying to figure it out 🤷🏻♂️
@@tombuck Our church videos have the musician "gyrating" at the piano. Not very inviting thought!!
KEN
here is a link th-cam.com/video/J21MJdDFeAs/w-d-xo.html
great video!
Awesome...
Actually the coloring damn good on your videos.
Could you please share if there is a video I can refer for lighting setup + background coloring ?
Thanks
I’m working on a video for my camera settings, but truthfully I don’t do much other than some minor exposure adjustments.
I did make a studio tour video a few weeks ago that goes over all my gear and how it’s setup 👍
@@tombuck
Great. Thanks
I was looking for the studio setup.
the simple lights you have used with camera (noticed that while taking thumbnails), then the background shadow lights.
Just curious :)
@@tombuck I think I found one of your video.. th-cam.com/video/3gtATPNG4B0/w-d-xo.html
:)
Yep, that’s the one! The only thing that’s changed is I just got an Intellytech Pocket Cannon Mini to use as a backlight. It’s a really small spotlight that I mounted in the ceiling and I love it.
@@tombuck Thank you :)
Do you have your camera on a timer?
I use the Canon app to control it with my phone.
Dear Tom, It is not clear how you got to the grid screen or canvas, so I open a canvas typed in it dimensions 1270 X 720 (Yes I know the image on photoshop) but that was not explained, I deleted the background white layer and I have a grid but it is very tight not like yours. Help me out here.
When your project is open, go into canvas options and enable the drawing guide. There will also be an edit guide option to let you customize it 👍
Thank you. I see how to do that. What settings do you use to get a 1/4" grid that you use???????@@tombuck
Good helped me a lot! :)
Guilty of this (not creating detailed thumbs) but i appreciate the insight and will start doing a better job of creating more pleasing thumbs thanks 🙏
It definitely makes a difference!
You can do 1920x1080 if you save as a jpeg. That will usually keep it below TH-cam’s 2MB limit.
I’ve been using jpegs, but I think my resolution was too high? I managed to get a 1080 thumbnail uploaded for a new video I’m working on, so that’s good news! I didn’t realize it was a 2mb limit- that’s tiny.
Could be res size. I use 240. By the way, your channel looks great from top to bottom and you seem to have checked all the boxes. Keep it up. When I come across channels like yours it reminds me how challenging it is to grow on TH-cam.
Thanks! It’s tough, but fun!
love this channel! keep up the great videos!
Thanks so much, I really appreciate that! 😎
As always a great video! Keep it up 👍🏼
Thanks! I’m editing a new one right now 👍
Can’t wait to see the notification when it’s released 🤗.
Great Video! I love your hand-drawn titles and I love seeing other people's process of thumbnail creation and design! I have a question for you, then a suggestion.
Question: Have you ever dropped your photo into Procreate and drawn your letter on a new layer directly over your photo? That might be interesting to try.
Suggestion: You might already be aware...if so...disregard this suggestion, however, a great way to handle those titles instead of rasterizing and erasing would be to drop both of those title layers in one group after you have already masked out the "nails" and "thumb". Then add a layer mask to the group! As I said, you are probably already aware, but when I started using groups to add my masks and even my effects...it was a game-changer for me!
Now, I am off to watch your hand-drawn lettering videos......man I need to learn how to get better at that! lol
I have drawn directly in Procreate before, and it works fine, I think it’s more of just habit at this point to use Photoshop. I made a video about editing movies on an iPad, and I did the thumbnail all on the iPad too.
Great tip about the groups/mask! Super simple, but didn’t cross my mind. That’s always the trick with photoshop- there are many ways to to everything. 😱
@@tombuck Yes, I've always said, that with Photoshop there are 100 different ways to get the same results. lol It's just finding what works best for you!
Well done. Keep going
Thanks a lot! I really appreciate the kind words.
Thanks 👏💯
Great info in watching your vids. Also new sub.
Glad you like them!
Q: What size should the thumbnail PSD file be? Resolution? Inches? Thanks! 👍🏼😎
1920X1080 pixels with a resolution of 300 and an overall file size of less than 2mb 👍
Thumbnails are the bane of my existence lol
They're so tough! I've been trying to turn them into fun design projects, but they still take a lot of time.
My most popular video has auto-generated thumbnail. Bazzinga!!
Touché 🤔
dude super dope! subscribe to this channel! it is very artistic!
cant hold it your lighting setup tour please i know i'm not the only one
I'm planning to do a video about my lighting in the near future.
ha all my videos with between 100k-80k views have no thumbnails from years ago....all my videos with thumbnails are no where near that....sad face. time to update
Haha, who knows how it works in the end 🤷🏻♂️
Have you noticed that the rendering file is at least five times bigger than before after adding thumb nails to it? Or some setting I have done wrong 🤣
I haven't had any issues with file sizes. My projects are 1920x1080 at 300dpi, and the jpg exports are under 2mb.
@@tombuck copy that. Thanks again, Tom. I’ll check the details
you need to make your own font
Thank you!
First comment!!!!!
🥇