Tips for Thumbnails on youtube?

BabyDollOrigin

Does anyone have tips for a good thumbnails, I'm having a hard time figuring out how to make my thumbnails better. I only have one recent thumbnail that im working on. Its the same picture with some tweaking but i need suggestions how to make my YouTube channel, And i trust my fellow simmers for advice

lunasysims

Basic backgrounds are best. You can use a screenshot as a thumbnail, and if you have some good ones, it can be eye-catching. But in general, I'd suggest using a patterned or plain background and posting the picture of your Sim on top of it, keeping them predominately on one side of the picture. With this design, you have the other half of the thumbnail to add text and icons

BabyDollOrigin

lunasysims wrote: »

Thank you ♡

WiggleyTuff

Well you can have the one you posted there but maybe blur the bakground one a little so the woman is focused more and the add the text.

sillyangel0906

I would keep the close up shot and either put it on a different background or blur the background that you currently have it on. Then add text, etc.

Here are a few that I've used. I try to keep them pretty simple, but interesting.







For my Sims 3 LP, I'm using a screenshot of the current world that I'm playing in as I move each new generation to a new world.

pepper090889

As the others have mentioned, a basic background would work better. Personally, I prefer an in game landscape photo as backgrounds, but blurring the backgrounds would also look good. And text usually adds a nice look as well. Here are a few thumbnails I've used. Dafont has a huge variety of free to use fonts if you're looking to download some. I also tweak the brightness and contrast a bit

CLICK v

anneloes740

pepper090889 wrote: »

As the others have mentioned, a basic background would work better. Personally, I prefer an in game landscape photo as backgrounds, but blurring the backgrounds would also look good. And text usually adds a nice look as well. Here are a few thumbnails I've used. Dafont has a huge variety of free to use fonts if you're looking to download some. I also tweak the brightness and contrast a bit

CLICK v

Yours look so clean and pretty!

pepper090889

@anneloes740 Thank you

BabyDollOrigin

pepper090889 wrote: »

anneloes740 wrote: »

sillyangel0906 wrote: »

WiggleyTuff wrote: »

lunasysims wrote: »

Thank you all for your tips and i did so with another thumbnail and think with more practice i can do better but here is my thumbnail i worked on with help with your tips!

DeviSimmer

@BabyDollOrigin you can also do background that connect to the theme of the video. if your video theme is prison so you can put the sim behind bars (like in here - http://picresize.com/images/rsz_12-11-16_9-33-34 pm.png ) or if the theme is africa you can but desert background (like in here - http://www.interload.co.il/upload/4304316.png ) or you can put a white background. its all dependent on what your theme is (at list for me its like this)

BabyDollOrigin

DeviSimmer wrote: »

Thank you, i really appreciate all the tips you have for me! Its really helping me

anneloes740

Wow the new thumbnail looks awesome! You did a great job

BabyDollOrigin

anneloes740 wrote: »

Thank you!

DeviSimmer

@BabyDollOrigin im happy that I could help (:

simmerbrentley

Your thumbnail looks fantastic, especially for a first try. The great thing about thumbnails is the option to change them later. I wouldn't stress to much about it.

Mellow

Nice job! I do my thumbnails with fotor and befunky!

Blade334

Wow the thumbnail looks great 👍🏼
I am just starting a let’s play soon myself I got a question can anyone give a list of things to avoid when making a thumbnail ??

Simmerville

I think if creating a series, it's important to stick to your original ideas, creating the image for small tweaks that will separate the episodes but still make it clear they belong together.

Generally I think less text is better, and "small print" is no point as most viewers will see the image quite tiny. Contrasting colors or good fonts might be important to drag the viewer to your image, remember yours is just one among "millions". So, try to come up with something new and bright.

ShadowPhoenix21

I have been trying to figure out how to make game related thumbnails and I have to ask to get HD ones do you use just a screen shot or I saw a YouTube video where there used this weird posing program? Thanks

Simmerville

ShadowPhoenix21 wrote: »

I have been trying to figure out how to make game related thumbnails and I have to ask to get HD ones do you use just a screen shot or I saw a YouTube video where there used this weird posing program? Thanks

You will need photo editing software, like Photoshop. I'm using a very old version, no super pro features needed. Such software might also be useful for graphics/effects/credits etc.

Re posing, I never use sims posing in my films, I think the normal gsameplay looks more natural, so I can't help you with that for thumbs, but in general it's easy to take a PrintScreen from your gameplay and paste it into a new file for editing in the mentioned software.

ShadowPhoenix21

Thanks @Simmerville. Sorry but do you just screen shot in game or just screen shot the video? Thanks! I would do in game camera but it is a bit awkward if you are recording at the same time.

Simmerville

ShadowPhoenix21 wrote: »

Thanks @Simmerville. Sorry but do you just screen shot in game or just screen shot the video? Thanks! I would do in game camera but it is a bit awkward if you are recording at the same time.

I think I do both, depending. And I don't think you could tell a difference from the quality, the loss of pixels is not that big, an the thumb on YT is very tiny anyway. Even if you want a still picture too cover the entire screen, say as an opening scene in your vid, the quality will be good enough from a normal screen dump, as long as your all over settings and vid card etc is decent.

ShadowPhoenix21

Thanks I will try it out next video. Once I start Sims 4 lets plays the quality will be better as I will be using a different recording software that doesn't work with sims 3.