David Altizer — How to Make Great Thumbnails (For Non-Designers) [Greatest Hits]

Jay Clouse (0:00)

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David Altizer (1:10)

The rule of thirds is one of the most popular ways to judge good composition for filmmaking. Once you learn this rule, you'll see it all the time. It's a mystery that nobody knew they needed to know. That's the best formula for a click. What if many forks were made of salt? That worked because it's asking a question that nobody thought about before.

Jay Clouse (1:31)

That's David Altizer, a thumbnail designer who, over the last three years, has taken YouTube by storm. David's clients include Kurtis Connor, Jolly, Max Fosh, Hayden Hillier Smith, and now me. David's thumbnails have earned nearly 350 million views, and in this video, he'll show you why creating thumbnails is actually easier than you think.

David Altizer (1:52)

The reality is, I think, in the next five years, maybe even less, a lot of this work can be done with AI. This is only going to get better and better as time goes on. But you still need to be able to push and pull those levers to understand what gets the click, the psychology behind these contrasting ideas. Those are the elements that make it human.

Jay Clouse (2:11)

Thank you to 1of10 for sponsoring this video.

David Altizer (2:14)

One of the most important things with good thumbnail design is understanding the balance of the image and the composition of the image. Those are great places to start is to look at some of the most popular and iconic movie posters. I think movie posters would be like an adjacent category to thumbnail art, is looking at great movie poster design and study that. Look at great cinematography and composition within cinematography, because for cinema, every frame is framed in a widescreen format. It's either a super wide 2-3-5 kind of anamorphic shot or it is a 16 by 9

That's a great place to study, because often for photography, they're framing for a vertical shot, like a portrait shot. As a thumbnail artist, all of our thumbnails are obviously 16 by 9 So, looking at some of the most iconic frames from movies is great. I think Wes Anderson does a really great job of making, essentially, thumbnail frames in his videos, or I say videos, I'm so YouTuber, in his movies.

And then, understand lighting. If you're the creator yourself, you've got a great set right there, Jay. I'm looking at it. You've got a nice key light. You've got a fill light, but I can, or maybe you don't have a fill.

Jay Clouse (3:32)

I do.

David Altizer (3:33)

Okay, great. But I can see there's a bit of shadow on your left, on your left, because your key light is probably the majority of the light, and then you got a little fill on the other side. Well, for thumbnails, you actually want a pretty flat lighting setup, because you can add shadow in post-production really, really easily. But it's super hard to kind of fix really harsh shadows or dark areas.

Lighting-wise, like I see a lot of creators just, maybe take a picture on their phone, probably while the video is being uploaded onto YouTube. They just switch over to selfie mode. They take a picture wherever they're seated, which is probably at their desk. And it's like really dark. And then they just like throw it in there and boost the exposure and call it a day. Or they just pull a screenshot from the video that is, again, just not lit well. You want clarity and simplicity. And so taking intentional thumbnail photos for your video is crucial, in my opinion. And that's one of the first things that I tell the creators I work with, who we start working together. I'm like, hey, I notice there's a lot of shadow. There's a lot of darkness in your face. Let's start boosting your face. Kind of have a flat lighting. So essentially, the light directly above the camera, maybe two other lights on the sides, or sit next to a window.