🎥 How AI Can Help You Make Thumbnails

They have several things in common:

1. Clear Blue Sky

2. Emotive Face

3. Depth

I talked about his designs in more detail in this newsletter, but one thing MrBeast and his team are really good at is creating depth and dimension in his thumbnails.

THAT is where AI can help.

We’ve been using Midjourney to assist us in making some of our YouTube thumbnails. Midjourney creates images out of specific text prompts.

It doesn’t get everything right (hands and feet are alway wonky, and it doesn’t produce numbers or text), but the more you use it, the better you become at writing prompts.

Now let’s say I want to make a thumbnail for a video essay about IKEA’s founder, Ingvar Kamprad. There are plenty of photos of Kamprad on the Internet, but none of them are quite…thumbnail worthy.

So, here’s my prompt:

“Colorized photo of Ingvar Kamprad, the founder of Ikea, 4k --ar 16:9 --v 5”

Not bad, but still not optimized for a click. So I adjusted the prompt:

“Colorized photo of Ingvar Kamprad portrayed as a cheerful mastermind, the founder of Ikea, 4k --ar 16:9 --v 5”

We’re getting closer, but one thing the top YouTubers do in their thumbnails is use their hands. Whether they’re holding something, pointing, or gesturing somewhere, hands are often used in the design.

So back to the drawing board:

“Colorized photo of the founder of Ikea, Ingvar Kamprad portrayed as a cheerful mastermind, gesturing behind him, 4k --ar 16:9 --v 5”

Midjourney didn’t actually follow my prompt very well, but these are better. Now we’re getting somewhere.

The one on the bottom right immediately jumped out to me. I upscaled it:

I wasn’t worried about the background. I’ve found that when working in Midjourney, it’s better to focus on one element of an image at a time.

This is where Photoshop comes in.

I sourced an image of IKEA and placed Kamprad over it with a subtle Drop Shadow behind him:

Almost there - the coloring was slightly off. Everything needed to be brighter and sharper (again, reference MrBeast thumbnails. SUPER bright).

Much better. I also changed the color of his shirt for another option:

This is just one of the thumbnail designs I submitted to the team for feedback.

We ended up going with a different design (which you’ll see if you subscribe to the Aaron Watson YouTube channel), but I hope this breakdown helped you see the power of Midjourney and how it can assist you in your thumbnail designs.

Have an ELITE Week,

Hannah

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