Enhancing Visuals: Using Chroma Key Effectively

The world of video-making owes much of its magic to small leaps of innovation. One of these leaps is the use of the chroma key background, which most people know by the more colloquial term—green screen.

Chroma key, also known as green screen or blue screen, is a cool hack for seamless visual storytelling, allowing content creators to replace backgrounds with any image or video they want. This technique is widely embraced in film, television, and online content, and has opened the door to limitless creative possibilities. Aside from its ability to maximize creativity, it is also cheap to employ and convenient to set up, which has made it a staple for everyone who works with visuals.

In this simple guide, we’ll delve into the fundamentals of the chroma key effect, how it is used for video making, and how to leverage that as you perfect your visual content.

YouTube Video Background Creating realistic video scenes at your will is easy to complete with Filmora green screen removal.

Create Video Backgrounds Create Video Backgrounds Learn Green Screen

How Does Chroma Key Work?

Chroma Keying is done by singling out a specific color (usually green or blue) from the foreground, removing it, and replacing it with a different background (for example, a sunset). This process typically follows a series of steps:

• Background Selection:

A solid, single-color background, often green or blue, that contrasts well with the subject must be used. The color chosen should not be present in the subject or any props in the camera field to avoid unintentional transparency.

• Color Keying:

This requires the use of specialized visual effects software to key out the chosen color. The green or blue background is designated as transparent, making everything of that color see-through. The software distinguishes between the keyed color and the subject, creating a mask for the transparent areas.

• Foreground Filming:

This involves filming the subject against the live chroma key background. During filming, the chosen background color (green or blue) won’t appear in the final result due to its transparency. The subject is captured as if separately from the isolated background.

• Post-Processing:

In post-production processing, the editor takes the keyed-out color and replaces it with the new background of their choice. This step creates the illusion that the subject is in a different setting or environment. The transparent areas become filled with the chosen background which, if done right, results in a cohesive and visually appealing composition.

Why Green?

Theoretically, the chroma key background can be any solid color. However, the most commonly used colors are studio blue and bright green, with the latter far more common.

The choice of background color depends on the specific requirements of the production and the colors present in the scenes being filmed.

Free Download For Win 7 or later(64-bit)

Free Download For macOS 10.14 or later

Contrast

The less similar your chosen background color is to natural skin tones, the easier to isolate and replace in your footage. Bright green provides a strong contrast to most human skin tones and is less likely to be present in costumes or natural surroundings, making it easier to isolate subjects during the color separation.

Luminance

The color green emits light with greater intensity than blue, allowing for far more effective isolation by cameras during filming. This also means that blue screens demand increased lighting for proper exposure compared to green. This situation may be less than ideal if you lack powerful lighting or you don’t have the big bucks for them.

Digital Sensors

Many digital cameras and sensors are more sensitive to green wavelengths, resulting in cleaner and more accurate color keying during post-processing. Modern technology has also evolved to optimize for a green background, making it a more practical choice for the chroma key effect.

Wardrobe and Set Design

Bright green occurs less naturally in costumes and set designs than other colors, making green the optimal choice for reducing the likelihood of color spill and keying issues. However, if you know your scene will have lots of green, it is probably best to film with a blue screen, so there’s less risk of color spill and less post-production work.

Setting up Your Own Chroma Key Studio

Setting up your chroma key is convenient and straightforward, but there are some key factors to consider while setting up to ensure maximal performance.

Choosing the Right Background Color

The first step in the chroma key setup is selecting the right background color to be keyed out. This choice determines your effective color separation and ensures a smooth keying process during editing. Choosing a chroma-key background color that contrasts distinctly with the subject’s colors is essential for effective color separation. This prevents unintentional transparency, color spill, and ensures a polished final result.

Lighting Considerations

Lighting is an important part of the chroma-keying process. Bold, uniform, and consistent lighting on both the subject and the background makes it easy to delineate one from the other fully. This minimizes shadows and variations in color, creating a smooth and seamless keying process. Multiple diffuse lights from different angles are often used to illuminate the green screen evenly.

Positioning/Camera

Proper subject and camera placement are necessary to ensure an even color-keying process during post-production. To prevent shadow interference, the green screen should be smooth, tense, and without wrinkles or shadows.

High-quality cameras are essential every time, especially for chroma keying. Images with better definition are easier to key, so camera quality significantly affects the outcome. Even if your camera isn’t the best, merely shooting well can ensure a clean color-keying process during editing, resulting in professional-looking visuals.

Recording Tips for Chroma Key

• Proper Lighting

Maintaining uniform and well-defined lighting during recording is essential for a successful chroma-keying process. This consistency ensures a seamless keying process during post-production.

• Keep Distance from the Green Screen

The optimal distance between the subject and the green screen minimizes color spill and allows for natural movements. Proper distance between subject and background allows for easier isolation of the background and much smoother post-editing. A recommended starting point for the issue is around 6 to 10 feet from the background.

• Subjects and Clothing

As mentioned before, the choice of costume for Selecting appropriate clothing that doesn’t match the chroma key color prevents transparency issues. Subjects also have to be positioned in such a way that there is minimal light interference and reflection. These contribute to a flawless chroma key outcome.

3 Basic Troubleshooting Strategies

• Color Spill

Sometimes, reflected light from your green background can be cast on your subject and may remain so when the background light is keyed out. This phenomenon is known as a color spill. It is usually because of uneven lighting or shooting around reflecting surfaces. Avoiding spill can differentiate between good and lousy chroma key aftereffects.

Human hair is one area where color spill can show up unsuspectingly. Due to the translucency of hair, it is common for some unintended light to seep through. This allows some background visibility, which you do not want with a chroma key. This is especially notable with lighter hair colors like blond hair.

There are ways to account for this. Many video-editing software have features such as spill suppression and screen matte adjustments that can enhance the final footage. Specialized plugins also go a long way in ensuring minimizing spill. Addressing spill correction tackles unwanted green artifacts and ensures a clean keying process.

• Poor Lighting

Suboptimal green screen lighting can lead to inconsistencies in keying and editing, undermining your product. One way to avoid this is to light the screen and subject separately. Another tip, although expensive, is using multiple diffuse light sources and trying to maintain even lighting across every square foot of your scene. Super bright or dark spots can ruin your output, so it’s worth the extra effort if you don’t want to deal with problematic post-production.

• Poorly Refined Edges

Chroma keying should leave your videos with crisp, defined, natural-looking edges. But post-production editing can make all the difference if it doesn’t come out to your taste. Softening and refining edges make a smoother transition between the foreground object and the new background. Light adjustments to edge thickness and screen matte settings can also help enhance overall visual quality and add finesse to your work.

Conclusion

Green screen photography produces excellent results, and its ease of use makes it indispensable for videographers of all levels. In this guide, we’ve discussed chroma key technology, its role in the industry, and how to apply it to your craft to elevate visual content.

Chroma key, also known as green screen or blue screen, is a cool hack for seamless visual storytelling, allowing content creators to replace backgrounds with any image or video they want. This technique is widely embraced in film, television, and online content, and has opened the door to limitless creative possibilities. Aside from its ability to maximize creativity, it is also cheap to employ and convenient to set up, which has made it a staple for everyone who works with visuals.

In this simple guide, we’ll delve into the fundamentals of the chroma key effect, how it is used for video making, and how to leverage that as you perfect your visual content.

YouTube Video Background Creating realistic video scenes at your will is easy to complete with Filmora green screen removal.

Create Video Backgrounds Create Video Backgrounds Learn Green Screen

How Does Chroma Key Work?

Chroma Keying is done by singling out a specific color (usually green or blue) from the foreground, removing it, and replacing it with a different background (for example, a sunset). This process typically follows a series of steps:

• Background Selection:

A solid, single-color background, often green or blue, that contrasts well with the subject must be used. The color chosen should not be present in the subject or any props in the camera field to avoid unintentional transparency.

• Color Keying:

This requires the use of specialized visual effects software to key out the chosen color. The green or blue background is designated as transparent, making everything of that color see-through. The software distinguishes between the keyed color and the subject, creating a mask for the transparent areas.

• Foreground Filming:

This involves filming the subject against the live chroma key background. During filming, the chosen background color (green or blue) won’t appear in the final result due to its transparency. The subject is captured as if separately from the isolated background.

• Post-Processing:

In post-production processing, the editor takes the keyed-out color and replaces it with the new background of their choice. This step creates the illusion that the subject is in a different setting or environment. The transparent areas become filled with the chosen background which, if done right, results in a cohesive and visually appealing composition.

Why Green?

Theoretically, the chroma key background can be any solid color. However, the most commonly used colors are studio blue and bright green, with the latter far more common.

The choice of background color depends on the specific requirements of the production and the colors present in the scenes being filmed.

Free Download For Win 7 or later(64-bit)

Free Download For macOS 10.14 or later

Contrast

The less similar your chosen background color is to natural skin tones, the easier to isolate and replace in your footage. Bright green provides a strong contrast to most human skin tones and is less likely to be present in costumes or natural surroundings, making it easier to isolate subjects during the color separation.

Luminance

The color green emits light with greater intensity than blue, allowing for far more effective isolation by cameras during filming. This also means that blue screens demand increased lighting for proper exposure compared to green. This situation may be less than ideal if you lack powerful lighting or you don’t have the big bucks for them.

Digital Sensors

Many digital cameras and sensors are more sensitive to green wavelengths, resulting in cleaner and more accurate color keying during post-processing. Modern technology has also evolved to optimize for a green background, making it a more practical choice for the chroma key effect.

Wardrobe and Set Design

Bright green occurs less naturally in costumes and set designs than other colors, making green the optimal choice for reducing the likelihood of color spill and keying issues. However, if you know your scene will have lots of green, it is probably best to film with a blue screen, so there’s less risk of color spill and less post-production work.

Setting up Your Own Chroma Key Studio

Setting up your chroma key is convenient and straightforward, but there are some key factors to consider while setting up to ensure maximal performance.

Choosing the Right Background Color

The first step in the chroma key setup is selecting the right background color to be keyed out. This choice determines your effective color separation and ensures a smooth keying process during editing. Choosing a chroma-key background color that contrasts distinctly with the subject’s colors is essential for effective color separation. This prevents unintentional transparency, color spill, and ensures a polished final result.

Lighting Considerations

Lighting is an important part of the chroma-keying process. Bold, uniform, and consistent lighting on both the subject and the background makes it easy to delineate one from the other fully. This minimizes shadows and variations in color, creating a smooth and seamless keying process. Multiple diffuse lights from different angles are often used to illuminate the green screen evenly.

Positioning/Camera

Proper subject and camera placement are necessary to ensure an even color-keying process during post-production. To prevent shadow interference, the green screen should be smooth, tense, and without wrinkles or shadows.

High-quality cameras are essential every time, especially for chroma keying. Images with better definition are easier to key, so camera quality significantly affects the outcome. Even if your camera isn’t the best, merely shooting well can ensure a clean color-keying process during editing, resulting in professional-looking visuals.

Recording Tips for Chroma Key

• Proper Lighting

Maintaining uniform and well-defined lighting during recording is essential for a successful chroma-keying process. This consistency ensures a seamless keying process during post-production.

• Keep Distance from the Green Screen

The optimal distance between the subject and the green screen minimizes color spill and allows for natural movements. Proper distance between subject and background allows for easier isolation of the background and much smoother post-editing. A recommended starting point for the issue is around 6 to 10 feet from the background.

• Subjects and Clothing

As mentioned before, the choice of costume for Selecting appropriate clothing that doesn’t match the chroma key color prevents transparency issues. Subjects also have to be positioned in such a way that there is minimal light interference and reflection. These contribute to a flawless chroma key outcome.

3 Basic Troubleshooting Strategies

• Color Spill

Sometimes, reflected light from your green background can be cast on your subject and may remain so when the background light is keyed out. This phenomenon is known as a color spill. It is usually because of uneven lighting or shooting around reflecting surfaces. Avoiding spill can differentiate between good and lousy chroma key aftereffects.

Human hair is one area where color spill can show up unsuspectingly. Due to the translucency of hair, it is common for some unintended light to seep through. This allows some background visibility, which you do not want with a chroma key. This is especially notable with lighter hair colors like blond hair.

There are ways to account for this. Many video-editing software have features such as spill suppression and screen matte adjustments that can enhance the final footage. Specialized plugins also go a long way in ensuring minimizing spill. Addressing spill correction tackles unwanted green artifacts and ensures a clean keying process.

• Poor Lighting

Suboptimal green screen lighting can lead to inconsistencies in keying and editing, undermining your product. One way to avoid this is to light the screen and subject separately. Another tip, although expensive, is using multiple diffuse light sources and trying to maintain even lighting across every square foot of your scene. Super bright or dark spots can ruin your output, so it’s worth the extra effort if you don’t want to deal with problematic post-production.

• Poorly Refined Edges

Chroma keying should leave your videos with crisp, defined, natural-looking edges. But post-production editing can make all the difference if it doesn’t come out to your taste. Softening and refining edges make a smoother transition between the foreground object and the new background. Light adjustments to edge thickness and screen matte settings can also help enhance overall visual quality and add finesse to your work.

Conclusion

Green screen photography produces excellent results, and its ease of use makes it indispensable for videographers of all levels. In this guide, we’ve discussed chroma key technology, its role in the industry, and how to apply it to your craft to elevate visual content.

The Ultimate Guide to YouTube Thumbnail Crafting

How to Make a Thumbnail for Your YouTube Free Easily

Shanoon Cox

Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions

Youtube is one of the widely and most used video-sharing platforms all around the world. Being such a huge platform, billions of users upload different videos every second, making it a very competitive platform. Getting your videos noticed and clicked by others requires so many factors to be considered. One of the main factors that increase the chances of your videos being connected and seen by others is an attractive thumbnail. It is the first and the most important factor that helps the viewers decide what to watch and ignore. According to an estimate, among all the best-performing videos on Youtube, 90% have custom thumbnails. So, if you are looking forward to increasing the number of clicks on your videos, having a custom thumbnail is one of the most important things to consider. There are multiple ways to make a thumbnail for Youtube, but most are paid and difficult to use. In this article, we will discuss a hack to make a thumbnail for your Youtube free.

---

You might be interested in:

• How to Make Game Streaming Video with AI Portrait
• How to Make Reaction Video with AI Portrait

---

How to make a thumbnail for Youtube using AI Portrait

With time, Filmora brings new and advanced features for its users to equip them with all the necessary tools required for effective and efficient video editing. One of its latest features is AI Portrait. This feature has several uses and benefits. This feature is designed for Gamers, Vlogger, and other related genres to help them make their videos stand out from the crowd and gain more clicks and views. AI Portrait contains several effects that help you make the human element of the video separate from the background and make it more obvious. We can also use the AI Portrait effects to make beautiful and attractive thumbnails for your Youtube. Follow these steps to create a stunning thumbnail for your Youtube videos.

Step 01: Open Filmora X. If it is not already installed on your computer, download and install its latest version from here .

Step 02: Make sure that the aspect ratio of your project is 16:9. To do that, click on a screen-shaped icon below the preview screen and select “Change Project Aspect Ratio.”

Step 03: Change the Aspect Ratio to 16:9 if it is not set to it already. 16:9 aspect ratio is the standard size of Youtube thumbnails that represents the best possible results.

Step 04: Choose a background of your choice for your thumbnail. You can choose a background from the sample colors provided by Filmora.

Step 05: If you want to use your custom background, you can import it into the Filmora by clicking import or dragging and dropping it in the media section.

Step 06: Import your video the same way into the media folder of Filmora and drag it into the timeline and place it above your background.

Step 07: Select your footage, go to the Effects tab and click on AI Portraits. It will open up all the effects related to AI Portraits. These AI Portrait features help you separate the human from a background without using a green screen or anything else.

Step 08: Double click on any of these effects to see how they will look like on your footage.

Step 09: To make a thumbnail for your Youtube, we have to remove the background of your footage first. To do that we have to apply Human Segmentation to the footage first. It will separate the human from the footage. Drag and drop the Human Segmentation effect into the footage in the timeline. Once you drop it into the footage, it will ask you to purchase this feature to export the footage. Since we are not trying to export the footage, we are only creating a thumbnail, click on “Try It”. Once the background is removed, you can add other effects as well. Drag and drop the “Human Border” into the footage. It creates an outline around the human in your footage.

Step 10: The effect will be applied to the footage. Now the background has been removed from the footage and ready to be used on your custom background. You can adjust the human accordingly where it looks perfect.

Step 11: Now it is time to add a title into your thumbnail to highlight what the video is all about. Go to the Titles, and select lower thirds. You can also select any of the titles types which best suits your needs. Drop the title into the timeline above the footage and adjust it accordingly. Now double click on the header to edit and rename it.

Step 12: Once you are satisfied with the final results, click on the Camera icon below the preview screen or press “Ctrl+Alt+S” to take the screenshot.

Conclusion

This is how your Youtube thumbnail will look like after applying all the above-mentioned effects and settings.

This article on making a thumbnail for your Youtube is just an idea for you, and you can use your creativity to create amazing thumbnails using other features of Filmora. These cool thumbnails will help you attract more viewers and click, which will ultimately help you grow your Youtube Channel. Unlike all other articles and tutorials that show you how to make a thumbnail for Youtube, this method is free and doesn’t need any technical skills to be implemented.

Shanoon Cox

Shanoon Cox is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Shanoon Cox

Shanoon Cox

Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions

Youtube is one of the widely and most used video-sharing platforms all around the world. Being such a huge platform, billions of users upload different videos every second, making it a very competitive platform. Getting your videos noticed and clicked by others requires so many factors to be considered. One of the main factors that increase the chances of your videos being connected and seen by others is an attractive thumbnail. It is the first and the most important factor that helps the viewers decide what to watch and ignore. According to an estimate, among all the best-performing videos on Youtube, 90% have custom thumbnails. So, if you are looking forward to increasing the number of clicks on your videos, having a custom thumbnail is one of the most important things to consider. There are multiple ways to make a thumbnail for Youtube, but most are paid and difficult to use. In this article, we will discuss a hack to make a thumbnail for your Youtube free.

---

You might be interested in:

• How to Make Game Streaming Video with AI Portrait
• How to Make Reaction Video with AI Portrait

---

How to make a thumbnail for Youtube using AI Portrait

With time, Filmora brings new and advanced features for its users to equip them with all the necessary tools required for effective and efficient video editing. One of its latest features is AI Portrait. This feature has several uses and benefits. This feature is designed for Gamers, Vlogger, and other related genres to help them make their videos stand out from the crowd and gain more clicks and views. AI Portrait contains several effects that help you make the human element of the video separate from the background and make it more obvious. We can also use the AI Portrait effects to make beautiful and attractive thumbnails for your Youtube. Follow these steps to create a stunning thumbnail for your Youtube videos.

Step 01: Open Filmora X. If it is not already installed on your computer, download and install its latest version from here .

Step 02: Make sure that the aspect ratio of your project is 16:9. To do that, click on a screen-shaped icon below the preview screen and select “Change Project Aspect Ratio.”

Step 03: Change the Aspect Ratio to 16:9 if it is not set to it already. 16:9 aspect ratio is the standard size of Youtube thumbnails that represents the best possible results.

Step 04: Choose a background of your choice for your thumbnail. You can choose a background from the sample colors provided by Filmora.

Step 05: If you want to use your custom background, you can import it into the Filmora by clicking import or dragging and dropping it in the media section.

Step 06: Import your video the same way into the media folder of Filmora and drag it into the timeline and place it above your background.

Step 07: Select your footage, go to the Effects tab and click on AI Portraits. It will open up all the effects related to AI Portraits. These AI Portrait features help you separate the human from a background without using a green screen or anything else.

Step 08: Double click on any of these effects to see how they will look like on your footage.

Step 09: To make a thumbnail for your Youtube, we have to remove the background of your footage first. To do that we have to apply Human Segmentation to the footage first. It will separate the human from the footage. Drag and drop the Human Segmentation effect into the footage in the timeline. Once you drop it into the footage, it will ask you to purchase this feature to export the footage. Since we are not trying to export the footage, we are only creating a thumbnail, click on “Try It”. Once the background is removed, you can add other effects as well. Drag and drop the “Human Border” into the footage. It creates an outline around the human in your footage.

Step 10: The effect will be applied to the footage. Now the background has been removed from the footage and ready to be used on your custom background. You can adjust the human accordingly where it looks perfect.

Step 11: Now it is time to add a title into your thumbnail to highlight what the video is all about. Go to the Titles, and select lower thirds. You can also select any of the titles types which best suits your needs. Drop the title into the timeline above the footage and adjust it accordingly. Now double click on the header to edit and rename it.

Step 12: Once you are satisfied with the final results, click on the Camera icon below the preview screen or press “Ctrl+Alt+S” to take the screenshot.

Conclusion

This is how your Youtube thumbnail will look like after applying all the above-mentioned effects and settings.

This article on making a thumbnail for your Youtube is just an idea for you, and you can use your creativity to create amazing thumbnails using other features of Filmora. These cool thumbnails will help you attract more viewers and click, which will ultimately help you grow your Youtube Channel. Unlike all other articles and tutorials that show you how to make a thumbnail for Youtube, this method is free and doesn’t need any technical skills to be implemented.

Shanoon Cox

Shanoon Cox is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Shanoon Cox

Shanoon Cox

Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions

Youtube is one of the widely and most used video-sharing platforms all around the world. Being such a huge platform, billions of users upload different videos every second, making it a very competitive platform. Getting your videos noticed and clicked by others requires so many factors to be considered. One of the main factors that increase the chances of your videos being connected and seen by others is an attractive thumbnail. It is the first and the most important factor that helps the viewers decide what to watch and ignore. According to an estimate, among all the best-performing videos on Youtube, 90% have custom thumbnails. So, if you are looking forward to increasing the number of clicks on your videos, having a custom thumbnail is one of the most important things to consider. There are multiple ways to make a thumbnail for Youtube, but most are paid and difficult to use. In this article, we will discuss a hack to make a thumbnail for your Youtube free.

---

You might be interested in:

• How to Make Game Streaming Video with AI Portrait
• How to Make Reaction Video with AI Portrait

---

How to make a thumbnail for Youtube using AI Portrait

With time, Filmora brings new and advanced features for its users to equip them with all the necessary tools required for effective and efficient video editing. One of its latest features is AI Portrait. This feature has several uses and benefits. This feature is designed for Gamers, Vlogger, and other related genres to help them make their videos stand out from the crowd and gain more clicks and views. AI Portrait contains several effects that help you make the human element of the video separate from the background and make it more obvious. We can also use the AI Portrait effects to make beautiful and attractive thumbnails for your Youtube. Follow these steps to create a stunning thumbnail for your Youtube videos.

Step 01: Open Filmora X. If it is not already installed on your computer, download and install its latest version from here .

Step 02: Make sure that the aspect ratio of your project is 16:9. To do that, click on a screen-shaped icon below the preview screen and select “Change Project Aspect Ratio.”

Step 03: Change the Aspect Ratio to 16:9 if it is not set to it already. 16:9 aspect ratio is the standard size of Youtube thumbnails that represents the best possible results.

Step 04: Choose a background of your choice for your thumbnail. You can choose a background from the sample colors provided by Filmora.

Step 05: If you want to use your custom background, you can import it into the Filmora by clicking import or dragging and dropping it in the media section.

Step 06: Import your video the same way into the media folder of Filmora and drag it into the timeline and place it above your background.

Step 07: Select your footage, go to the Effects tab and click on AI Portraits. It will open up all the effects related to AI Portraits. These AI Portrait features help you separate the human from a background without using a green screen or anything else.

Step 08: Double click on any of these effects to see how they will look like on your footage.

Step 09: To make a thumbnail for your Youtube, we have to remove the background of your footage first. To do that we have to apply Human Segmentation to the footage first. It will separate the human from the footage. Drag and drop the Human Segmentation effect into the footage in the timeline. Once you drop it into the footage, it will ask you to purchase this feature to export the footage. Since we are not trying to export the footage, we are only creating a thumbnail, click on “Try It”. Once the background is removed, you can add other effects as well. Drag and drop the “Human Border” into the footage. It creates an outline around the human in your footage.

Step 10: The effect will be applied to the footage. Now the background has been removed from the footage and ready to be used on your custom background. You can adjust the human accordingly where it looks perfect.

Step 11: Now it is time to add a title into your thumbnail to highlight what the video is all about. Go to the Titles, and select lower thirds. You can also select any of the titles types which best suits your needs. Drop the title into the timeline above the footage and adjust it accordingly. Now double click on the header to edit and rename it.

Step 12: Once you are satisfied with the final results, click on the Camera icon below the preview screen or press “Ctrl+Alt+S” to take the screenshot.

Conclusion

This is how your Youtube thumbnail will look like after applying all the above-mentioned effects and settings.

This article on making a thumbnail for your Youtube is just an idea for you, and you can use your creativity to create amazing thumbnails using other features of Filmora. These cool thumbnails will help you attract more viewers and click, which will ultimately help you grow your Youtube Channel. Unlike all other articles and tutorials that show you how to make a thumbnail for Youtube, this method is free and doesn’t need any technical skills to be implemented.

Shanoon Cox

Shanoon Cox is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Shanoon Cox

Shanoon Cox

Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions

Youtube is one of the widely and most used video-sharing platforms all around the world. Being such a huge platform, billions of users upload different videos every second, making it a very competitive platform. Getting your videos noticed and clicked by others requires so many factors to be considered. One of the main factors that increase the chances of your videos being connected and seen by others is an attractive thumbnail. It is the first and the most important factor that helps the viewers decide what to watch and ignore. According to an estimate, among all the best-performing videos on Youtube, 90% have custom thumbnails. So, if you are looking forward to increasing the number of clicks on your videos, having a custom thumbnail is one of the most important things to consider. There are multiple ways to make a thumbnail for Youtube, but most are paid and difficult to use. In this article, we will discuss a hack to make a thumbnail for your Youtube free.

---

You might be interested in:

• How to Make Game Streaming Video with AI Portrait
• How to Make Reaction Video with AI Portrait

---

How to make a thumbnail for Youtube using AI Portrait

With time, Filmora brings new and advanced features for its users to equip them with all the necessary tools required for effective and efficient video editing. One of its latest features is AI Portrait. This feature has several uses and benefits. This feature is designed for Gamers, Vlogger, and other related genres to help them make their videos stand out from the crowd and gain more clicks and views. AI Portrait contains several effects that help you make the human element of the video separate from the background and make it more obvious. We can also use the AI Portrait effects to make beautiful and attractive thumbnails for your Youtube. Follow these steps to create a stunning thumbnail for your Youtube videos.

Step 01: Open Filmora X. If it is not already installed on your computer, download and install its latest version from here .

Step 02: Make sure that the aspect ratio of your project is 16:9. To do that, click on a screen-shaped icon below the preview screen and select “Change Project Aspect Ratio.”

Step 03: Change the Aspect Ratio to 16:9 if it is not set to it already. 16:9 aspect ratio is the standard size of Youtube thumbnails that represents the best possible results.

Step 04: Choose a background of your choice for your thumbnail. You can choose a background from the sample colors provided by Filmora.

Step 05: If you want to use your custom background, you can import it into the Filmora by clicking import or dragging and dropping it in the media section.

Step 06: Import your video the same way into the media folder of Filmora and drag it into the timeline and place it above your background.

Step 07: Select your footage, go to the Effects tab and click on AI Portraits. It will open up all the effects related to AI Portraits. These AI Portrait features help you separate the human from a background without using a green screen or anything else.

Step 08: Double click on any of these effects to see how they will look like on your footage.

Step 09: To make a thumbnail for your Youtube, we have to remove the background of your footage first. To do that we have to apply Human Segmentation to the footage first. It will separate the human from the footage. Drag and drop the Human Segmentation effect into the footage in the timeline. Once you drop it into the footage, it will ask you to purchase this feature to export the footage. Since we are not trying to export the footage, we are only creating a thumbnail, click on “Try It”. Once the background is removed, you can add other effects as well. Drag and drop the “Human Border” into the footage. It creates an outline around the human in your footage.

Step 10: The effect will be applied to the footage. Now the background has been removed from the footage and ready to be used on your custom background. You can adjust the human accordingly where it looks perfect.

Step 11: Now it is time to add a title into your thumbnail to highlight what the video is all about. Go to the Titles, and select lower thirds. You can also select any of the titles types which best suits your needs. Drop the title into the timeline above the footage and adjust it accordingly. Now double click on the header to edit and rename it.

Step 12: Once you are satisfied with the final results, click on the Camera icon below the preview screen or press “Ctrl+Alt+S” to take the screenshot.

Conclusion

This is how your Youtube thumbnail will look like after applying all the above-mentioned effects and settings.

This article on making a thumbnail for your Youtube is just an idea for you, and you can use your creativity to create amazing thumbnails using other features of Filmora. These cool thumbnails will help you attract more viewers and click, which will ultimately help you grow your Youtube Channel. Unlike all other articles and tutorials that show you how to make a thumbnail for Youtube, this method is free and doesn’t need any technical skills to be implemented.

Shanoon Cox

Shanoon Cox is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Shanoon Cox

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