Important note: Jack works destructively, that means that if he makes a mistake or wants to change something in a later state, he won't be able to do it. This work style is fine for thumbnails that need to be made quickly, but if you like to take your time, work with adjustment layers and masks. It will save you a lot of time in the long run! There are many KZfaq videos that go in depth about how these work. I do love Jack's creativity so please keeping making more videos like this, I really enjoy them

a great artistic effect, which I feel has gone unnoticed: Your blue eyes in the orange portal vs her orange eye in the blue portal

"you can see the pixels look weird" Bro, do you really think I'm bout to zoom into these thumbnails and be like "hmm yes these 3 pixels are a bit wonky."

As an artist and a digital art student who uses photoshop on the regular, the tools you use are all too familiar to me, but you explained them in a way that most people can understand. You talk about "not knowing what you're doing" several times in this video, but the techniques you use are things we learn in art school. Visual balance within a piece, color theory, creating perceived depth in a 2D picture, light, shading, and more. You know your stuff, Jack! Not many people will know how much thought goes into things like this, but it really is a form of art. When people look at something art-related, they usually can tell whether something is good or bad, though they may not understand why and that's what you've done an excellent job of explaining in this tutorial. It's great!

Puppet warp blew my simply mind. Thank u jack

I didnt know there was so much thought behind tumbnail. Im pretty simple: me see Jack, me click.

Can we just appreciate Robin for a second? He used some filters for examples. It's kind of a small thing but I'm kind of a visual learner so it helps alot. Thank you Robin, love your editing!

No one: Me: *watches this but is never going to make a thumbnail in my life*

Jack : " If you see my face then you know its a Jacksepticeye video." me : " If you've seen some of Pewdiepie's videos that's not necessarily true."

Me: *not able to sit through classes, informational videos over 4 minutes, and 15 second tiktoks* Also me: *overly excited to watch a 30 minute video of Jack explaining his thumbnails*

I was surprised when you started editing a new orange portal from scratch, instead of just duplicating the finished blue portal and hue-shifting it orange. =P Also, you can disable that annoying pixel grid when you zoom. I noticed you kept trying to avoid it. At the top of PS, View -> Show -> Pixel Grid - Off. ;)

It's called onionskin because it's used for animation to see multiple frames, or layers, and as we were all taught in the bibble onions have layers, like ogers

Jack: "KZfaq really likes colored thumbnails." Unus Annus: *laughs in black and white*

The hair strand thing with blurring it a bit was so helpful. Can't tell you how long I've spend editing my photography by going around all the hairs with an eraser

seán’s photoshop workflow is so deeply chaotic and i love it. i’m pretty sure he didn’t save once and i get why he probably doesn’t want a ton of thumbnail PSDs taking up space but still.

Easy way to get rid of black or white is to use the layer blend modes - Multiply and Screen. Multiply removes white and Screen removes black.

Hey Jack! I'm in a Photoshop class right now and I was starting to become less and less motivated to do all the elearning work we're getting because of the virus. This was actually SUPER HELPFUL and is kinda like a cheat sheet! It makes me want to keep working hard in the class. THANK YOU SO MUCH!

Everyone else: interesting Me and the bois: write that down! Write that down faster!

What Séan sees in his face: steely determination What we see: confusion

*"Hopefully Some Of You Learned Something Out Of This."* I learned a lot there Jack, thank you so much! 😊

Jack: *makes a thumbnail vid* KZfaq: “ah yes, GAMING”

Drinking game: Take a shot every time Sean says 'pop'

I've only used Photoshop to make celebrities noses bigger. I'd call myself some kind of an expert

Can we just appreciate jack that he is trying so hard to explain everything show every tools and stuff and help everyone and robin too helping us by showing stuff in editing and stuff. GOOOOD JAWB

GRAPHIC DESIGNER HERE okay, let's get started with the lesson: - 300 dpi is for PRINTING ONLY, for digital media you need your dpi to be 72dpi, 96dpi tops. DPI stands for Dots Per Inch, if you are not printing you do not need a high density of dots (the density of dots you are using will work for a high quality magazine, professional photography when i was in school was being printed in 240dpi), you are making the image larger when you don't need that amount of information. Also: if you were going to print this and you still resized your background so much, you'd better blur the hell out of it or you'll be seeing pixels until your last day on earth - You didn't say but I hope you are doing these in RGB and not in CMYK for the similar reasons, RGB is for screens because its based on the combinations of light, so it keeps the brightness and saturation of the colours and CMYK is for printing because its based on the combination of inks, so it will always wash down your colours. - usually on your tools there is a check box where you can check if you want them to be active on all layers or just on the layer you are working at the moment, i believe the wand also has it. - depending on how you like to blur your edges you can go to select > modify > feather and just select the amount of feather you want to add (probably you already know this but it is quicker than doing it by hand like you did, and the result is similar). - there are rules to compositions and why they are done in the way that they are made depending on how the image is weighted visually, if you are interested just dm me because that's a way too long of an explanation and this comment is already super long - you can make groups of layers instead of selecting them every time, this will make it easier for you to move them and resize them, usually alt+g works for that if not you can go to layer > group layers; it will create like a folder that you can open to work on layers individually again if you need to. You can also ungroup the layers too if you need to. - good work on your s curve! Just a note: usually on digital photography you can recover information from the dark/black spots (thats how you get more detail for your hair) but not from the burnt spots, so getting a dark image could be better than a bright one. - it is not selecting the gun properly because you are using it on a 72dpi image... to kinda make it understandable, its pixels are too big, it's doing what it can. You've pasted it on a 300dpi image, so the tool is just confused, 'cause your image just magically created a lot of pixels for itself... (its not magical but it's too technical, again, anybody interested just dm me) - its true you don't need to duplicate layers as you are doing but it's a good way of working because if you mess up too much your original image will be preserved to start over. However, you can still use your history brush for saving the moments of the image you want to go back to that is not a blank canvas. - yes, masks. - DON'T USE THE SHARPEN FILTER! - let me give you a pro tip: duplicate your face's layer, go to filter > other > high pass and enter a radius of about 16 for the quality you are using. After that, go to your layers panel and change the opacity from normal to soft light. It will be sharpened and it will give you a better quality on the image. You can also change the opacity of the layer if you want to play with the sharpness without doing the thing again. THIS IS WAY TOO LONG okay i'm done i hope it was helpful!

“How I make thumbnails for KZfaq videos” **Flashbacks to Waluigi**

Evryone: jack takes so much time and consideration for these Me: See's Jacksepticeye in notifications. Clicks

Jacksepticeye 2020 “steady hands, I should be a surgeon”

Jacksepticeye in the thumbnail be like: “Get a load of this lad”

Jack: *debating whether to keep something* Me: *states in amazement not caring* "You amaze me"

Jack: STEELY DETERMINATION Jacks face: vomits

jack: I want the portals the backgrounds to be in different spaces. **Proceeds to get 2 pictures of the same room**

I just found my favorite quote about Jacksepticeye to date: "Like a giant leprechaun with Tourette’s syndrome and a healthy supply of Adderall, Irish darling of KZfaq JackSepticEye blazes his way through video games one Irish outburst at a time." -Jacob Osborn, November 4, 2017

"Humans like faces." -Jacksepticeye 2020

As someone who just took a photoshop class... yeah, that’s basically the basics, my teacher did a lot of the same things for short edits, props for being mostly self taught. 👌🏻

Young Jack: *too worried about putting too much of himself in the frame of a thumbnail* SNESDrunk: *makes a 5 minute video that's 4 minute intro just to piss off all the people complaining about his intro*

I have seen some really helpful comments for you Sean, here another one ( _This is a long comment_ ): Practice using smart objects. Smart Objects help you preserve the resolution of the pixels in the layer and allow you to change the numbers of things like blur and curves. Examples of where it would be helpful or how it works: 1. If you make your face small and choose to put it somewhere but then change your mind and increase the size, the resolution of the image will get worse, if you use a smart object it will keep the resolution. 2. Let's say you were making background and put a gaussian blur of 8. After doing other things you realize that the blur on the background is too much and you decide to lower it to 4. But you will need to do it all over, if you use a smart object, you will only need to double click gaussian blur option just under the layer of the smart object and change the value. 3. It will work the same way for curves, and levels, etc. (There is a more efficient way of using adjustment layers but this will help you the way you do it without using something adjustment layers and clipping and all those shenanigans. 4. There is a downfall of using smart objects that you cannot edit the layers with a brush or eraser. But there is a way around it By double-clicking the smart layer, a new file will open which will be named the same as the layer name with an extension of ".psb ". Edit it the way you want the layer to look and then "ctrl- S" it. When you go back to the main file, it should be updated. There are two ways to make a layer a smart object 1. Right-click on the layer and choose the option "Convert to smart object". 2. Select the layer needed to be made -smart- -like- -Sean- 😅 , and select the filter option on the top and choose the option "Concert for smart filters". Now, this isn't the most efficient way or even the correct way as there is no such thing as correct way in Photoshop. But I think this could help you by making it a little more efficient and a little less tedious. *I hope whoever is reading this finds this helpful.*

How I make thumbnails: Step one: Hire a person to do it for you Step two: Done!

After watching this video, I realized Sean puts a lot of effort into his thumbnails. I went to look at the thumbnails he made before and he's right, they're very eye-catching. Making people wanna click on it and watch it. I'm really gonna appreciate the effort he goes through just to make a decent thumbnail for us. Also, this video was very helpful to people who don't know how to use Photoshop such as myself.

Even more respect for Jack. Didn’t realise what the process of making a thumbnail entailed. Nice vid!

As someone who will probably never make thumbnails in their life, this was actually extremely interesting and a good insight into how Jack makes thumbnails and all the subtleties of it. Edit: Thanks for the likes!

"I'm a huge fan of blue shadows" He's called Sonic, Jack

More KZfaqrs should do videos like this. Creating thumbnails, editing videos, editing sound, etc. Not only does it help those who are having difficulty with starting up on YT, it's also really fun to watch how your favorite creator(s) creates their videos. :)

I usually try to add tekst to my thumbnails. When I'm scrolling through KZfaq I have noticed that I often don't even need to read the title of a video if the tekst on the thumbnail is good. Also having a style is very good because then people instantly know it is you without noticing anything else.

Sean, you've taught me more in 30 minutes than I learned this entire semester of my Photography degree ☠️☠️

Jack calls himself dumb multiple times while making well-thought-out and multi-layered collage Meanwhile I Struggling to put my face onto one simple object

what everyone sees: what i see: jack trying to sound smart for 33 minutes

He shows us bit by bit and then puts in up as an actual thumbnail and knowing how it was made just makes us sit here and appreciate his hard work

Jack:“You need to make it P O P

19:47 Ok but do we not notice the arrangement of the lights in his room makes it look like the blue portal is actually reflecting off his face?

12:07 Sees jack get flustered Me: aww

Jack, thank you so much for this video! I’ve taken a photoshop “class” in school and my teacher never really told us HALF of what you went over!

22:04 no, I really like those explanations of what you do and how those things work

new title for this video: "man kinda knows what hes talking about in his job for 30 minutes"

This is fantastic, I love how well you learn from just toying around for as long as you have, I'm a professional graphic artist and taken many classes and have degrees in this and I can see how you have learn the same process in your own round about nature. Its amazing work and I'd love to see more!

This video makes me feel all calm and cosy. I always love getting an inside view of the creation that goes into the things I enjoy watching

Me before video: "I'm never gonna use this" Me after video: *quietly saving for future reference* Srsly tho, even if I don't end up making KZfaq videos at some point, this is useful knowledge for editing photos to make them easier to see. You may not know much, but you know more than me

24:50 Onion skin is a tool that allows you to see the previous or later frames (Usually used for animations). The frames are very transparent like the skin of an onion.

Honestly, this type of content I've been looking for for Weeks and really appreciate this. Plus its very wholesome and calm to watch. Thanks Jacka-boy!

Jack: I'm self-conscious because people are actually looking at this. Also Jack: *makes a funny grimacing face for the camera*

Jack: gives good example Every other youtuber: open your mouth as wide as you can and take a picture of you looking surprised add a stock photo of the topic for the background and you're good

Me "I dont need to make thumbnails but I click anyway" Jack "i mess with the briteness and contrast" Me again "hmm interesting"

I really appreciate this video, thanks Jack.

This was a great video and I love the conversations it opened up in the comments. I've been using photoshop for years and have recently been using Adobe illustrator to make logos for local businesses and bands so I'd love to see more content like this! I hope other KZfaqrs see this and make their own thumbnail how to videos to see how everyone approaches it.

Step 1: Stub your toe Step 2: take selfie mid stub Step 3: superimpose pain face over a game screenshot Step 4: S T O N K S

Jack: *shows how he makes his thumbnails* Me: great, now show us how you made this video’s thumbnail

My profession is Designer and I study art history. I really appreciated this video and getting to see Sean's thought process in creating thumbnails. I have more respect for his work, it's so cool to see him applying curves and refined edges, slightly deeper actions that I feel most people don't consider when making thumbnails. It's always fun for me to hear him use terms and principles of design. Its awesome to see him develop goals and then try to solve problems using layers to convey depth. He seems to like art and design, even mentioned Romanticism in his Portal 2 Video (maybe thinking of Friedrich or Turner). Jack said he didn't really apply rules of thirds and didn't know what his style could be called. Might have a term for you! He says one of his primary goals is to fill the space, the stylistic desire to fill space is called Horror Vacui. So if you're ever obsessively filling space in a relatively balanced fashion, you can say you are applying Horror Vacui!

It never ceases to amaze me how many different skill sets KZfaqrs need to be across. Storytelling, comedy, performing to a camera, camerawork/audio recording, editing, colour grading, audio post, photoshop. And then also SEO, analytics etc.... it blows my mind. People who scoff at career KZfaqrs have no idea.

Random eye fact: Did you know, that the pattern of every iris is unique? The colour is pre-determined with genetics but the flecks and swirls and fine details are made up randomly in the womb. Even your own two irises don't match each other exactly!!!

He adds a lot of details in his thumbnails. Who else agrees?

Thank you Jack, seriously. I really appreciate someone with your background and skill showing up a behind the scenes of what you do on a daily basis. I LOVE this kind of stuff from you! This was very inspiring and I will definitely use some of your tips for my own thumbnails.

I had no idea about uping the vibrancy and slightly sharpening the image to make it pop, thanks jack! You saved some of my thumbnails, and you gave me a BUNCH of info i did not have before!

Random fact: Without saliva, humans are unable to taste food.

Nobody Seán "how i make thumbnails" Everyone "SEÁN SCREAMS"

i do a lot of Photoshop projects for my friends and family but just watching this has given me a much bigger insight on Photoshop so thank you Sean

Been watching your channel for several years, and as someone who literally has a bachelor's degree in graphic design, it was neat to see you actually show and use a couple tools I never even knew existed in the newer version of photoshop (I'm generally more proficient in Illustrator), so thank you for this! Very informative and awesome to learn a couple new tricks 😊😊😊

It's cool to see how people go through the creative process to make things. Really neet stuff Jack!

Honestly I've always thought your standard thumbnail of cut out character, DOF background, and cut off text was a perfect format. Sure it shouldn't be used for every video you do, but it's perfect for long series because it looks great, and is very easy to recognize the series and game from the thumbnail.

ok but we stan Robin's editing for adding so much context and quick reference to the concepts Jack only touched on briefly

TYSM for making this, my guy. Honestly so helpful, photoshop is so overwhelming and so many people just put out their hard "you HAVE to do it this way" type tutorials.

"Im trying to avoid as much dead space as possible" man thats gonna be hard if you decide to do a Dead Space series

This couldn’t have come at a better time. I finally cracked down and decided if quarantine wasn’t the right time to start a KZfaq channel, then let’s be real, I just wasn’t gonna make one. I’ve passed this on to my partner/editor (a film student I go to college with) (Edit: before anyone goes looking, this is a personal account, not the channel I started. I’m not that kind of d*ck)

I really appreciate the insight from this video! I agree in that I would also love to hear and see the process behind the content. It's extremely beneficial for people to have that kind of step by step walk through, even if it's for one specific example! I love the content, and keep up the great work Seán!

I keep pausing midway through the changes every time a filter is applied/ taken away in editing. I'm just so fascinated by the editing magic that's happening here. (And in every other video) So cool.

12:10 my face when the neighbor's kid started waving at me

When you dont even have a computer but you still try and remember all the details in this video

I think you would be surprised about how much people really care and are interested in the work you put in behind the scenes! You do a great job, and the numbers speak for themselves! Would love to see how you edit videos!!

Nobody: Jack: Literally uses the workings of the human brain to get more views

When I'm scrolling through youtube, I instantly know if it's a jacksepticeye video from the thumbnail, even if it's on screen for less than a second. I think that's a good thing.

Jack: this is how I make my thumbnails. Jack: so take this thingy- I don’t actually know what it’s for but it makes it look cool.

I always thought your thumbnails conveyed pretty clearly what was going on in the vid, while still being fun. Plus it's always cool to see someone else's creative process 👍🏻

Me: "jack can't find nothing to find to play" Jack: yes Everyone: yeah

Man your thumbnails are the best, every time I see one of your thumbnails I pretty much know it’s from you. They have a certain style which is eye catching and unique, keep up the good work Sean.

Jack: I know nothing Also Jack : goes on doing stuff that are not even explained or mentioned in tutorials . i think tutorials from popular youtubers (u know who all) will be more benefiting

i would LOVE more videos like this, ie how you do things, edit, lighting, your setup preferences, layout, computer stats, or like wat ur ideal setup would be, etc.

As someone who’s been studying art for a while it’s really interesting seeing jack just following like composition rules and just being like “idk I just think it looks nice” because that’s basically all it is. And for someone who hasn’t like studied art he knows what he’s doing. I do think it’d be fun tho to have a convo with him about composition and color theory and all that :)

I want a compilation of Jack telling Robin how he wants a specific part edited in a video during recording. There HAS to be some times where he is like "hey robin at that part could you just..."

I’ve always hated portal for some reason. My brain would just tell me “puzzle games = boring” but I watched jacks series and it got me really interested in the game.

I just wanted to say that this was extremely useful to me. A lot of videos that I watch for this kind of stuff use very technical and proper terms that don't make sense. You speak plainly about it, and that means I understand it better. Hopefully, I'll be able to use some of this in my own thumbnails. Thanks Jack!

I love the change in pace. Tysm for showing us what you do I found this very informative ☺️