How do you create the thumbnail using the AFO? Are you referring to this specific thumbnail?
Dude, that's a real photo. I'll show you how to do it using foul.ai. First, train the model using the Flux Laura portrait trainer endpoint by uploading about 50 images of yourself looking sexy. Once trained, you'll get a model file with parameters representing you. Then run inference with a prompt like 'cool handsome Nick standing by a sunset wearing a mega cool suit' using the custom weights file you uploaded. The output may not look like you if the training data is poor; you may need to generate several variations before getting one that resembles you. In my case, I generated multiple images, removed the term 'handsome' because it made my jaw sharper and removed dark circles, resulting in a more accurate likeness. Finally, take the chosen image, pump it into Canva, remove the background, and you have the thumbnail.
I start by taking many photos of my face, then use AI to slightly vary my outfit and hair in each image, generating about 20 variants. Next, I have AI help me design a script that automatically places my face on the right side of the thumbnail and adds text following a couple of simple rules—each line must contain at least one word, and I highlight the most important word. This lets me randomly pick a face from my pool, combine it with the generated text on the left, and produce three final variants. I then use the chosen thumbnail as part of my auto‑publishing workflow. Many creators are doing something similar now, and I expect this approach to become even more popular in the coming year.
Yeah, sure. Let me do that right now. Canva.com. Copy my worst mistakes running an AI automations agency. Okay, let's just duplicate this. I guess I already have. So, check this out. In Canva, I have a BG or background remover when my screen doesn't lag like crazy. If I reset the tools, this is what the actual background looks like. It's just me looking damn sexy—I might add. Then I remove the background on the main photo. I don't know why there are two of me there; I didn't think that through. Then I go to edit, adjust, and crank up the vibrance and then the sharpness. Sharpness is important. Then the clarity as well. I find I don't know: if you have just two choices, this or this. What would you see on a tiny YouTube thumbnail (an inch by an inch)? Probably the clearer stuff. Does it look the best all zoomed in? No. Then I up the brightness a little bit, make the skin tone as bright as possible, make it stand out. So if I were to show you two examples: let's reset all the adjustments. That's the before and the after. The after hair looks kind of weird because it's white, but it pops more. That's what I do. And then, like the thumbnails, I mean, I don't really make them all myself now for the main channel. I do for this one here, although this was an exception. I made this one technically, but it was based off a template somebody else made for me. So that's how I do it. It's pretty quick.
I get about 10 people each day offering to design thumbnails for me, often using some scraper to find channels in a niche and offering a free demo thumbnail. I take them up on the offer; for example, I worked with a designer named Hanan from India/Pakistan, paying $30 per thumbnail. My workflow is simple: after recording my daily update, I record a quick 10‑second clip of myself making ugly faces at the camera—only my thumbnail editor sees this. I then tell the editor to upload the finished thumbnail to the same Google Drive folder, I post the video, and the next day I update the thumbnail. For my other thumbnails (like the ones on Nix), I start with a Canva template, grab a smiling screenshot from the earlier clip, delete the previous face, paste the new one, add another copy, use the background remover to isolate the face, creating two layers so I can place hair over a green section for a 3D effect. I then add platform logos (Instagram, NN) and do light editing in Clarity to make my face pop without maxing it out. The result looks like a YouTube‑sized thumbnail when zoomed out. I don’t spend much time on thumbnails, but they’re effective because consistent, quality content makes viewers associate my face with value, turning thumbnails into a self‑fulfilling market signal.
No, the thumbnails are not made with Google Gemini. They are procedurally generated: I set a fixed height and width for the container, then I use a large library of photos of myself. AI slightly modifies my hair and outfits in each image, and the system places the text on top. The process relies on Claude code running on your phone. For the text itself, I limit it to three lines and ensure it doesn’t exceed the container’s width or cut into my head; if it does, I remake the thumbnail with different wording. The result does a pretty good job overall. The benefit is that I simply upload the thumbnail to a designated folder, trigger the process, and it automatically generates and publishes the thumbnail. I’ll elaborate later, but editing is minimal—I don’t edit the thumbnails at all. The intro I did edit once, but that was straightforward and took only a few seconds.