How to make a Dima Maslennikov thumbnail

His top videos fall into two families: paranormal night expeditions to legendary locations and real-life versions of hit games with crowds of guest stars. Horror covers are dark cinematic posters with the main person holding a flashlight. Challenge covers are saturated, symmetric crowds with the main person shouting in the center.

Across the 10 covers there are five repeatable formats. Pick the one that matches your video type rather than mixing them.

• Flashlight expedition poster (3 of 10). Main person on the right, chest-up, in dark gear, holding a glowing flashlight. A dramatic location fills the left, with a distressed title on a torn plate at lower left.
• Costumed squad line-up (3 of 10). Main person centered, largest and screaming, flanked by guests in matching colorful costumes who shrink toward the edges. Saturated glowing background, sometimes a pixel-game title or a split-face twist.
• Sticker heads under game icons (2 of 10). A row of cartoon game characters on top, a row of white-outlined cut-out heads below, all on a blurred bright gradient, no text.
• Horror scream close-up (1 of 10). A centered terrified face with white eyes and hands thrust at the lens, in a foggy, red-tinted location, grunge title at the bottom.
• Scene + host with prop (1 of 10). Host on the right with a flashlight; an absurd moment from the video (a person hanging upside down in an elevator) plays out on the left.

The main person always looks straight into the camera, and faces are large and sharp: either chest-up portraits or tightly cut sticker heads with white outlines. The emotion depends on the video family. If you want to start from your own pictures, use thumbnail from a photo.

• Horror, calm version: a steely, confident investigator's stare.
• Horror, extreme version: a full scream with white eyes.
• Challenge covers: a huge open-mouth shout with wide eyes from the main person.
• Guests: react with shock, fear or skepticism, so the crowd shows a range of emotions around one dominant face.
• Keep eye contact with the viewer in every format.

Text is optional: half of the covers (all sticker-head collages, the split-face squad and the elevator scene) have none. When text appears, it is short, uppercase and styled to match the genre rather than set in a clean modern font.

• Horror covers: 2–4 words in distressed white letters on a torn dark plate at the lower left.
• The location word is the largest; a small "part 1" tag appears occasionally.
• Game covers: a big pixel-game-style title at top center, sometimes with a smaller yellow subtitle.
• Heads partly overlap the game title, which ties text and people into one layer.
• If the image already explains the video, skip text entirely.

The two families use opposite color strategies, and that contrast is what makes each instantly readable. For general principles of contrast and layout, see the YouTube thumbnail design guide.

• Horror: desaturated and cinematic, grey, black and cold white.
• Add one hot accent only: fire orange, blood red, rust red or toxic teal-green.
• Hard flashlight glare is the brightest point and leads the eye to the location.
• Challenge: full saturation, rainbow costume colors (red, cyan, magenta, green, yellow).
• Backgrounds glow in red, electric blue or acid green, or use rainbow gradients.

The first seconds pick up the cover's promise right away, so the click feels justified. Paranormal videos lead with credibility and danger; game videos jump into the plot.

• Paranormal openings use statements like "all events are real" or "this forest is cursed".
• Photos are blurred "so as not to shock the viewer", and the location gets a code name.
• Game videos start mid-story, for example "we found a body on the captain's bridge".
• Other game intros open with a nostalgic setup about childhood yard games.
• Several intros then switch to a humorous or direct subscribe pitch.

1. Pick a reference thumbnail above and press Generate in this style; choose Exact copy or Unique design depending on how closely you want to follow the layout.
2. Add your photos in the Face block, ideally a direct-to-camera shot with the emotion you need (stare or scream).
3. Describe the video idea: the location or the game, the prop, and who else appears.
4. Enter 0–2 words in the Thumbnail text field, or leave it empty for a sticker-head or scene cover.
5. Generate 2–4 variants and compare them at small size to see which face and light read fastest.

• Small centered person in horror. The format needs a large right-third portrait beside the location, not a tiny figure in the middle.
• No recognizable place. A generic dark background loses the "I spent the night there" promise.
• Too many colors. Horror covers work desaturated with a single accent, not graded in many hues.
• Flat line-up. If all guests are the same size, no face dominates the center.
• Long or clean titles. Use 2–4 distressed or game-styled words instead of a sentence in a modern font.
• Unrecognizable trend. Referencing a game without its signature colors and shapes means nobody gets it at a glance.