Live With Spence and Fernando – How I Create My YouTube Thumbnails with Ai and Canva
Want to know my secret for creating professional YouTube thumbnails in under 2 minutes? In this video, I show you my exact workflow using the MinuteLaunch AI Image Creator and Canva. This is the same process I use for every single video you see on this channel – including the thumbnail you clicked on to get here!
“I’m making the thumbnail while I’m making the video. That’s how fast this workflow is!”
The Complete Workflow
My thumbnail creation process combines two powerful tools: the MinuteLaunch AI Image Creator (which integrates directly with WordPress Media Library) and Canva Pro for template management. The entire process takes less than 2 minutes from start to finish.
Step 1: AI Image Generation
I start with the MinuteLaunch AI Image Creator, which is built right into WordPress. Using Google Gemini Flash 2.5, I can generate custom images by providing a reference photo (usually a picture of myself) and a detailed prompt describing what I want. The AI maintains my facial features while creating completely new scenarios – like sitting at a desk conducting a survey, or any other concept that matches the video topic.
The key is using reference images for brand consistency. Every thumbnail features me in different situations, but it’s always recognizably me. The AI handles all the heavy lifting – I just describe what I want and it generates a photo-realistic image in about 20 seconds.
Step 2: Canva Template Magic
While the AI generates my image, I jump over to Canva where I have pre-built templates organized by video type. I have templates for weekly roundups, tool reviews, “Live with Spence & Fernando” episodes, and Friday Office Hours. Each template has consistent branding, fonts, and layout – I just need to swap the image and update the text.
I clone the last thumbnail I made, paste in the new AI-generated image, adjust the positioning if needed, update the title text, and I’m done. The whole Canva process takes about 60 seconds. Then I export with specific settings: current page only, 1280×720 resolution, limited to 150 kilobits for optimal YouTube performance.
Step 3: Upload to YouTube
The final step is uploading the thumbnail to YouTube. Because I’ve already optimized the file size and dimensions, it uploads instantly and looks perfect. In the video, I actually demonstrate this in real-time – editing the video details and uploading the thumbnail while I’m still recording!
🔑 Key Topics Covered
- ✓ MinuteLaunch AI Image Creator tool walkthrough
- ✓ Using reference images for consistent branding
- ✓ Google Gemini Flash 2.5 integration
- ✓ Creating photo-realistic images with custom prompts
- ✓ Canva template system for rapid creation
- ✓ Optimizing image size for YouTube
- ✓ Live demonstration of complete workflow
- ✓ Template organization strategies
- ✓ Composite image techniques
- ✓ Real-time thumbnail creation while recording
✅ What You Get with MinuteLaunch
- ✓ Full AI tool suite (108+ plugins)
- ✓ Hosting included on Rocket.net
- ✓ Voice-controlled WordPress with Fernando
- ✓ AI Image Creator with Gemini Flash 2.5
- ✓ Virtual software delivery with auto-updates
- ✓ Concierge support when you need it
- ✓ Traditional WordPress tools (you own everything)
- ✓ No vendor lock-in – leave anytime
- ✓ VIP Training options available
- ✓ Early access to new features
🚀 About MinuteLaunch
MinuteLaunch is an AI-powered WordPress ecosystem that combines hosting, automation, and intelligent tools to help you build and manage WordPress sites faster than ever.
Book a Free Call📝 Full Transcript
00:00 – Introduction & Welcome Back
Hey, it’s Spence. The evil genius. You guys are figuring to get rid of me that fast. It’s Spence, I’m back. I’m actually going to make a two for today because I want to share with you that I have, I’m going to go here. I have right on my desktop, the MinuteLaunch AI image creator.
00:25 – The MinuteLaunch AI Image Creator
This is a complement, I’m going to zoom it in a bit for you. This is a complement for those of you who are interested in the Fluent MCP. This is one of the tools that’s included in the full MinuteLaunch. I want to show it to you because I think it’s really important. When I do my videos like today’s live video, I create them with a combination of the MinuteLaunch image library, WordPress Media Library, and then Canva.
00:51 – Starting the Image Creation Process
And so what I do is I’ve got the tool installed here, we’re under the Media Library. I just say create an AI image. And my tool here inside of MinuteLaunch allows me through the built-in connectivity to, in this case, it’s Google Gemini Flash 2.5 to make whatever I want for the image. But I’m going to start with a reference image from the Media Library.
01:09 – Using Reference Images
And here what I do almost every time is I’ve got a cool picture of myself. It’s just weird with the circle and stuff, but it doesn’t matter. Because all I do is I say, what do I want to make? Now, today I made a video just a minute ago that talked about creating an onboarding assessment.
01:22 – Writing the AI Prompt
So I’m going to say take the guy’s head in this reference image and make a photo realistic picture of him doing a checklist or survey, asking a series of questions of somebody. Make it look like he’s at an office sitting at a desk and he’s writing it on a piece of paper in the old fashioned way with a pencil and paper. And the people are sitting across the desk from him looking a little bit bewildered in a funny way.
01:53 – Prompt Tips & Aspect Ratio
Now, you tell it whatever you want, you can even use the improved prompt with AI if you want, which gives you suggestions how to make it even better. But in this case, I know this is pretty good prompt because I’ve been making these kinds of videos and images for some time. So what I could do is also change the aspect ratio because I’m going to use this as a composite. I just go with the square image, notice these nice prompts that I could choose from.
02:11 – Generating the Image
I’m going to stick with the one that I started with. I’m going to stick with the square image because that works well in my composite and then I just say generate image. Now I can also say if I want to be careful, like if I have multiple people, I could say, be sure to absolutely keep the face of the gentleman in the reference image when you make your new image. Just tell it that don’t invent something else. That’s all.
02:36 – While AI Works: Jump to Canva
Okay. Maybe 20 seconds later, it spits out an image. In the meantime, what I do is I go to Canva.com, which is the most incredible tool I use for a million things. And I go here to this set of templates that I’ve pre-built and I use again and again.
02:48 – Canva Template Library
Notice I have three types. I have the weekly roundup. Then I have this one that’s like for tool reviews. Then I have this one, which is a lot of fun stuff. And it’s me and Fernando. And then I’ve got one for my Friday office hours, which is blue. It’s fun looking back, by the way, at all the images I’ve created, because there’s tons of them. Here’s my blue one that I use for the Friday office hours.
03:13 – Cloning & Customizing Templates
The reason I do this is as you’ll see, watch. I just take this one and with Canva, I can manually do this in two seconds. I clone the last one and then I just give it a new title. So this could be how I make YouTube thumbnails with AI and Canva, or in this case, MinuteLaunch.
03:43 – Importing the AI-Generated Image
Now notice, this image here is just the square. So when I get the image that spits out of here, it’s actually funny. All I need to do is copy the image. And that’s by the way, in my media library now, so I can reuse it again and again and again. I paste the new image in.
03:57 – Positioning & Layering
And I just drag it. I don’t have to be fancy. And if it doesn’t fit, I can adjust some of the parameters, but I just put it in and then I’ll put it in the back. I use layer send to back. Now, if I wanted to, those folks look like they’re a little out of frame. So I can shrink this just a bit. I got plenty of room to fit it. Just kind of squeeze their heads in.
04:21 – Adjusting Text & Final Touches
And then I use the title here. So I just use the same title. How I made YouTube videos or thumbnails. How I make YouTube thumbnails with AI and Canva. Canva. Canva. Canva. Now, if it doesn’t fit, it’s just simple as this with Canva. I love this tool. I just simply reduce the size a little bit. Make it fit a little better. That’s it. I’m ready to go.
04:46 – Export Settings for YouTube
Now, what I do is I click save, download. And I use the parameters that say, look, I only want the current page, which is page nine. Notice page nine. And I want to limit the size of this to 150 kilobits. And that way, I know that it’s just not going to be so big, but it’s the proper size of 1280 by 720, which works perfect for my YouTube stuff.
05:11 – Live Upload to YouTube
So now if I go to YouTube, where I had just previously made this live video, that’s why I’m showing you all this stuff. If I go live, we could see that I’ve got the video that I actually made. Actually, this is today’s video. I can edit the video. This is me while I’m doing it kind of scary actually. I’m making the thumbnail while I’m making the video. Upload the thumbnail because it’s already optimized. 148 kilobits. And I save and I’m done.
05:42 – The Power of This Workflow
And that’s all there is to that. And what’s really neat about this is Canva actually has the capability to fill that template automatically. But I actually like the control of going in there and seeing it. And you can see now that’s another video. Let’s go back over here to the live and see if our thumbnail shows up. And there it is. And it’s as simple as that.
06:03 – Fluent MCP vs MinuteLaunch
So this is one of the tools that’s built into MinuteLaunch. It’s an upgrade from the Fluent MCP, but it’s an amazing upgrade. And if you have Fluent MCP, this would be probably one of the tools that would be very awesome as well. But Fluent MCP is going to get you where you got to go for 99% of the job and these kinds of things are where you go next step. I’ll see you guys in the next video.