How-to: Creating Video Thumbnails with Figma

A Talking Drupal guest, developer and content creator asked how Talking Drupal video thumbnails are created every week.

Stephen explains how he creates thumbnails for Talking Drupal videos in Figma, starting with a previous week’s thumbnail as a consistent template. He creates a 1280x720 frame (named with the episode number so exports are automatically named), places a standard background image, updates the episode title and subtitle (e.g., “MOSA” and “Midwest Open Source Alliance”), and swaps in the week’s hosts and guests. He copies host images from older thumbnails and adds new guest headshots via Insert Image, using Figma’s built-in Remove Background feature and adjusting exposure/contrast as needed. He arranges guests larger and hosts smaller, optionally adds the Talking Drupal logo, then exports the finished thumbnail by selecting the frame and choosing Export.