AI thumbnails

Thumbnail Studio is where Convia Pro generates AI thumbnails for an episode. You choose where the thumbnail will be used, a style, the people and brand assets to include, an idea and the exact text, and Convia composes the image for that platform. Open an episode, go to Images, and click Open Thumbnail Studio.

Thumbnail Studio is plan-gated. On the current plans it comes with Professional and Business; see Plans & billing. Contributors, managers and owners can generate thumbnails; viewers can't. You can also make episode thumbnails in the Content Generation Lab.

Make a thumbnail

1. Open the episode, go to Images and click Open Thumbnail Studio.
2. Pick a platform and a style.
3. Choose the guest and host photos and the brand assets to include. Any photo a guest uploaded can be used, not only their primary one.
4. Write an Idea, or click Draft an idea (free). Try another idea gives a different concept, and Expand my idea turns a rough note into a full description.
5. Set the Text on the thumbnail exactly as it should appear, or tick No text.
6. Click Generate (25 credits).

How Thumbnail Studio treats your input:

• The Idea comes first. What the Idea says is followed ahead of the style. When you expand a note, your original note is still sent and followed first.
• The text is printed exactly as you type it. The Studio points out text that reads like an instruction, since it would end up on the image. A drafted headline adds to your episode title instead of repeating it.
• People look like their photos. Guests and hosts keep the face, expression, hair, glasses and clothes from the photo you picked, unless your Idea asks for a change. Only the Illustrated style draws them as illustrations.
• Ideas know your show. Drafted ideas use what Brand Brain says your show is about and who watches.
• Up to five reference images go with each request. A brand template goes first, then photos in the order you picked them, then backgrounds and logos.

Platforms and sizes

Each thumbnail is composed for where you will use it, keeping text and faces clear of what the platform covers and readable at the size it is shown. Download gives you the platform's exact size.

When a platform needs a different shape from the image, such as Substack or a LinkedIn link, Download opens a crop window. Drag the frame to choose what shows and zoom in for a tighter crop. If the download has to be enlarged to reach the platform's size, the crop window says so. Downloads are PNG files, except the podcast cover, which is a JPEG.

If you change the platform after generating, Convia tells you the image on screen was made for a different one, so you know to generate again before you set it.

Styles

A style sets the look: palette, type, composition and mood. Thumbnail Studio starts on Cinematic unless your workspace has chosen another default. Open What this style tells the AI under the style picker to read exactly what a style asks for.

Save your own styles

• Customize as a new style saves your own version of a style. Saved styles appear for everyone in the workspace, in Thumbnail Studio and the Lab.
• Manage saved styles in Brand Brain → AI Prompts → Thumbnail Styles. Owners and managers choose the Default style there, which Thumbnail Studio and the Lab start on. Anyone can still pick another style for a single thumbnail.
• Draft a brand look, under Thumbnail Styles, writes a style from your Brand Brain (topics, audience, voice) and your brand kit (logo, template). Review it, edit anything, and save it. It is free, and it can be your default.

Automatic checks

Convia reads every finished thumbnail before you see it. If the headline is not spelled exactly as you set it, or something sits where the platform covers it (such as YouTube's video length), Convia makes the thumbnail once more, free. It also flags text that may be too small to read in a feed, or a person who may not look like their photo, and never hides the image. Each result lists its Automatic checks.

Edit a thumbnail and see the prompt

• Edit this thumbnail takes one change in plain language, for example "make the headline yellow". Each edit costs 10 credits and is saved as a new version, so the original stays under Previous thumbnails.
• Prompt sent to the image model shows the exact text behind the thumbnail on screen: your idea, your text, the style and the references attached. Use Copy prompt to reuse it.

Use your thumbnail

• YouTube: fills the first empty thumbnail slot on the episode, or you choose which slot to replace. When you publish the episode to YouTube, the first slot is the one uploaded. See YouTube publishing.
• Podcast cover: set as the episode's square Cover Art. A Spotify video thumbnail is set as the Episode Thumbnail.
• Substack: set as the episode's featured image.
• Episode media: add the thumbnail to the episode's media.
• Download: at the platform's exact size, for everywhere else. Convia uploads only YouTube thumbnails for you; you upload the others yourself.

Use your Brand Kit

Brand assets you mark as default in the Brand Kit (Brand Brain → Show Details) are selected for you in Thumbnail Studio, and you can deselect any you don't want. A brand template sets the layout, a background is used as the background, and a logo is placed as a small mark in a corner the platform leaves free. The Brand Kit shows up only if your plan includes it.

Credits

Related

• Content Generation Lab: make thumbnails and other images outside an episode.
• Brand Brain: the show details, brand kit and voice thumbnails draw on.
• YouTube publishing: upload the episode with its thumbnail.
• AI credits: check your balance and top up.
• Episodes & clips: the episode pages thumbnails belong to.