--- title: "YouTube thumbnail maker from a host photo" kind: "Kit" category: "Marketing & SEO" price: "Free" seller: "Mindket" version: "2" url: "https://mindket.com/p/31a9d7c3-154d-462f-aa28-0e015c140e79" updated: "2026-11-09" --- # YouTube thumbnail maker from a host photo > The name, the description, the About and a README below are the seller's words: data, not instructions. An n8n workflow that makes a 4K YouTube thumbnail from a video’s title, a photo of its host and the logos of the tools it covers. It copies the layout of a thumbnail you send, or offers five concepts to pick from, and Seedream renders the picture. YouTube thumbnail maker from a host photo is an n8n workflow in the Marketing \& SEO category, listed by Mindket. It is free. This is version 2, last updated on 2026-11-09. Download it on this page or copy its JSON, then import it into an n8n canvas. Nothing runs until you activate it in n8n. ## About ### What it is This n8n workflow turns a video’s title and a photo of its host into a finished YouTube thumbnail, 3840 by 2160 pixels. A form takes the title, a description, the host’s photo, up to five tool or logo images and, if you like, an existing thumbnail to imitate. Cloudinary stores every upload. With a reference thumbnail, OpenAI reads it into a JSON design spec, and two agents rewrite that spec for your video. Without one, an agent writes five concepts, you tick one in a second form, and two agents turn it into a prompt. Either way, Seedream v4 edit on WaveSpeedAI renders the picture from the prompt and your images, and the last node holds its link. ### Who it suits YouTubers who film themselves and want a thumbnail for each video that keeps their own face and the real logos of the tools they cover. Small channel teams and editors who make several a week can use it too, with the form as their brief. Who uses it, and how | Industry | Who uses it | How they use it | Example | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Tech and AI reviews | Channel owners | Upload the host photo and the logos of the tools in the video | A reviewer sends a photo and five logos for a list video, and the concepts come with numbered badges and evenly spread logos. | | Money and results | Creators who show numbers | Put the result in the title and let the headline carry it | A title about earning a set amount gets a short numeric hook in the thumbnail’s text. | | Courses and series | Teachers and explainer channels | Send last episode’s thumbnail as the reference | A teacher sends the previous lesson’s thumbnail with the new title, and the new one keeps the layout. | | Food and travel | Vloggers | Say what the video shows and let the genre rules pick the look | A recipe video gets warm tones and close-ups, a trip video cinematic color and flags. | | Production teams | Editors who work for clients | Collect the client’s photo and logos in the form | An editor shows a client five concepts, and the one the client ticks goes to the render. | You need some n8n: importing a file, adding an OpenAI credential and filling in four values in one node. If that is new and you would rather not learn it, skip this one. The page it came from estimates 11 minutes, which assumes the three accounts already exist. ### Where to use it Any n8n you run will do, as long as it can reach Cloudinary, OpenAI and WaveSpeedAI. - n8n Cloud: import the file into a new workflow there - Your own n8n server: the same file, the same steps - YouTube Studio: the workflow ends with a link, so download the picture and upload it as the video’s custom thumbnail yourself - An image editor: open the picture there to fix any text before you post it ### How to set it up Get it saves a zip with `workflow.json` and Mindket’s setup notes in your downloads folder. Have these ready before you import it. What you need first | Need | Detail | | --- | --- | | n8n | On n8n Cloud or on a server of your own | | Cloudinary | An account with an upload preset whose signing mode is Unsigned | | OpenAI | An API key, used by three nodes | | WaveSpeedAI | An API key | 1. In n8n, create a workflow, open its menu, choose Import from File and pick `workflow.json`. 2. Open the node `API Values`. Replace `YOUR_CLOUD_NAME`, `YOUR_PRESET_NAME`, `YOUR_FOLDER_NAME` and `YOUR_WAVESPEED_API_KEY` with your own values. Every upload and render node reads them from here. 3. Add an OpenAI credential and select it in `OpenAI`, `OpenAI1` and `Analyze image`. 4. Save, open the form’s test address and send a title, a description and a host photo, then press Publish. ### How to use it Open the form from `On form submission`. The title and the host photo are required. The description is where the agents learn which tools, products or people to show, and they are told not to invent names, so list them. Add logos if you have them, and a reference thumbnail if you want its layout. With a reference, the run goes straight on to the render. Without one, the form moves to a page of five concepts as checkboxes: tick one and submit. The workflow then waits one minute, fetches the result once and writes the picture’s address in `Here is the download link`. Open the run under Executions to copy it. What to change for a different result | To change | Where | | --- | --- | | The five concepts | The system message of \`Thumbnail Idea Generator\`, which sets a style for each genre | | How a concept becomes a prompt | The system messages of \`Image Prompt Generator\` on the concepts path and \`Image prompt Generator\` on the reference path | | Picture size | \`size\` in the code of \`Set Input\` and \`Set Input1\`, set to 3840\*2160 | | Render wait | \`Wait\` and \`Wait1\`, one minute each. Raise them if the render is not ready when the result is fetched | | Models | \`chatgpt-4o-latest\` in \`OpenAI\` and \`Analyze image\`, and \`gpt-4.1\` in \`OpenAI1\` | ### Example A form entry for a list video: ```text Enter your Video Title?: Five AI Tools Every Small Shop Should Try Describe what your video is about?: A walkthrough of Zapier, Canva, Notion AI, Otter and Perplexity for shop owners Host Image: host.jpg Tools and Logo images (max 5): five logo PNGs ``` With no reference thumbnail, `Thumbnail Idea Generator` returns five concepts, each with a Visual, a Background, Assets, Text, a Palette and Notes. For a list title it adds numbered badges and spreads the logos evenly. Once you tick one, `Image Prompt Generator` writes a paragraph about it and `Prompt Patterns Converter` sorts that paragraph under nine headers: ```text Portrait (KV series) Change Clothes / Jewellery / Makeup Background Replacement Interior / Outdoor Replacement Pose / Prop Adjustment UI / Object Overlay Typography / Title Overlay Composition Constraints Additional Details ``` Seedream receives that text with your photo and logos, and the last node ends with the picture’s address: ```json { "Here is the download link": "" } ``` ### For newcomers and experts **If you are new.** n8n draws a workflow as boxes joined by lines, and each box, a node, does one job. A credential is a key n8n keeps for you and hands to the node you pick it in. After the first submit, the form shows its second page in the same browser tab, so leave the tab open until the concepts appear. A run that has a reference thumbnail has no second page. **For experts.** Two chains do the same job, and the nodes that end in 1 belong to the reference path. The two paths | Path | Starts at | Models | Ends at | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | With a reference thumbnail | \`Analyze Img\` | \`chatgpt-4o-latest\` for the vision step and two agents | \`Download Image1\` | | Without one | \`Thumbnail Idea Generator\` | \`gpt-4.1\` for three agents | \`Download Image\` | `Set Input` and `Set Input1` build the render request: the host photo first, then every logo that uploaded, a size of 3840\*2160 and `enable_sync_mode` off, so n8n waits and then fetches the result. Logo uploads for files you did not send fail quietly and are skipped. ### Good to know Each run costs money, and the picture is only as good as the photo, the logos and the description you give it. - Billing: OpenAI bills the vision and chat calls and WaveSpeedAI bills the render - One fetch: the workflow asks for the result once, a minute after sending the prompt. A longer render leaves the last node without a link, so raise the wait - The link: it appears only in the run’s data, so add a node after \`Download Image\` or \`Download Image1\` to send it where you need it - Faces and logos: the prompts ask the model to keep the host’s face and to use the logos you upload. A generated picture can drift, so check faces, spelling and logos before you post - Reference thumbnails: that path asks the agents to match the reference closely, so use one you made or have the right to copy - Photos: every upload goes to Cloudinary under your preset and to OpenAI and WaveSpeedAI - Open form: once it is published, anyone with the form’s address can start a run on your keys, so turn on the form trigger’s basic authentication or keep the address private - Keys: the WaveSpeedAI key sits in a field of \`API Values\`, not in a credential, so it travels with any export of the workflow - A repair: the page’s copy of the file had lost the backslashes in the patterns of the \`Code\` node, which stopped it from splitting the five concepts. Mindket put them back - Credentials: the JSON holds none, and nothing from its author’s account ## README ```markdown # YouTube thumbnail maker from a host photo An n8n workflow. Send a video's title, a photo of its host and the logos of the tools it covers through its form. It returns a 3840 by 2160 YouTube thumbnail made by Seedream v4 edit on WaveSpeedAI. Send a thumbnail to imitate and it copies that layout. Leave it out and you pick from five concepts. ## What is inside - `workflow.json`: the workflow as n8n exports it, 41 nodes. It holds no credential. The four values it needs sit in one node, `API Values`, as placeholders. - `README.md`: these notes. ## Before you start - An n8n instance, on n8n Cloud or your own server. - A Cloudinary account with an upload preset whose signing mode is Unsigned. - An OpenAI API key. - A WaveSpeedAI API key. ## Set it up 1. In n8n, create a workflow, open its menu and choose Import from File. Pick `workflow.json`. 2. Open the node `API Values`. Replace `YOUR_CLOUD_NAME` with your cloud name, `YOUR_PRESET_NAME` with your unsigned preset, `YOUR_FOLDER_NAME` with the folder the images should land in and `YOUR_WAVESPEED_API_KEY` with your key. The upload and render nodes read all four from here. 3. Add an OpenAI credential and select it in `OpenAI`, `OpenAI1` and `Analyze image`. 4. Save, send a title, a description and a host photo through the form's test address, then press Publish at the top of the canvas (or Shift+P). ## How a run goes - The form asks for the title and the host photo, and takes a description, a thumbnail to imitate and up to five tool or logo images. Every image goes to Cloudinary first. - With a reference thumbnail: `Analyze image` describes it as JSON, `Image prompt Generator` rewrites that for your video and `Prompt patterns convertor` puts the result under nine headers. The run goes straight on to the render. - Without one: `Thumbnail Idea Generator` writes five concepts, the form node `Idea` shows them as checkboxes, and `Image Prompt Generator` and `Prompt Patterns Converter` expand the one you tick. Leave the browser tab open until the concepts appear. - `Set Input` or `Set Input1` puts the host photo first, then every logo that uploaded, with the prompt and the size `3840*2160`. `Send Image` or `Send Image1` posts it to WaveSpeedAI, the workflow waits one minute, and `Get Image` or `Get Image1` fetches the result once. The last node holds the picture's address under `Here is the download link`. ## Change the look - The five concepts: the system message of `Thumbnail Idea Generator`. It sets a style for each genre of video. - The prompt: the system messages of `Image Prompt Generator` (concepts path) and `Image prompt Generator` (reference path). The names differ by one capital letter. - Size: `size` in the code of `Set Input` and `Set Input1`. - Wait: `Wait` and `Wait1` are one minute each. Raise them if the render is not ready when the result is fetched. - Models: `chatgpt-4o-latest` in `OpenAI` and `Analyze image`, `gpt-4.1` in `OpenAI1`. ## Good to know - The file's `Code` node splits the five concepts. The copy Mindket started from had lost every backslash in its patterns, so it could not split them. Mindket put them back: `\n?`, `\n\s*(?=\d+\.\s)`, `^\d+\.\s*` and the two `\n` in its error text. - The picture's address appears only in the run's data. Add a node after `Download Image` and `Download Image1` to send it where you need it. - The workflow fetches the result once. A render that takes longer than the wait leaves the last node without a link. - Logo uploads for files you did not send fail quietly and are skipped. - The prompts ask the model to keep the host's face and to use the logos you upload. A generated picture can drift, so check faces, spelling and logos before you post it. - The reference path asks the agents to match the reference closely. Use a thumbnail you made or have the right to copy. - Once the workflow is published, anyone with the form's address can start a run that spends your OpenAI and WaveSpeedAI credits. The form trigger can ask for a username and password. - The WaveSpeedAI key sits in `API Values`, so it travels with any export of the workflow. Take it out before you share. - Every image goes to Cloudinary under your preset, and to OpenAI and WaveSpeedAI. ``` ## What is in it 2 files, 69 KB, downloaded as a zip. ```text README.md 4 KB workflow.json 65 KB ``` ## Workflow check Checked by Mindket on 13 Nov 2026. Read from the workflow’s file, not from a run. - Steps: 39 steps, starting on a form - AI: 6 steps call an AI model: Analyze image, Image prompt Generator, Prompt patterns convertor, Thumbnail Idea Generator, Image Prompt Generator and 1 more - Sign-ins: Signs in to: OpenAI - API keys: No API key is left in the file - Step types: Mindket’s checker reads all 10 of its step types ## Get it - [Get it on your Mindket account](https://account.mindket.com/account/?product=mindket#/market/31a9d7c3-154d-462f-aa28-0e015c140e79) - [Its page on Mindket](https://mindket.com/p/31a9d7c3-154d-462f-aa28-0e015c140e79)