Want to add an intro in line with your brand and recognizable to your YouTube videos? Grab your audience’s attention, make a great first impression, and express your channel’s personality, name and brand with a professional YouTube intro.
It doesn’t matter if your intro clip kicks off your YouTube videos or if it plays after the teaser clip, a YouTube intro can be a valuable tool for any author. Read on to find out how to make a YouTube intro with Clipchamp’s free online video editor
Essential elements for an effective YouTube intro
A YouTube intro is a short video that captures the attention of your viewers by showing your channel’s personality, brand, genre, mood, and style. Usually, intros for YouTube include:
- Easy to remember background music
- Text and titles
- Stickers and GIFs
- Emoji
- Subscribe buttons
- What are the dimensions of a YouTube intro?
The intros for YouTube have a widescreen 16: 9 aspect ratio and are in MP4 format. We recommend exporting YouTube intros at the highest video resolution of 1080p for the best YouTube quality possible.
How long should a YouTube intro last?
To engage subscribers and viewers, we recommend creating YouTube intros of 5-10 seconds. Of course, you can also create intros that are longer than 10 seconds, but the longer length could help reduce viewership rates.
What information and text should be in a YouTube intro?
A good YouTube intro usually includes useful information for subscribers and viewers. Add a short text that you think is important, starting with video titles, episode numbers, your YouTube channel name and your social media name. The information text should be in a format and style that is consistent with your brand.
How to customize a YouTube intro with the brand?
Customizing YouTube intros with your brand can make your videos more recognizable and easy to remember for viewers, as well as making them stand out from the competition. Just add your brand logo, aesthetic features, color scheme, style, font, free music, and even a voiceover. Keep your YouTube videos consistent by adding specific colors, fonts and logos with Clipchamp’s brand kit .
How to make a YouTube intro
If you’re short of ideas or have never created a YouTube intro, start with one of the ready-to-use YouTube templates available on Clipchamp.
Step 1. Select a YouTube intro template
Select a YouTube intro template from the editor home page. Click on the YouTube category and scroll through the various models. Select the template you prefer, then the editor will open automatically.
Or
In the editor, click the Templates tab in the left sidebar. Click on the YouTube library . Explore our ready-to-use YouTube templates.
Click the green + button to add the template to the timeline. You can also click on the template preview to open a pop-up window with more options, then Add to Timeline .
Step 2. Edit your YouTube intro template
Personalize your YouTube intro with text and titles
Click on the text in the video preview to change the title. A green text box should appear around the text. Click the text editing option above the video preview. In the text box, edit the text and add your YouTube channel name or video title. You can change the font and alignment of the text. What’s more, you can also duplicate it to add more than one text box.
Change the color scheme of the YouTube intro
If the text, background, or graphics don’t match your brand colors on YouTube, simply change the colors. Click the item in the timeline whose color you want to change, then click the Colors tab above the video preview. Select a predefined color, type an exact color code or select it from the color palette.
Select different background music for free
If you don’t like the model’s archive background audio, replace it with a different track. Click the Music and Sound Effects tab in the left sidebar, then search through the collections. Drag and drop the archive audio onto the timeline at the audio you want to replace. You can also use royalty-free personal audio. Just upload it to your media library .
You can also add YouTube special sound effects like pop, ping and click. Take a look at the Sound Effects tab , then drag and drop the audio effect onto the timeline.
Step 3. Add your YouTube logo or watermark
Click the Brand Kit tab in the left sidebar. Add a logo to the editor by clicking the Add Logo button or drag the logo to the timeline on top of other clips. Change the opacity of the logo to create a watermark on the Transform tab . Make sure your logo has the same duration as the entire YouTube intro.
If you don’t want to use the branding kit feature , you can upload a regular image file to add to your timeline. Simply make sure your file is saved in PNG format and has a transparent background.
Step 4. Add YouTube GIFs or Stickers
Add a GIPHY sticker or GIF to your YouTube intro. Click the Graphic Effects tab in the left sidebar, then click Stickers or GIPHY. Drag and drop the sticker onto the timeline, then resize or freehand crop it using the video preview editing tools. Add YouTube-themed stickers, such as subscription graphics, thumbs up, bells, and more.
Step 5. Export your intro to YouTube
Click the purple Export button at the top right to save your YouTube intro. Choose from 480p, 720p and 1080p video resolutions. We recommend that you save in our 1080p HD video resolution, suitable for YouTube. Save your YouTube intro to your computer or to one of our integrations like YouTube and OneDrive.
What’s the difference between YouTube channel trailers and YouTube intros?
YouTube channel trailers and YouTube intros can be confusing at times, but they’re actually two quite different things. A YouTube channel trailer consists of a short video that introduces the entire channel, introducing your personality, gender, interests, and what subscribers can expect from you. A channel trailer is on YouTube Studio and shows viewers a video on your YouTube channel’s homepage. Both YouTube channel trailers and YouTube intros can include similar elements such as video previews, branded text, background music, and logos.
How to create a trailer for the YouTube channel
Follow these steps to upload your YouTube channel trailer to YouTube Studio.
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- Log in to YouTube Studio
- From the left menu, click Personalization , then Layout
- Under Video spotlight , click ADD and select a video for your channel trailer
- Click Publish
Author: Angelo Raguso
