40 - TZ

Matheus Nicolas, also known as TZ is a 23-year-old thumbnail designer from Brazil who has been working in the field since 2023. His biggest client so far has been the Like Nastya channel, and one of his standout projects helped a video reach hundreds of thousands of views.

He first studied programming in 2021, but in 2023 chose to fully focus on thumbnails, a decision that changed his life. Since then, he has come to see thumbnails as more than just visual art—they are tools for communication, audience psychology, and solving specific needs. TZ is available for hire.

Website (X) → tzstrategist.com

The video was titled “After 3 Years, My $100k Water Slide is Finally Up!”, so the thumbnail needed to instantly show that the project was finally being completed after three years.

The client wanted the image to create the feeling that the final piece of the waterslide was being installed.

The first concept showed him holding a rope while a crane placed the final waterslide piece into position. The second reference had him wearing construction clothing, something that had already worked well on his channel years before.

After analyzing his channel, I noticed something iconic about his branding: he was almost always wearing a cap. So I decided to, keep the cap, use construction-style clothing and create stronger interaction between him and the environment.

That helped the thumbnail still feel authentic to his audience.

MrBeast has already proven many times that IRL thumbnails work best when there’s action involved. Something needs to feel like it’s happening, about to happen or about to go wrong. That creates visual tension.

So after receiving an asset of the waterslide from an angle that wasn’t very flattering, I decided to change the approach. I created a rough concept showing him interacting directly with the scene, helping install the final piece using a crane. He immediately liked the idea.

In the first version, I tried to create a stronger sense of height through the background and the overall perspective of the scene. The goal was to make it feel like he was actually standing at the top of the waterslide structure.

However, even though the concept partially worked, the composition still felt too visually cluttered and didn’t properly highlight the most important elements of the thumbnail. Additionally:

That’s when we decided to simplify things.

After a few conversations, we decided to redesign the waterslide into a crazier spiral shape that looked more visually interesting. We also made major color adjustments. But there was one very important detail: the thumbnail still needed to feel realistic.

His audience was already used to watching real-life projects, construction videos, mistakes, and crazy ideas filmed in a natural way. So an overly saturated thumbnail or a super unrealistic waterslide probably wouldn’t perform well on his channel.

That’s why we focused on authenticity, composition and making it feel like a real photo.

A large part of the assets were generated using AI. For example:

The clothing was handled the same way. I generated separate clothing assets and integrated them into the image using Photoshop. The waterslide closest to him came from the original photo, so I only needed to correct the colors to make every piece feel like part of the same structure. The crane came from a random image online. I cut out only the metallic part to keep the composition cleaner.

The rope was fully handmade. I drew the shape manually, applied a rope texture and used Photoshop Liquify to adjust the positioning.

The spiral waterslide itself was generated using GPT Image at the time. After that, I still needed to correct colors, adjust lighting, integrate shadows and make everything feel more realistic.

The background was also AI-generated, but required many color corrections and adjustments to properly blend with the scene.

I’d say thumbnails are much more about understanding than pure art. You need to understand composition, audience, the client’s needs and the intention behind the video. Your goal is not to create a masterpiece. Your goal is to create something useful for the client.

Today, many people try generating everything entirely with AI, but I honestly believe that reduces creative control significantly. Without understanding Photoshop, composition, and manipulation, the final result usually feels generic. AI is a tool, not a replacement.

A thumbnail needs to make sense with the video title. In this case, the title was: “After 3 Years, My $100k WaterSlide is Finally Up!” Anyone who had followed the channel knew the pieces were used, the project was somewhat improvised and the waterslide cost $100,000.

So it wouldn’t make sense to create something extremely luxurious or unrealistic, like a perfect golden waterslide. The thumbnail needed to respect the reality of the video.

Today, I believe there’s no “right” or “wrong” way to make thumbnails. The wrong thing is not experimenting. Every channel has a different audience, a different visual language, and different needs.

At the end of the day, thumbnails are all about communication. And the better you understand people, the better your thumbnails become.

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