How To Customize Your YouTube Channel

I finally got the motivation to create some custom stuff for my Youtube channel. It was a little frustrating, but I’m pretty happy with the new look. Anyone can upload a custom background image to their channel. For those that are Partners you can also add a custom banner image, and side image that shows up further down on the left side of the page.

I found a simple vector image with some rays on it on this website: http://www.vectorportal.com/. Then added some photos of my own. Your background image should be 2000x1500. You can make the image repeat all the way down the page, but I think it looks better to feather the bottom out into blackness. You can see a good example of this on Rhett and Links channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/RhettandLink. I would only use the repeat if the image is a pattern of some sort and you can’t see where one image starts and the other ends.

If you are a partner the banner image and sidebar image are pretty cool. You can actually create an image map to go along with the .jpg you upload. This means your image can have a facebook, twitter, a subscribe button. Or even a custom button to a playlist, anything you can link to. The image map will make the buttons or icons function. I had no idea how to make an image map, but found this website that worked great even for a dummy like me: http://www.mobilefish.com/services/image_map/image_map.php#output_data. Might take a bit to figure it out, but it isn’t to difficult.

To create the background image for my channel I used After Effects, then exported a single frame of the composition as a .jpg. The banner was exported as a .png to preserve the transparency in the file. I’m sure using Photoshop would be easier for most people, but I really really suck at Photoshop so I stuck with what comfortable with.

You can check out my new channel layout here: http://www.youtube.com/user/halfthrottle

I think it’s pretty cool to be able to customize your channel, and if you haven’t done it give it a try. I’ll try to help if you have any questions, and remember; with enough profanity you can accomplish anything.