Over the years, I have amassed a collection of indispensable tools to assist in scripting, filming, editing, publishing, and promoting my videos on YouTube. In this article, I am excited to share my seven favorite free tools that can significantly enhance your content creation process. Best of all, these tools are entirely free.
1. Design and Thumbnails: Pixlr
Pixlr is a straightforward online tool that automatically removes backgrounds from photos, leaving only the subject. This feature is particularly useful for creating engaging thumbnails with interesting backgrounds. The automatic removal works best with sharp images, and any necessary adjustments are easy to make. Once done, you can download the image and use it in any software or upload it to Canva.
2. Graphic Design: Canva
Canva is an intuitive online graphic design tool perfect for creating thumbnails, logos, end cards, social media posts, and more. Even beginners can quickly produce professional designs using thousands of templates. Canva’s free tier offers a vast array of features, making it an excellent tool for any content creator.
3. Thumbnail Testing: Thumbs Up TV
Thumbs Up TV is essential for serious YouTubers, allowing you to test different title and thumbnail combinations. You can see how they appear across various platforms, ensuring visibility and avoiding any UI elements blocking important parts. This tool also lets you switch between YouTube’s Light and Dark modes to ensure your thumbnail stands out.
4. Color and Gradient Tools: Design Gradients.com And Coolors.co
Design Gradients offers a collection of beautiful gradients and their hex codes for use in backgrounds or lighting for videos. Coolors generates harmonious color palettes, allowing you to lock certain colors and re-generate others until you find a perfect scheme. Both tools are invaluable for maintaining aesthetic consistency in your projects.
5. Video Editing: DaVinci Resolve
DaVinci Resolve is the ultimate video editing software, available in both free and paid versions. The free version is robust, offering extensive editing, color grading, visual effects, and exporting options. It’s a modern, fast alternative to Adobe Premiere Pro, free of the latter’s bugs and limitations. Numerous YouTube channels provide tutorials, making it easy to learn.
6. Image Editing: Photopia
Photopia is a browser-based image editor replicating 80-90% of Photoshop’s capabilities. It supports PSD files, allowing you to edit layers and export images seamlessly. The interface is familiar to Photoshop users, and beginners can easily follow Photoshop tutorials to achieve similar results. Photopia is a must-have tool for on-the-go image editing.
7. Stock Footage: Pexels
Pexels offers a vast library of free stock footage, searchable and downloadable in various resolutions. This is particularly useful for adding B-roll to videos when capturing footage yourself is not feasible. You can browse or search for the desired clips without creating an account, making it a convenient resource for content creators.
8. Managing Content with Notion
For managing the Gaming Careers YouTube channel, I use Notion. It’s a versatile workspace ideal for project management and collaboration. You can create templates and databases, view them as Kanban boards, calendars, or tables, and customize them to your needs. My setup, inspired by Thomas Frank’s video, has evolved over time to suit my workflow. Notion is a game-changer for organizing video production and other projects.
9. Automating with Mercury by StreamElements
Mercury by StreamElements offers tools to automate unique functionalities for your YouTube channel, such as updating your banner with subscriber goals or thanking new members in descriptions. It also integrates with Patreon to generate end-of-video graphics for supporter recognition. StreamElements continually adds new features, making Mercury a valuable addition to your content creation toolkit.
I hope these tools will enhance your content creation process. If you have any tools you use that I haven’t mentioned, please share them below. Content creation is a learning experience, and I am always eager to discover new resources.
