Thumbly

Thumbly – Create POV-Styled Thumbnails. Instantly.
AI-Powered Processing: Make Your Subjects Pop
Advanced Controls: Elevate Your Thumbnail Design
Unlimited Exports: POV Thumbnails, No Limits

Inspiration

We're huge fans of POV-styled thumbnails that create those awesome text-behind-image effects. Current tools are pretty limited, so we started planning to build something with more advanced controls for creating professional YouTube thumbnails and Instagram posts. We were experimenting with thumbnails for our personal YouTube channel, and the patterns we noticed sparked the idea for this tool.

What it does

Thumbly lets you add text or images behind the subject with more advanced controls to create those pop-out designs. You can compose layers to create professional YouTube thumbnails. Our target audience is YouTube creators and Instagram creators who want that professional look without the hassle.

How we built it

We used React and integrated ImgLy's open-source background removal tool. We're the developers - Karthik & Ramya - and our main challenge was optimizing everything into a single prompt. We experimented with different ways to make it work as a one-shot tool while getting all the functionality details right in the app. We spent time separating out prototypes, doing detailed requirement planning, and figuring out the right prompting instructions to make the one-shot approach work.

Challenges we ran into

The biggest challenge was making it work as a true one-shot development while keeping all the functionality we needed. Bolt.ai's server load was frustrating - sometimes requests would fail and we'd have to redo everything multiple times. Sometimes it would miss functionality and we'd need to instruct it again in later attempts to get it right.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We actually pulled off building a functional thumbnail tool using the one-shot development approach, which felt pretty ambitious. The background removal integration works well, and we managed to include those advanced controls that other tools are missing. Plus, we tested it on our own YouTube channel, so we know it solves a real problem.

What we learned

This taught us a lot about working with AI-assisted development and how important detailed planning is when you're working with code generation. We learned that separating prototypes and being really specific with prompting makes a huge difference. We also got better insights into what creators actually struggle with and the technical challenges of making design tools that non-technical people can actually use.

What's next for Thumbly

Since we were limited by the one-shot approach, we had to keep features minimal, but we're planning to scale this into a proper tool for YouTube creators and ad creators. We want to add more design capabilities, templates, and A/B testing features so creators can optimize their thumbnails for better click-through rates.