Five seconds: the logo pops, the channel name rises over a wiping accent rule, the tagline comes into focus, and it clears for the cut.
PODCASTS
& CREATORS!
The episode post, the audiogram, the thumbnail and the reel cover every week; the intro, the end screen and the banner once. All of it in one brand, all of it from one file.
The podcast audiogram template in Animate, its square size in view: cover art, the show and episode title, a mirrored waveform and a progress bar. Space plays it.
ON AIR!
THE BRIEF
Common Ground goes weekly
Common Ground is a neighbourhood podcast: two hosts, a guest from down the street, Neighbors helping neighbors. They are the Nonprofit & community example brand kit inside PopCraft, teal, deep green and gold, which makes them our example show. The audio is fine. Everything around it is not.
The covers are screenshots. The YouTube thumbnail is whatever frame YouTube picked, usually mid-blink. The audiogram comes from a web app that watermarks it. They are going weekly in January, which means every week: a post, an audiogram, a thumbnail, a reel cover. Here is how that stops being a Sunday-night job.
8s
animated episode post
2
audiogram sizes: 1:1 and 9:16
4
YouTube motion templates
200px
the width a thumbnail must read at
THE DESK
One episode, eight channels
What a weekly show actually ships, as a mixing desk. The fader is how often you touch it.
COMMON GROUND · EP. 48● ON AIR
COVER ART3000²
show + ep
EPISODE POST1080²
every ep
AUDIOGRAM1:1 · 9:16
every ep
THUMBNAIL1280×720
every ep
CHAPTERS1920×1080
long eps
REEL COVER1080×1920
per clip
INTRO5 s
once
END SCREEN20 s
once
BANNER2560×1440
yearly
Fader up: you remake it every episode. Fader down: you make it once and forget it. Every strip is a template in the gallery.
STEP 1
The brand, once, on everything
Open ⋯ › Brand kit… and fill it in: the show's colours, a heading font, a body font, the logo, the name. Then Apply to document in each template. In the clip the Nonprofit & community example kit lands on the YouTube thumbnail: teal, deep green, gold.
Every podcast and YouTube template binds its colours to brand roles and its words to text fields: show, title, guest, episode. That is why the weekly part takes minutes: you change four words, not a layout. Several shows? The teams and agencies use case does a kit per client.
The YouTube thumbnail template, 1280 by 720. From ⋯, Brand kit… opens; the Nonprofit & community example kit (teal, deep green and gold) is applied, and the thumbnail takes its colours and fonts.
STEP 1, CONTINUED
Cover art that reads at the size of a fingernail
Most people meet a show as a square the size of a fingernail in a podcast app, so the Podcast cover art set is built for that: the show's name set huge and heavy, high in contrast, with one shape (a moon) and nothing fine that turns to noise at 60 pixels. The show cover is the 3000 × 3000 square Apple Podcasts and Spotify ask for.
The same file holds the two you make every week: an episode cover in the same frame, the guest's photo where the moon was and the episode number beside it, and the matching 1280 × 720 YouTube thumbnail for the video version. Every colour is a brand role, so the kit you just applied restyles all three.
The Podcast cover art set template in Design. All three sheets are in view, then the camera visits each: the 3000 by 3000 show cover with the name set huge and a moon, the episode cover with the guest's photo and the episode number, and the matching 1280 by 720 YouTube thumbnail.
STEP 2
The episode post, still and moving
The Podcast episode post is the show, the episode and the guest over a drawn waveform, square. Its animated twin, the Podcast episode post (animated), is eight seconds: the guest photo scales in, the show, episode number and title rise, and the waveform swells bar by bar like a level meter. It comes square, with 4:5 and 9:16 cuts, and says where to listen.
Drop in the guest's photo, type the title, export an MP4 for the feed and the stories. The motion studio is there when you want the waveform to do something rude.
The animated podcast episode post in Animate, square. Space plays it: the guest photo scales in, the show, episode and title rise, and the waveform swells bar by bar.
STEP 3
An audiogram that listens
The Podcast audiogram is the one that earns its keep. Square and 9:16: your cover art breathing with the voice, the show and episode title, a live mirrored waveform and a progress bar. It ships with a track so it plays the moment you open it. Drop the best 45 seconds of your episode on the audio lanes instead, and the reactive parts follow your sound.
No watermark, no upload to a third-party site. Export an MP4 with sound and post it. Want a different look? The Audio reactive library has a waveform, spectrum bars, a circular spectrum, a pulse ring, a VU meter and its own audiogram, ready to drop on any frame.
The podcast audiogram template in Animate, its square size in view: cover art, the show and episode title, a mirrored waveform and a progress bar. Space plays it.
STEP 3, CONTINUED
Make anything follow the voice
The Lo-fi loop visualizer, signed in. Assets lists the asset libraries; Use adds Audio reactive, and its motion components show. Spectrum bars is dragged onto the frame, and Space plays the track: the bars dance to the music.
A logo reveal in Animate. The download button in the transport bar opens Export animation. MP4 shows frame rate, range, resolution and quality with a summary of the size; GIF switches to palette, dither and loop settings; Lottie lists what the file can carry. The frame rate is set to 120 fps for MP4.
STEP 4
A thumbnail you can read on a phone
The YouTube thumbnail template has one rule baked in: three elements and type big enough to read at 200 pixels wide, because that is how big it is in somebody's feed. It is 1280 × 720, a headline field and an episode field. For a set with a face cut in beside a huge title, the SaaS launch YouTube thumbnail set is three more to borrow from (written for a product channel, so change the words).
Need a picture you do not have? Generate image makes one with AI from a prompt, using your AI credits. The AI generation page says what it can and cannot do.
A launch post, signed in. The command palette opens Generate image; a prompt for a skincare product shot is typed, the model (Nano Banana 2) and aspect are shown, and Generate is clicked. A placeholder with the prompt appears on the canvas while the image is made, then the picture lands in it as an ordinary image layer.
A launch post with its frame selected. At the bottom of the Design panel, Add export adds an export setting; its scale is set to 2x, with PNG as the format, and Export Page 1 writes the file.
STEP 5
The YouTube furniture, made once
Four motion templates do the parts of a video you build once and reuse forever, all at 1920 × 1080:
CHAPTER CARD
CH. 2Four seconds: the number drops, a rule wipes, the title rises and the chapter dots light the one you are on.
SUBSCRIBE BAR
DING!Six seconds to lay over your video: it slides in, the button pops and pulses, the alerts chip shakes, it slides away.
END SCREEN
BYE!Twenty seconds that keep YouTube's two video slots and the subscribe button clear, with a thanks title and a pulsing ring.
Then the YouTube channel banner, 2560 × 1440 with everything inside the middle safe area that survives every crop, from TV to phone. Make it in January; forget it until next January.
STEP 6
Reel covers, so the grid looks like a show
Every clip you post to Reels or TikTok gets a cover: the Reel / TikTok cover template is a hook card at 1080 × 1920, laid out clear of the app's buttons. Same kit, a new hook each time: The bin day that broke a street. Your profile grid stops looking like a hostage video.
The Kinetic headline template in Animate, zoomed on its frame. Space plays it: the headline’s words punch in one after another and the highlight pill slides under the key word, all from ordinary keys and curves on the timeline below.
A launch post in Animate, signed in. AI › Generate audio… opens the dialog with Music bed picked; a mood is typed and Generate is clicked. The finished bed lands at the playhead as an audio clip on the frame’s timeline, ready to trim, fade and level.
WHAT YOU SKIP
A weekly show, before and after
| THE USUAL SHOW | IN POPCRAFT |
|---|---|
| An audiogram web app, with its watermark | The Podcast audiogram, following your audio, exported as MP4 |
| A mid-blink frame as the thumbnail | A thumbnail template built to read at 200 pixels |
| A motion freelancer for the intro and end screen | Four YouTube motion templates, made once |
| Screenshots as episode posts | A post per episode, still or animated, in four words |
| Five apps that each drift off-brand | One brand kit across all of it |
FROM ZERO
Six moves to a show that looks like one
- 1
Apply the brand
One kit, every template: post, audiogram, thumbnail, intro, banner. - 2
Make the once-only things
The 3000 × 3000 show cover, the YouTube intro, the end screen, the channel banner. Then never again. - 3
Per episode: the post
Show, episode number, title and guest. The animated version for stories. - 4
Per episode: the audiogram
Drop in a minute of the episode; the waveform and cover art follow the voice. - 5
Per episode: the thumbnail
Three elements and type big enough to read at 200 pixels. - 6
Export and post
MP4 for the audiogram and post, PNG for the thumbnail, a cover for every reel.
BEING HONEST
Everything around the episode.
PopCraft does not record, edit or host your podcast, and it does not upload to YouTube or schedule posts. AI pictures and sound use AI credits. What it does is every visual a show needs, in one brand, quick enough to do every week.
ASKED & ANSWERED
Questions, answered
Does the audiogram really follow my audio?
Yes. The Podcast audiogram ships with a track so it plays straight away. Replace it with a clip of your episode on the audio lanes, and the reactive parts (the cover art breathing, the mirrored waveform) follow the new sound. Keyed entrances stay where they are. Export as MP4 with sound.
Is there a podcast cover art template?
Yes: the Podcast cover art set. The 3000 × 3000 show cover Apple Podcasts and Spotify ask for, with the name set huge so it reads at thumbnail size; an episode cover in the same frame with the guest's photo and the episode number; and the matching 1280 × 720 YouTube thumbnail. Every colour follows the brand kit. If you want help with the picture, Generate image makes one with AI, using your AI credits.
Can PopCraft record or edit my podcast?
No. It is not a recording studio or an audio editor for long shows. It imports audio, trims and fades clips, and can generate a music bed, a sound effect or a voice-over with AI credits, which is plenty for a 60-second social clip and nowhere near enough for editing a 90-minute episode.
Do the YouTube templates keep the end-screen slots clear?
The YouTube end screen keeps the two video slots and the subscribe button clear, with drawn placeholders, so YouTube's own elements land in the gaps. The banner lays out inside the middle safe area that survives every crop.
Are the YouTube thumbnails readable on a phone?
The YouTube thumbnail template is built on that rule: three elements and type big enough to read at 200 pixels wide. Zoom the canvas out until it is that small and check before you export.
What sizes are the episode posts?
The still Podcast episode post is square. The animated one is square with 4:5 and 9:16 cuts. The audiogram is square and 9:16.
THE MANUAL, FOR THE DETAILS
ON AIR! YOUR TURN.
Cover art, audiograms, thumbnails and the banner, on brand. Free to start, in your browser or on your Mac.