TikTok is a popular social media platform known for its short-form videos. With over 1 billion monthly active users, TikTok has become a creative outlet for people to express themselves through singing, dancing, comedy, and more. One fun feature of TikTok is the ability to create visually engaging album covers using the app’s built-in tools.
Album covers on TikTok serve multiple purposes. They allow users to showcase their personality and style. Album covers also help videos stand out in the busy TikTok feed. Additionally, album cover challenges and trends have emerged on TikTok as a way for creators to engage their audience. Overall, customized album covers let TikTok users add a unique flair to their content.
Add Multiple Photos
To create an album cover in TikTok, the first step is selecting multiple photos from your camera roll to include. Here’s how to add multiple photos:
Open the TikTok app and tap on the plus (+) icon to create a new video. On the camera screen, tap on the square photo icon at the bottom. This will open your photo library.
To select multiple photos, tap and hold on the first photo you want to add. This will show a checkmark on that photo. Then tap on additional photos to add them. You can select up to 9 photos to include on your album cover.
You can also import photos from connected social media accounts like Facebook or Instagram. Tap on the import icon on the photo picker screen. Select the social platform and you can browse photos from those accounts to add to your album cover.
Once you’ve selected all the photos, tap on the checkmark icon to confirm. This will add the photos to your TikTok video canvas.
Arrange the Photos
Once you’ve added all the photos you want to include, you can arrange them within the template using the layout options in TikTok. This allows you to customize the look and feel of your album cover.
Tap and hold on a photo to move it around on the canvas. You can place photos on top of each other and adjust the layering to create different levels of depth.
Use the spacing slider at the bottom to adjust the gap between photos. Increase the spacing to spread them apart or decrease it to make them overlap more.
You can also rotate individual photos by tapping them and then rotating the dial that appears. This is useful for straightening crooked shots or angling a photo in a certain direction.
Take your time playing around with the arrangement until you’re happy with the overall composition. The layout options give you a lot of creative flexibility.
According to this article, overlapping images creates visual interest and makes the most of the square frame.
With some careful positioning, you can make it look like the photos belong together cohesively, even if they’re all different.
Crop the Photos
One of the most important steps in creating a TikTok album cover is cropping your photos properly. The cropping tool allows you to focus the cover image and highlight the most important visual elements.
Many people crop their photos into interesting shapes like circles, triangles, or diamonds rather than just using a standard rectangular crop. This adds visual flair to the album cover.
To crop a photo on TikTok, open the photo in the editor and select the crop icon in the bottom left. You can then adjust the crop area and shape to frame the image how you like. Drag the corners of the crop tool to resize and position it.
Cropping photos into unique shapes often requires starting with a high quality image, so the cover doesn’t look pixelated when zoomed in. Crop intelligently to keep the most important parts of the photo intact.
It’s also common to see TikTok album covers with off-center, asymmetrical crops to make them look more stylized and less generic. Don’t be afraid to break composition rules and crop in unexpected ways!
Citations:
@alexsey Here’s how I turned my photos into album covers 💿✨ #phototips #albumcovers #learnontiktok #tiktokpartner
Filters and Adjustments
Once you have your photos arranged, you can use filters and adjustments to unify the look of the photos and make them appear more like a cohesive album cover. Some tips for using filters and adjustments effectively include:
Applying filters like black and white, vintage, or muted can help make a collage of photos feel more unified. Use similar color filters across all the photos for consistency. You can also try applying gradient filters to create an interesting blend of colors.
Adjust properties like brightness, contrast, shadows and highlights to make the lighting and tone feel cohesive. Try increasing contrast slightly or dropping highlights and shadows for a more professional, finished look.
Use editing tools to color correct photos that may have different white balances or color casts. Making the color tones align will help the collage feel like one image.
Add light vignette effects or artistic blurring around the edges of photos to draw the eye towards the center and make the collage feel intentional.
Browse the filters and effects in the TikTok editor to find options that give your photos a stylized, artistic look. Vintage, cinematic and grainy filters tend to work well for the album cover aesthetic.
Don’t go overboard with filters. Try to enhance the photos while retaining a natural, clean finish. Overusing effects can make the cover look too busy or tacky.
Cite (https://invideo.io/blog/how-to-do-album-cover-challenge-on-tiktok/)
Text Overlay
Adding text overlays is a great way to customize your TikTok album cover and make it more unique. TikTok provides a variety of font, size, and color options to choose from when adding text.
To add text, tap the “Text” icon on the bottom toolbar. This will open up the text editor where you can type in your desired text. Tap the text style icon to change the font, size, color, alignment, and more. You can add multiple text boxes with different styling.
Some tips for text overlays:
- Use large, bold fonts for the main title or headings.
- Add subtitles, lyrics, or captions with smaller text.
- Play around with different colors and shadows to make the text stand out.
- Put text over plain areas so it’s easy to read.
- Keep the text brief and impactful.
Text overlays allow you to give your TikTok album cover a polished, professional look. Get creative with fonts and text placement to make your cover truly eye-catching and unique. Just remember to keep the text easy to read against the background.
Stickers and Emojis
Adding fun stickers and emojis is a great way to personalize your TikTok album cover. TikTok has a huge library of stickers to choose from, ranging from cute animals and food items to phrases and emojis.
To add a sticker, tap the stickers icon at the top of the editing screen. You’ll then see all the available stickers. Tap on a sticker to add it to your design. Drag the sticker around and pinch to resize it to fit your album cover.
Position your stickers thoughtfully. Putting a sticker over someone’s face is usually not the best idea. Try to find empty spaces to place your stickers. Overlapping stickers can look cluttered, so use them sparingly. The best designs incorporate just a few stickers to accent the photos.
Emojis can also add a fun pop of visual interest to your album cover. Tap the emoji icon to browse the options. Select an emoji and drag it where you want it. Play around with different emoji sizes and positions.
Stickers and emojis are a great way to showcase your personality. Have fun with them, but don’t go overboard. A few well-placed stickers and emojis can give your TikTok album cover a playful, eye-catching look.
For more sticker ideas, check out the TikTok stickers page here: https://www.tiktok.com/stickers
Drawing Tools
TikTok has robust drawing tools that allow you to get creative with your album cover design. You can use the arrow, shape, and brush tools to add unique elements.1 Some ideas include:
- Drawing arrows or shapes to point to different elements on the cover
- Using the brush tool to add paint splatters or handwritten text
- Doodling borders, frames or illustrations around the main image
- Making music notes, swirls or abstract art to liven up blank areas
The drawing tools allow you to personalize the album cover with your own artistic touch. Don’t be afraid to experiment and add whimsical elements that express your personality. Just be careful not to overdo it – the main focus should still be clear and readable.
Finishing Touches
Once you’ve added all your photos, text, stickers, and other elements, it’s time for some final edits to perfect your album cover. Review the arrangement of images and text – make adjustments so the composition is balanced and elements are not covering up key parts of the photos. Zoom in and inspect details to spot any small fixes. For example, you may want to crop stray edges or retouch blemishes on the photos.
When you are fully satisfied with the look of your album cover, export a high resolution version to save. On TikTok, tap the Share button and select “Save video.” Choose the “High” quality option when prompted. This will give you a crisp, print-worthy file that you can post on your social media profiles or even order physical prints from a service like CanvasPop.
Having a clean, high resolution album cover can make it more versatile for reuse across different platforms. And a little extra polish can take your TikTok album cover from fun trend to professional work of art!
Share and Promote
After creating your album cover, it’s time to share it on TikTok and promote it to your followers. Here are some tips for getting the most out of your album cover video:
Upload the finished video to your TikTok profile as a new post. Make sure to use relevant hashtags like #albumcover and #albumcoverchallenge so people can find your video when searching those tags. You can also tag the song and artist if you used an existing song for your cover.
In the caption, let your followers know you’ve created an album cover and encourage them to guess the fake album name. Engage with commenters and build excitement around your post.
Consider promoting your album cover on other social platforms like Instagram or Twitter as well. Cross-promoting can help reach new audiences.
Follow up on your album cover post with behind-the-scenes videos showing how you made the cover. Share fun facts or Easter eggs people may have missed.
Duet or stitch your album cover with other TikTokers to start a virtual album collab. This can extend the life of your post.
Most importantly, have fun with it! The album cover trend is about creativity and community on TikTok, so don’t stress too much about making the “perfect” cover.
