How to make a YouTube intro
The honest starting point: most channels should not have an intro, and the ones that grow fastest usually do not.
An intro spends the seconds where retention is decided on something the viewer did not come for. On short-form it is close to indefensible.
Where one earns its place is long-form, and only when it is very short. This produces that.
Steps
Decide whether you need one at all
Shorts should not have one. On long-form, an intro helps only if the channel already has recognition worth reinforcing. A new channel's intro reinforces nothing, and it costs the same three seconds.
Cap it at three seconds
Anything longer is measurably costly. Three seconds is enough for a visual signature and no more, and the branding value plateaus well before the retention cost does.
Put it after the hook, not before
Open with the reason to watch, then run the intro once the viewer is committed. This single reordering removes most of the retention penalty while keeping the branding.
Generate a short clip
Produce a two to three second video in Leaxor using the same illustration style as your content. Consistency with the videos is the entire value; an intro in a different style signals nothing.
Reuse it unchanged
Recognition comes from repetition. An intro that varies between videos is decoration rather than branding, and it is not worth the seconds.
What you end up with
A two to three second clip in your channel's illustration style, sized to drop into the front of long-form videos after the hook. It runs under three seconds, sits after the hook rather than before it, and is reused unchanged on every long-form upload so the repetition does the branding work.
Watch sample videosWhen this isn't the right approach
Do not make one for a Shorts-only channel. The format gives you no room to spend, and every intro second is a retention second. If your channel is under a thousand subscribers, the branding has nothing to reinforce yet and the seconds are better spent on content. If you are unsure, the safe answer is not to make one. No channel has ever failed for lacking an intro, and plenty have measurably improved by removing theirs.
Ready to make one?
Make an intro clipFrequently asked
How long should a YouTube intro be?
Three seconds at most. The evidence on this is fairly consistent: longer intros correlate with worse retention, and the branding benefit does not scale with duration.
Do intros hurt views?
They hurt retention, which affects distribution. The effect is small on an established channel and large on a new one, because a new channel's viewers have no reason yet to wait through anything.
Do successful channels use intros?
Fewer than you would expect, and the ones that do tend to have kept them from an earlier era rather than added them recently. The trend across the platform has run steadily toward shorter, and then toward none at all.
Can an intro go at the end instead?
An outro serves a different purpose and costs far less, because a viewer who reached the end has already been retained. If you want branding, the end of the video is where it is cheapest.
What should an intro actually contain?
A visual signature and nothing else. Not the channel history, not a welcome, not an explanation of what the channel does. Three seconds allows exactly one recognisable thing.
Should Shorts have an intro?
No. A Short has roughly one second to justify itself, and spending any of it on branding is spending the only budget you have. Intros exist to signal identity to someone who has already committed to watching, and nobody in a Shorts feed has committed to anything. Save the intro for long-form uploads where a viewer clicked deliberately, and open a Short on the single most interesting frame you have.