How to change your video thumbnail

Who can use this feature?

Available to all users
In Teams or higher, users must have the Edit Videos permission enabled

Get your viewers to click play with a compelling thumbnail 🎯

The thumbnail image is the gateway to your video and the best way to entice viewers to click play.

For each video that you record or upload, you can choose from the thumbnail options that Vidyard generates or create a custom thumbnail of your own. 

• 🎯 Select a pre-generated static or animated .gif thumbnail
• ⬆️  Upload your own thumbnail image
• 📸  Take a picture with your webcam
• 🖼️  Select a new static or animated thumbnail from the video timeline

Choosing a thumbnail for your video

1. Select a video from your library to open the edit page
2. Scroll down to the Thumbnail section to select one of the following options:
   
   
   • Static thumbnail: a still image taken from the 1st second of your video
   • Animated thumbnail: a .gif taken from the first 3 seconds of your video
   • A custom thumbnail: 
     • • • upload an image from your computer
         • take a picture with your webcam
         • select an image from the video timeline

Adding a custom thumbnail to your video

Don't like either of the pre-generated thumbnail options? You can also add your own custom thumbnail.

• Upload your own thumbnail image
• Take a picture with your webcam
• Select an image from the video timeline

Upload an image or take a picture

Under Custom thumbnail select either Upload or Take a picture to add a new thumbnail image for your video.

• Upload: select a file from your computer (.jpeg, .png or .gif, maximum 5MB in size). Vidyard will automatically resize the image to fit the video.
• Take a picture: don't like your thumbnail? Take a photo with your webcam to create a new image.

Select an image from the video timeline

Use the Select from Video option to choose a specific frame from the video timeline as your thumbnail. You can select either a new static image or an animated .gif.

1. Under the Thumbnail section, click on Select from Video
2. Select the type of thumbnail you want (either Static or Animated)
   • Move the slider bar to select a frame from the video timeline
   • If you select Animated as the thumbnail type, click and drag the bars at either end of the video to frame the section that you want to turn into a .gif
3. Click Select to apply the thumbnail

Your thumbnail preference

Whenever you select a thumbnail for your video (either static or animated), Vidyard remembers your choice and updates it as your thumbnail preference.

Your thumbnail preference is used whenever you record a new video with the browser extension. That way, you don't have to open the edit page for each new video that you record to change the thumbnail image. Instead, your current thumbnail preference is automatically applied.

To change your thumbnail preference, go to the edit page for any video in your library, then choose either the pre-generated static or animated thumbnail options.

Change the thumbnail for a playlist

When you combine videos together in a playlist, the video thumbnail is taken from the first video in the list.

To change the playlist thumbnail, you can either:

• Change the thumbnail of the first video in the list
  • • Select the title of any video in the playlist to edit its thumbnail
      
      
• Re-order the list to change which video occupies the first position