Change your video thumbnail

The video thumbnail is the gateway to your content and your message. Choosing a proper video thumbnail is one of the easiest ways to not only communicate the topic of the video, but also project your brand and entice viewers to click play.

Vidyard automatically creates a static and animated .gif thumbnail whenever you upload or record a new video.

Don't like the pre-generated options? You can also choose to add your own custom thumbnail: upload an image, take a picture with your webcam, or select a new static or animated thumbnail from the video timeline.

Select a video from your library

Click on the title of a video in your library to open the edit page. The edit page also automatically opens whenever you finish recording a new video.

Choose a pre-generated thumbnail

On the video edit page, scroll down to the Thumbnail editor to select one of the pre-generated thumbnail 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

Add a custom thumbnail

You can also choose to add your own video thumbnail. You can either upload an image from your computer, take a picture with your webcam, or select an image from the video timeline.

Upload an image or take a picture

• Upload a thumbnail: 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 one

Select an image from the video timeline

1. Click on Select from Video
2. Select the type of thumbnail you want (either Static or Animated)
   • Click on a location in the video timeline to select the frame that you want to use an as an image
   • If an Animated thumbnail, 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

Change the thumbnail for a playlist

Playlists inherit the majority of their settings from the videos that belong to the list, including the video thumbnail.

The thumbnail is inherited from the first video in the playlist.

If you've opened the edit page for the playlist, click on the title of the first video in the list to edit the thumbnail. You can also re-order the videos in the list to change which thumbnail is used for the playlist.