How to change your video thumbnail

The thumbnail image is the gateway to your video and the best way to entice viewers to click play. Simply select any video from your library to edit its thumbnail.

Every video that you upload to Vidyard has a static or animated .gif thumbnail that you can choose from.

Don't like the pre-generated options? You can also select your own custom thumbnail:

• ⬆️  upload your own thumbnail image
• 📸  take a picture with your webcam
• 🖼️  select a new static or animated thumbnail from the video timeline

Selecting 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 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

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 provide a new 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've 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

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.

A playlist obtains its thumbnail from the first video in the list. To change the playlist thumbnail, you can either:

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