How to change your video thumbnail

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Brendan O'Driscoll
Who Can Use This Feature?
Self-Service Plans
Free Pro Plus
Business Plans
Essentials Growth Enterprise
On Business plans, 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 select from a static or animated thumbnail (automatically chosen by Vidyard), or add your own custom thumbnail

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

Choose a thumbnail for your video

  1. Sign in to your Vidyard account, then select Library
  2. Select a video from your library to edit its thumbnail
  3. Scroll down to the Thumbnail section
  4. Select one of the following thumbnail options:
      • A pre-generated static or animated .gif thumbnail taken from your video (max of 10 seconds)
      • Add your own custom thumbnail

Selecting a static or animated thumbnail from the video edit page

Add your own custom thumbnail

Prefer to use your own thumbnail image? No problem. You can add your own custom thumbnail to the video if you don't like the static or animated thumbnails that Vidyard chooses for you.

  • Select Upload to use an image from your computer (.jpeg, .png or .gif, maximum 5MB in size). Vidyard will automatically resize the image to fit the video.

  • Select Take a picture to use your computer's webcam and take a photo 

  • Click on Select from Video to select a frame from the video timeline 

Choosing the Upload or Take a picture options to add a custom thumbnail

Select a thumbnail from your video

Use Select from Video to pick a frame from the video timeline as your new thumbnail. You can choose a static image or create an animated .gif from a segment of the video.

  1. Under the Thumbnail section, click on Select from VideoClicking on the Select from Video option to choose a new thumbnail image from the timeline
  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 (10 seconds maximum)
  3. Click Select to apply the thumbnailSelecting a thumbnail image from the video timeline

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:

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

Selecting the video first video in the list to change the playlist thumbnail

FAQ

How does Vidyard select images for the static and animated thumbnail?

When a new a video is added to your library, Vidyard automatically creates a static and animated thumbnail from the frames in the video.

The table below demonstrates how default thumbnail images are selected:

Recorded versus uploaded How default thumbnail image is selected
Recorded (via the browser extension, desktop app or mobile app)
  • Static: take from the 1st second of the video
  • Animatedtaken from the first 3 seconds of the video
A file uploaded from your computer
  • Static: taken from the middle of the video 
  • Animated: taken from the first 3 seconds of the video

Can I have my videos default to a static thumbnail?

Vidyard videos start with an animated thumbnail by default, but you can change your video's thumbnail at any time. If you want your videos to default to a static thumbnail whenever you create them, please reach out to our Support team.

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