Staff Blog / Turn any video frame into a thumbnail
Greetings, Vimeo denizens. Here’s a quick thumbnail update for those of you with opposable thumbs:
We just introduced a new feature that enables you to take any frame from your video and turn it into a thumbnail (i.e., your video’s preview image, visible before your vid starts playing). Our new thumbnail chooser allows you to scroll through the entire length of your video to find its sweet spot.
This means you are no longer at the mercy of our auto-generated thumbnails, and your video need not be represented by someone’s face in mid-expression, eyes half-closed and mouth half-open like a narcoleptic’s driver’s license photo.
To turn any video frame into a thumbnail, all you need to do is:
1. Visit your video’s Settings page.
2. In the Thumbnails section, click the “Choose” icon
3. Find the chillest frame in your video and click “Use This Frame.”
And now you’re thumbnailin’. + More from the Staff Blog Archive
24 Comments
AMOROBE
Nice!
Norman Crossfield Plus
Very nice. It's been up for a few days now and immediately I singled out the thumb I wanted. Thanks.
Neil Asher Plus
used it earlier, nice new feature!
SuccessFactors
Love this! Next lets get customizable Album thumbs. You guys rock
Mario Pagano Plus
This is great!!! Usefull uptade...
Claude Lyneis Plus
Cool. A big improvement.
Beau Akers Plus
cool
Paul 'Robson' Robertson
THIS IS AWESOME!!!! Making the best better!
Mariano Puppo Plus
great
Victor Media
Yea!
arnie michael films Plus
very much needed
Anastasis Films Plus
Sweet, thanks guys!
Kristopher Peck Plus
GOOD update. thanks!!!
Remyyy Plus
As we say in (bad) french : "Ca le fait grave ! "
Footprint Productions Plus
great enhancement!
Lonny Quattlebaum PRO
This is good.
Matt Johnson @ WhoIsMatt.com Plus
Thanks guys!
David Holicek Plus
Does this resolve the previous issues of thumbnails not being served up in HD?:
vimeo.com/forums/feature_requests/topic:32794
IPSOvideo PRO
This is really really useful, one of the features I've been waiting for. Thanks very much!
Kathaperumal Parimanan
A fantastic feature. Can we showcase all of our thumbnails created by this method in Vimeo? Thank you in advance
Exhibit-it Plus
When will there be an API for setting the thumbnail (ie. vimeo.videos.setThumbnailframe)? Developers need some way to set a specific time / frame for the thumbnail…
This new feature caused the default thumbnail to no longer be the starting frame. There really really really needs to be Advanced API method for developers to set the thumbnail. :)
Can you please pass this feature API request on to the powers to be?
Thanks in advance
Backporch Labs PRO
This would be *extremely* useful. API support for setting thumbnails please!
Simon Ellis Plus
I don't know if it's just me but I don't seem able to capture a specific frame accurately. Whatever I select, it seems to choose a different frame. Depending on the file, sometimes it chooses one very close to what I have paused on, but sometimes it chooses one up to four seconds later in the film.
I have tried switching between SD and HD in the preview window, tried waiting for the buffering to complete, tried capturing the frame as it plays rather than pausing it, but nothing changes.
I would also like to know, as somebody else asked, if the selected thumbnail is HD or not, because how some users get incredibly sharp thumbnails is still a mystery to me. Bespoke HD jpegs uploaded at the same size as the video are either crunched into lower resolution, flanked by black pillarboxing on the left and right sides, or both.
As bloody brilliant as Vimeo is, thumbnailing is the only apsect that has never been an exact science :(
Roger Waters
Thanks :)