A thumbnail gives viewers a quick impression of your video’s content before playback begins. The Blue Billywig player offers two types of thumbnails:
- Moving thumbnail: animates automatically when a viewer hovers over the player (desktop) or scrolls the video into view (mobile).
- Static thumbnail: a still image shown before playback begins.
When a video is uploaded, the OVP automatically generates a set of static thumbnail frames from the video for you to choose from. A moving thumbnail is also generated automatically.
To change the thumbnail for a media clip:
- Navigate to the “Media Library”
- Select a video and open the “Thumbnail” tab:
1.0 | Moving thumbnails
A moving thumbnail displays a loop containing a 5-second snippet of the video and is generated automatically. The moving thumbnail skips the first two seconds of the video and then plays the following five seconds in a loop.
- On desktop, the moving thumbnail is displayed when viewers hover their cursor over the video player.
- On mobile devices the thumbnail starts animating once the video is in view.
Moving thumbnails can be switched off in the Playout ‘start screen’ settings by ticking the box “Disable moving thumbnail”. Learn more about the Playout start screen settings
2.0 | Static thumbnails
A static thumbnail displays a static image before the content is being played. This could be a still from the video as well as an image uploaded to the OVP manually.
When the playout is set to display a moving thumbnail, a static thumbnail will only be visible on desktop when the cursor is not hovering over the player. On mobile a static thumbnail will not be visible when moving thumbnails are enabled.
There are three ways to set a static thumbnail:
- Select one of the automatically generated thumbnail images;
- Upload your own custom image;
- Select a still from the video;
2.1 | Select an automatically generated thumbnail
After uploading a video, the OVP automatically generates a series of static thumbnail frames. These are displayed directly in the Thumbnail tab. To set one as your thumbnail, select it and click “Save” in the bottom right corner.
2.2 | Upload an image
To upload a custom image, click “Select files”. Use the drag & drop option to add your image or select from a folder on your computer. .jpg, .png, and .webp files are supported.
When the image is uploaded, select it and click “Save” in the bottom right corner.
2.3 | Select a frame from the video
Select a frame from the video by clicking “Select thumbnail from video”:
Use the playback controls to navigate to the frame you want to capture, then click the screen or “Create thumbnail” in the top left to take a snapshot:
The snapshots will be displayed beneath the video. To set one of these snapshots as your thumbnail, select a thumbnail, click “Done” and save your progress.
2.4 | Download a thumbnail
If you need the thumbnail image for use outside the OVP (for example for social media or a CMS), you can download it directly:
- Hover over the thumbnail you’d like to download;
- Click the download icon;
- The source file will start downloading automatically.
2.5 | Add a thumbnail set
Add a thumbnail set with different dimensions when the player is embedded with an aspect ratio that’s different from the video content itself. To add a thumbnail set, click “Add thumbnail set” and select the desired dimension. You can then upload a custom image or select a frame from the video for that specific dimension.
The available thumbnail dimensions are:
- Widescreen (21:9)
- Landscape (16:9)
- Photo (3:2)
- Classic TV (4:3)
- Square (1:1)
- Poster (4:5)
- Portrait (9:16)
