Creating Video Thumbnails in Vocal Video

Every video you publish in Vocal Video has a thumbnail: the still image people see before they press play, on your video's page, in embeds and galleries, and wherever you share it (some tools also refer to this image as a "poster").

To create your thumbnail image, you can pick a frame from your video or upload your own image, then add text on top.

In this article:

Open Thumbnail Settings

Open your video in the editor and click Thumbnail at the top of the scene list. The Thumbnail Settings panel opens on the right, and the preview shows your thumbnail the way viewers will see it.

💡Tip: you can also open the Thumbnail Settings panel simply by clicking on the video preview when the thumbnail is showing — clicking any scene in the video preview opens that scene's settings panel, and the thumbnail is no different.

The video editor with an arrow pointing to the Thumbnail item at the top of the scene list, and the Thumbnail Settings panel open on the right: Image, Text Fields, Filter, Background, Colors, Fonts and Corner Logo

Choose the image

By default, your thumbnail uses a frame from the middle of the first video clip in your video. That frame can catch the speaker mid-word, so it's worth picking one yourself. In the Image section, click one of these:

  • Select Frame: shows 10 frames taken from across each video clip in your video. Click the one you want.
  • Upload: use your own PNG or JPEG image. For a sharp result, make it the same shape as your video and at least as large, for example 1920x1080 for a horizontal video. The upload window shows the suggested size for yours. See How to Change Video Format.

The Select Frame window, 'Select a frame from a video clip to use as your video thumbnail', showing ten frames from Anh Nguyen's clip with an arrow pointing to the selected frame

If the image is a different shape from your video, drag the highlighted box in the Image section to choose which part shows. To remove the image, click the trash icon.

Add text

Open Text Fields and choose a Style:

  • Headline: large text over the image.
  • Card: text on a card, styled like the name tags in your video.
  • None: the image on its own.

Under Display, click the eye icons to show or hide each line: the Teaser (small text above the headline), the Headline, and the Body (small text below it).

To change the words, click the text in the preview, then click Edit (or press Enter) and type. The same toolbar changes the line's Font and Color, or Deletes it.

Thumbnail Settings with Text Fields open and an arrow pointing to the Style options Headline, Card and None, above the Display toggles for Teaser, Headline and Body; in the preview, the headline 'Anh Nguyen' is selected with an Edit, Font, Color and Delete toolbar

Filter, background, colors and fonts

The rest of Thumbnail Settings fine-tunes the look:

  • Filter: applies a filter to your thumbnail image. It appears once you've chosen an image.
  • Background: what shows behind the image when it doesn't fill the frame. That happens when Layout is set to Shrink to Fit and the image is a different shape, when a background effect has removed the background behind your speaker, or when the thumbnail has no image. Choose a preset or upload your own.
  • Colors: opens the Design panel at the thumbnail's own Background, Text and Accents colors.
  • Fonts: opens the Design panel's fonts. These are shared with the rest of your video: a Headline thumbnail uses your Teaser, Headline and Body fonts, and a Card uses your speaker name fonts.
  • Corner Logo: appears when your video has a corner logo. Turn on Show in Video Thumbnail to put it on the thumbnail too.

After you publish

Your thumbnail is part of your published video. Once you publish, you're ready to share and embed it with your new thumbnail. To change the thumbnail later, edit the video and republish it: see How to Edit Thumbnails in Published Videos.

How Vocal Video customers are embedding their videos onto their websites

Here are a few examples of how our customers Hone, Recovery Centers of America, PS Trax and All Out Security are embedding their videos on their websites.

Hone pairs a card embed with their G2 reviews. 

Hone's website showing a card embed that pairs a quote from Airtable's Ellie Busmire with her video, above a G2 recognition heading

Recovery Centers of America uses a card embed to display an employee testimonial.

Recovery Centers of America's careers page with a card embed of an employee video and quote under 'We Make a Difference'

PS Trax displays a gallery of happy customers alongside a link to schedule a demo.

PS Trax's website showing a row of four fire department customer videos below a navigation bar with a 'Schedule Demo' button

All Out Security embeds a carousel Gallery of their latest testimonials, highlighting praise from their top customers.

ALLOut Security's website showing a carousel gallery of customer videos with highlighted quotes beneath each one

For more information see:

Still need help? Contact Support at support@vocalvideo.com