I'm pulling a face on the freeze frame / thumbnail - how can I change it?
When you upload your video production projects, you can often be left with a thumbnail or freeze frame which is somewhat unappealing or embarrassing. In this post we are going to tell you how you can change it on Vimeo, YouTube, LinkedIn and Facebook.
Thumbnails / freeze frames auto selected
When we upload our videos to any platform it automatically chooses a thumbnail from a frame within the video. We don’t put a specific thumbnail of the videos on the review stage as this has no effect on the actual video itself. So sometimes it might choose a random frame where a person is pulling a silly face as that’s what the system chooses.
(Here is an example of the automatic thumbnail that Vimeo chose for Mike in our social media video – he may not find this very flattering upon first opening the review link)
When our clients open the Vimeo link it will load a still of what they think is the first frame of the video however that is not right, so don’t worry!
This thumbnail that Vimeo has chosen will be irrelevant when you download the video or re-upload it to your social media, it is purely how it appears on Vimeo.
(We can choose a different frame within the video on our end of Vimeo)
(Here we have chosen a thumbnail from the opening ident – this should mean that Mike won’t be offended by the thumbnail it automatically chose; he’s a sensitive soul)
Many people we communicate with about their video will at some point send it to their boss for review and therefore fear that there is an unattractive thumbnail. We can change that easily, so don’t worry your boss won’t fire you for producing a video which starts with them looking like they are about to sneeze. In that case, we may select a neutral frame of the video or use your logo.
YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn and other social media platforms
The same principle of a thumbnail or freeze frame being auto selected is true on other social media platforms too. They all have a way in which you can add your own custom thumbnail or potentially select a different freeze frame from within the video.
How to change your thumbnail on Youtube:
1) Log into YouTube
2) Go to YouTube Studio located in the right hand corner of the website
3) Press the video section on the left hand side
4) Click the video that you would like to change
5) Scroll down to the thumbnail section
6) Select custom thumbnail
7) Confirm the thumbnail and select save
How to change your thumbnail on Facebook
1) Log into Facebook
2) Either upload your video or select the one you wish to change
3) In the media section, click edit video
4) Choose the thumbnail from the menu on the left
5) Select manual and then click upload
6) Select save
How to change your thumbnail on LinkedIn:
1) Log into LinkedIn
2) Upload your video
3) Click ‘Edit’ in the top right corner of the video
4) Select your thumbnail
5) Click ‘done’ and post your video
How to change your thumbnail on Vimeo:
1) Log into Vimeo
2) Upload your video
3) Click ‘Settings’ beneath your upload
4) In the middle section of the screen scroll down to the ‘Thumbnail’ section
5) Click ‘Edit Thumbnail’
6) Here you can select ‘Upload’ and apply your own thumbnail
7) Make sure you press ‘Save’ to your changes
If you choose to upload your video to Twitter you won’t be able to give the video a thumbnail and therefore you can’t change it. You can amend the automatic thumbnails when you upload it to other social media platforms like YouTube, LinkedIn and Facebook but not on Twitter.
In Conclusion
Don’t worry if your boss that we filmed is pulling an unattractive face on the first frame before you press play on the Vimeo link that we have sent to you for review, this has no effect on your final product. We can easily change it upon request for you here at Stone’s Throw Media. Got some more questions? Get in touch here!
Why not check out some other blogs we’ve written all about thumbnails:
Why you should use custom thumbnails and what makes a good custom thumbnail.
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