Forum Discussion
Is it possible to upload a thumbnail to a video in Rise 360?
I've uploaded a video, but the thumbnail appears to be the first frame of the video, and I can't change this without changing the first frame.
This isn't ideal, as the video has an animated logo opener, so the first frame is just a white background. I'd prefer to upload a thumbnail of the full logo instead, while keeping the video as is.
I've tried an alternative where I've uploaded the video to YouTube, added a thumbnail through the YouTube publish process, then added this to the Rise course via the embedded video option, but the thumbnail appears blurry for some reason.
Any solutions or workarounds would be appreciated.
This is an issue we also are struggling with - having a blank image / no meaningful thumbnail when embedding a video looks very unprofessional and not user friendly at all. I would also appreciate updates on that, thanks.
I found a work around, that worked for me.
- I basically uploaded my video to Canva.
- Took a screenshot of the first frame and uploaded that as well.
- Then place the screenshot before the video on the timeline.
- I made the screenshot 0.2 instead of 1.0 seconds long.
- I added a transition (Flow) between the two to make it smooth.
- I also removed the black screen that appears before the video starts.
- It transitioned very nicely.
I downloaded the video to my device and uploaded it to Rise360 and the screenshot showed as my thumbnail/video cover.
Hope this helps.
Hi Shimell!
Thanks for sharing that workaround with the community! I'm sure other users discovering this thread will find the steps very useful.
Have a great rest of your week!
Thanks for sharing this. This is essentially the same workaround which could be done using Camtasia. However, I would really appreciate if I did not have to use some external tool for some basic step like that. Maybe this feature could be added in the future? It looks much more professional if the video shows some related thumbnail before starting it.
Agreed, I would most definitely like to see this as a feature as well.
Agree, I would also like to see this feature as well. Not being able to edit the video thumbnail is not ideal.
Bumping this one up too. Surprised this hasn't been addressed other than by workarounds.
Having created the mp4 in Storyline, it is annoying that the first slide doesn't display, as other mentioned above. I have audio with closed captions, and if I edit in Camtasia to get the first frame to show the same as the first slide, then I lose (or will have to re-do) the ccs again. This is really not ideal.
Bumping this, as well. I found people asking for this as far back as 5 years ago. Every video I add has a blank white screen as a thumbnail. Setting a video thumbnail seems like basic video player functionality. Why has this not yet been addressed?
Every video I add to Rise has a perfect thumbnail?
First time using Rise and I'm very surprised this is an issue. Come on Articulate get with the times.
This may seem like the biggest little issue, but it has a super easy workaround. You can upload your video into any video editor, export a single-frame image of the screen you want to be your thumbnail, make it as small as possible - like a fraction of a second - and move that to the beginning of your video. When you upload the video to Rise, the first frame is now your thumbnail. When a user presses play, the thumbnail disappears instantly, and the animated intro begins. I've included an image of what the timeline looks like with the thumbnail added.
Ok, it's crazy that even after 2 years, there's still no fix on Articulate's part for this when it's a common feature in free video platforms! 😶
Here's what I do:
- Export the frame in your video you wish to have as your thumbnail image (or create a custom image). This will be your "poster" image
- Open your video software with the existing video
- Move all of the existing footage over just a single frame
- Insert your new poster image as the very first frame on the top track.
- Export your video and upload to Rise.
Yes, this adds extra time, but it will get you the results in Rise that you need for now.
