Thumbnail

[infinaurakle]

Hi there,
I read another topic about this here in the forum (dated 2023), and not sure I understand the solution (if there is one).

When posting our video on social medias, the frame featured as a cover image seems to be totally random.
It would be nice if it were a pre-selected/specific image (of our choice) that attracted more views,

I don’t mean youtube, although guessiing that youtube also chooses a random image.
Some call this the thumbnail.
Is there any way to default the video to remain on a specific frame that WE can choose when posting it online ?

Thanks so much in advance for any feedback

[brian]

I do not have experience with all the social media apps. But I know that in YouTube, you can choose the thumbnail image as part of the upload process.

The next release of Shotcut will have a new “Cover Art” feature that allows you to specify the thumbnail for media that is used by file explorers. I do not know if social media sites look for that.

How to set ..ehhmm... "cover art"?

Something similar to this has been implemented for the 26.4 release. The cover art image is specified as an image file in a new “Metadata” tab in the export settings. I chose not to use “select a frame” because the image might not even be from the video. Or, in the case of mp3 export, there is no video at all.

[infinaurakle]

very interesting !! thanks

can anything be done in the meantime, until this release comes out ?

[brian]

There is a suggestion to use FFMpeg in the topic I posted above.

Also some ideas here:

Thumbnails

hi, I am trying to figure out how to export my videos with thumbnail defined by myself. I realize that only the first and last shot of the sections are taken as thumbnails, but the exported version is saved with thumbnail from a middle section of the video. How do I change that? I would like to have the video exported with the first thumbnail of the first video section. I also don’t see any option how to modify thumbnails. Under timeline options there is no such possibility. Many thanks for an…

[infinaurakle]

thank you, YES I mentioned in my opening topic, that I searched for a solution here before posting, and this was the one I found… but seems it’s an old post (2023) where the solution was not there yet ?

When is this 26.4 release coming out ?

[brian]

@infinaurakle

When is this 26.4 release coming out ?

Next month. A beta is probably coming soon.

[shotcut]

In the meantime, or in case YouTube does not read cover art, simply find a frame in the project you want to use and use File > Export > Frame, and you can upload that to the YouTube upload page.

[jonray]

@shotcut

simply find a frame in the project you want to use and use File > Export > Frame, and you can upload that to the YouTube upload page.

I would second that idea - I do it for all my YT videos. Just one tip: export your frame as a JPG image, not a PNG, because in my experience YouTube the PNG image file is too large (in Mbs), at least when my project is 1920 x 1080.