Change Thumbnail

Before Ingest or Check-in

In Zoom 5.1 or greater, before check-in of an asset, it is possible to specify an alternative thumbnail file for a preview-able file type in order to skip the default thumbnail generation by Zoom.

This can be handy when:

  • The default thumbnail generator in Zoom is slow or is using too many computer resources on the desktop from which check-in is being run. Zoom will skip it’s preview generation step and instead use the user-supplied thumbnail file.
  • The thumbnail generated by Zoom is not as desirable as the user-supplied thumbnail
  • A thumbnail needs to be attached to file type that is not normally preview-able by Zoom (this requires adding the file type on the server property file first, please consult with Evolphin support if you are in this situation)

To supply your own thumbnail and have Zoom check-in process pick it automatically:

  1. Copy the files that will serve as thumbnails to the same folder where the assets being checked-in are located:

    The thumbnail file name format to be followed: if the asset’s file name is “zoom.cr2” then the thumbnail file name should be – “zoom.cr2_tb.png“.

    In the user’s $HOME/.zm/zoom.properties you can set TB_FILE_PATTERN_EXT =.jpg to change the default file type for the thumbnail from png to jpg. If you switch the TB_FILE_PATTERN_EXT to jpg, the thumbnail file needs to be named as “zoom.cr2_tb.jpg“.

  2. In the Check-in dialog, select the “Change Thumbnail” check-box:

  3. Now the check-in process will use the _tb.png (or _tb.jpg if configured for jpg) files as the thumbnail to skip the default thumbnail generator in Zoom for assets that have the matching thumbnail file in the same folder.
    The thumbnail file will not be imported in the asset’s destination folder in the Zoom repository. Instead, it will only be used to bypass the default thumbnail Zoom would have created.

Video Thumbnail on Check-in

Often initial frames are black or have color bars that are not desirable as a thumbnail. Zoom client settings can be changed to automatically pick a frame based on elapsed time in seconds from the start of the video.

Per User Settings

  1. Open Z->Settings->Advanced Properties
  2. Change the property video_thumb_time to elapsed time in seconds from start, for e.g. 10 for 10 seconds.

  3. Restart the client proxy via Z -> Restart Client Proxy and restart Asset Browser
  4. Now ingest a video file, the thumbnail extracted will not be based on the 1st frame instead will be the frame at 10 seconds from the start.

Global Settings for All Users

If you wish to have all users automatically get the property video_thumb_time set to say 10 seconds, please set the property video_thumb_time=10 on the Zoom server’s zoom.properties client-settings as described here.

After Ingest or Check-in

In Zoom 5.1 or greater, thumbnails can be replaced when an asset is a working copy on your computer:

  1. In Asset Browser, select an asset that is currently a working copy on your computer.
    Prior to Zoom 6.0, you will need to check-out the asset first before the change thumbnail command can be invoked
    From Zoom 6.0 and above, the asset does not need to be checked-out for the change thumbnail to work; the operation is improved for speed and is additionally also made available from the web-based Asset Browser. 
  2. Right-click and select Change Thumbnail.

  3. Select an image or file to replace the thumbnail with.
  4. Click the Select button.

Change thumbnail for video by grabbing frame

From Zoom 6.0 and above, thumbnail change for video files can also be done at the time of previewing and grabbing the current frame of the video and making it as the current thumbnail.

  1. Open Asset Browser.
  2. Preview a video asset.
  3. Click on grab frame icon in the bottom-right corner.
  4. The current frame will be grabbed and displayed on a dialog.
  5. Select Change thumbnail to the selected frame option and click Ok.
changetb-vab
By selecting the option Wait till change thumbnail finishes, will block any user inputs till change thumbnail is performed on the asset.
You can also save the captured frame by selecting Save captured frame option.

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