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Actions23

Transform → Video: Thumbnail

AI-generated

Overview

This node operation generates a thumbnail image from a video asset stored in Cloudinary. It allows users to specify the video asset by its public ID and customize the thumbnail extraction by choosing the frame mode (automatic or specific timestamp), the timestamp for the frame if applicable, and the image format of the thumbnail (JPG, PNG, WebP, GIF). Additional options such as versioning for cache busting can also be set. This operation is useful for creating preview images or snapshots from videos for display in applications or websites.

Use Case Examples

  1. Generating a thumbnail image at 2.5 seconds into a video to use as a preview on a video gallery page.
  2. Automatically extracting a representative frame from a video to display as a thumbnail in a media management dashboard.

Properties

Name Meaning
Public ID The public identifier of the video asset in Cloudinary, including any folder path but excluding the file extension. This is required to specify which video to generate the thumbnail from.
Type The Cloudinary delivery type for the asset. Usually set to 'Upload' for public assets. Other types like 'Private' or social media sources require signed URLs which are not supported by this node yet.
Continue From Transformation Optional transformation string to prepend before this operation's transformation, allowing chaining of transformations across nodes.
Frame Mode to select the frame for the thumbnail: either automatically chosen by Cloudinary or at a specific timestamp.
Timestamp Timestamp in seconds to grab the frame from, used only if 'Specific Time' frame mode is selected.
Image Format Format of the generated thumbnail image, such as JPG, PNG, WebP, or GIF.
Additional Options Additional optional parameters such as asset version for cache busting.

Output

JSON

  • url - The URL of the generated video thumbnail image.
  • transformation - The transformation string used to generate the thumbnail, useful for chaining transformations.

Dependencies

  • Cloudinary API credentials including cloud name, API key, and API secret are required for authentication.

Troubleshooting

  • If the public ID is incorrect or the asset does not exist, the node will throw an error indicating the asset could not be found.
  • Using delivery types like 'Private' or 'Authenticated' without signed URLs will cause the generated URLs to fail to load, as this node does not generate signed URLs yet.
  • If the timestamp is not provided when 'Specific Time' frame mode is selected, the node may throw an error or fail to generate the thumbnail properly.

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