Forum Discussion
Does RISE automatically fade up from black on mp4 video even when it doesn't start in black?
Hello. I am trying to get around the fact that RISE doesn't allow a thumbnail to a video to display without bringing the video into replay and adding a image as the first frame.
To combat this, I produced a video that doesn't start in black, thinking RISE would not add a black fade in upon importing the video in a project. Even though the video doesn't start in black, it appears that RISE automatically fade the video in from black, thus not allowing the first frame to serve as the thumbnail that learners see. Back to the issue of the video starting in black in the course which is horrible! I know people have been asking Articulate for over seven years to provide us with a thumbnail option so I am guessing that is not coming anytime soon.
Is my only option to use my mp4 video to bring into Replay, add an image at the beginning and then publish it as another mp4 just so RISE won't put on the automatic fade in from black on RISE? That seems like a very heavy lift to get a video to show up with a thumbnail in the course.
I tried Storyline but I can't add multiple language closed captioning as easy as I can in RISE. We can't link out to YouTube or Vimeo due to corporate restrictions. Any ideas how to easily accomplish RISE NOT putting an automatic fade up from black in your course. Thanks for all your ideas!
Hi KathrynMendoza-!
Happy to help with this!
When adding videos to a Rise 360 course, a black play button appearing over the video is expected and by design. However, Rise 360 does not add additional fade-in effects. Testing this on my end, with Google Chrome, I uploaded an unedited MP4 video to a Multimedia > Video Block. I did not observe any fade in from black to white when the video began.
Are you experiencing this behavior across all videos that have been uploaded to Rise, or just one specifically? Also, does this issue occur when previewing your course within Rise, or after it's been published?
I see that you've mentioned the source video does not start in black, but this behavior does sound more related to the video content itself. If you're comfortable sharing the MP4 file, as well as a screen recording of the behavior, we'd be happy to take a deeper look! Feel free to upload those items here in the discussion or privately through a support case.
Looking forward to hearing from you!
Thank you so much Steven! I guess I just had to ask the question! For some reason now I can get it to work showing the first frame of the video with the black play button as you stated. I have no idea why I couldn't get this to work before, but now it seems to be working fine. So moving forward, if I edit my videos to start as a first frame of video with no fade up from black, the thumbnail that RISE is expected to show is the first frame of video? Is that your understanding as well? Thanks again for your help and letting me know how it is supposed to behave so I can persevere!
Hi KathrynMendoza-!
You're welcome, thanks for following up!
Glad to hear your issue has been resolved. Also, yes, the scenario you've described is correct. Rise 360 displays the first frame of a video by default. If you'd rather display a different image, video editing tools like Replay 360 can help with that.
- Take a screenshot of the video frame of your choice.
- Add the screenshot to the first frame of your video.
- Re-upload the video back into Rise 360.
However, to help streamline this process, we are tracking a feature request in Rise to support custom thumbnails for videos. I've included your voice in that request! We'll be sure to update you if this enhancement makes it to our product roadmap.
Have a great rest of your week!
