How to get thumbnail of YouTube video link using YouTube Video ID?

November 29, 2012
Each YouTube video has 4 generated images. They are predictably formatted as follows:

http://img.youtube.com/vi/<insert-youtube-video-id>/0.jpg
http://img.youtube.com/vi/<insert-youtube-video-id>/1.jpg
http://img.youtube.com/vi/<insert-youtube-video-id>/2.jpg
http://img.youtube.com/vi/<insert-youtube-video-id>/3.jpg

The first one in the list is a full size image and others are thumbnail images. The default thumbnail image (ie. one of 1.jpg, 2.jpg, 3.jpg) is:

http://img.youtube.com/vi/<insert-youtube-video-id>/default.jpg

For the high quality version of the thumbnail use a url similar to this:

http://img.youtube.com/vi/<insert-youtube-video-id>/hqdefault.jpg

There is also a medium quality version of the thumbnail, using a url similar to the HQ:

http://img.youtube.com/vi/<insert-youtube-video-id>/mqdefault.jpg

For the maximum resolution version of the thumbnail use a url similar to this:

http://img.youtube.com/vi/<insert-youtube-video-id>/maxresdefault.jpg