Wednesday, July 1, 2020

Two Quick Ways to Add Dynamic Text to Your Live Video Stream in OBS

How to Add Auto-Updating Text to Your Live Video Stream

If you’re streaming, you might want certain things to update live, as you broadcast. This could be a subscriber count or a donation amount, for example, where the content would refresh either live or at selected intervals.

An increasing count can encourage others to either subscribe or donate, or if an audience see others commenting, it might in turn embolden them to also comment. This is why dynamic text can be a really useful feature – let’s look at a couple of ways you can add dynamic text to your stream in OBS.

1. Updatable Text Files via a Widget (Streamlabs OBS)

One way to add dynamic text to your stream is to incorporate updateable text files, and the most popular method to do this through OBS is with a third-party service called Streamlabs.

Streamlabs has many useful features for streaming, but it's Stream Labels which let you add scrolling text or updating notifications to your stream. To use it, you install the Streamlabs software (a customized version of OBS) head to Sources and choose Stream Labels. You'll then be able to choose which type of label you'd like, how it looks, and where it will appear on the screen.

Combine Labels With an Ovelay Graphic from Placeit

If you're using Stream Labels, you can use a pre-made, customised graphic to place your labels and make everything look more interesting and on-brand. Sites such as Placeit let you choose a template and customise it right on the website, which is quick and easy.

overlay frame from placeit
Twitch Overlay via PlaceIt

If we take the overlay frame above as an example, you can see the pre-made spots for what would be dynamic text: top donations and recent subscribers. You can place the dynamic text labels you created in the steps above, and fit them with the placing, font, and colour scheme of the frame (or vice versa, change the frame to fit the labels—whichever works best) and they won't look like separate entities at all, but the dynamic labels will change and update.

2. Through a Browser Source

There are a lot of great people who, in looking for a solution to their own needs, create resources that everyone can use. If you think of something you’d like to do, chances are someone has thought about that too and made something that you can utilise.

Streamcounter

Sites like Streamcounter let you add your streaming account ID and make some basic choices as to how your counter will look

Streamcounter

You can then add your generated URL into OBS by hitting the plus on sources, and adding a Browser Source.

add browser as source

Paste in your generated URL from Streamcounter and make any changes you need to. 

add url

When you hit okay you’ll see your counter added as a source.

Livecounts

Another alternative is LiveCounts. When you open Livecounts you’ll see it’s very simple. Just click below the text and a pop up box will appear to ask for your channel name or ID/URL.

livecounts

In OBS, add a browser source by hitting the plus button in Sources, and paste the URL as before when prompted.

livecounter in obs

It looks a little messy, but you can tidy it up. Right-click on the source on the screen and select Filters. Then, under Effect Filters click the plus sign and add Crop/Pad.

crop and pad filter

You’ll see coordinate options for cropping – adjust those until only the counter is showing.

after crop

Next, right click and select Filters again and this time choose Chroma Key and choose to select the screen colour, then colour drop the counter background.

You’ll then have just the counter number visible and you can move it where you like. Here’s an example with the counter over a window capture of a browser

There’s a good video walk-through of this technique here, if you'd like more detail:

Learn More About OBS

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