How to Add Lower Thirds and Graphics in OBS with BZBGEAR Streaming Setups

When starting a livestream, it can be hard to build an audience, because there is so much competition out there it means that the bar is constantly being raised to keep people around. So let’s go over one of the easiest ways to take your livestream to a brand new level of professionalism by adding lower thirds and graphics through OBS!

What You Need Before You Start

The first step in the process is to make sure that everything is already set and ready to go in OBS, it doesn’t do us any good to have graphics if the camera isn’t showing anything. So make sure that your BZBGEAR camera, encoder or switcher is actually in OBS as a source and it is properly displaying the feed. If you’re seeing live video then we can move onto the next step!

Understanding Sources and Layers in OBS

We should talk about how OBS works a little bit before we go crazy by adding things. OBS does its scene creation through layers, in other words if you create a new layer and it’s at the top of the list, it will be shown above everything else. So if you’ve added a graphic for example and it’s sitting below your camera, it won’t be visible as it will be “behind” the image. So when we’re creating scenes we typically want the video source to be at the bottom and anything we want to overlay would be above it. 

Adding a Simple Text Lower Third

Thankfully adding a text-based lower third is fairly easy in OBS, just click the plus button in the Sources panel and select Text.

From there another popup should come up that allows you to enter the text that you want to display as well as adjust the font, color, size and a whole bunch of other text tools to make it fit your layout. We recommend that you place the text in the lower third of the screen space, but make sure that you’re not cutting off the text.

This method works well for simple name titles and quick changes.

Using Image-Based Lower Thirds

If you’d like to increase that production value even more, we’d recommend creating your lower thirds from scratch. You could either create them in something like photoshop or even animate your own in a motion graphics/vfx suite. 

If you want to just make a static image based graphic then create it in a transparent PNG file, once you’ve created your design export it as a PNG and then you can bring it into OBS. Navigate to add an image source, then select the correct file and finally position it properly on the canvas. 

Adding Animated Lower Thirds

This essentially follows the same process as a static image, only you’re creating an MP4 or MOV file with transparency. Once you’ve created it, bring it into OBS as a media source, enable the option to restart playback when the source becomes active and that will allow you to have the animation play anytime you turn it on. 

Using Scenes for Different Graphics

OBS has a really cool feature called scenes. These are basically collections of preset layers and layouts. This means that you can create one scene where there are no graphics, and another with the graphics and you can freely swap between them without disrupting the show. You can also use these to add in pre-recorded messages, or commercials etc. This is a really easy way to save yourself time and make your stream stand out. 

Maintaining Video Quality

Generally speaking you shouldn’t have to worry about your stream dropping frames by adding a couple of graphics or lower thirds, but it is possible for it to increase the demand on your system if they are complex scenes. If you’re running into this problem then you might have to simplify your scenes or play with the output to fine tune the stream so it is smooth.

Final Notes

Lower thirds and graphics are a powerful way to improve production quality in OBS. By organizing sources, using scenes effectively, and testing ahead of time, you can create clean and professional streams with minimal effort.

BZBGEAR cameras and streaming devices provide high-quality video sources that integrate smoothly with OBS, making them well-suited for both beginner and advanced streaming workflows.