Animation for Streamers

Twitch overlays come in many variations and are meant to give your stream design a more personalized look. There are several elements that you can include in your overlay to provide a more pleasing aesthetic feel for your audience. Some ideas include:

• Your webcam with a webcam border to fit the game’s user interface
• A list of events including hosts, raids, followers, subscribers, donations, and bits
• Sponsorship information
• Your follower, donation, and bit goals
• Widgets from OWN3D, Streamlabs, CrowdControl, and others

You may also want to get overlays that highlight your channel’s status such as a “be right back/BRB” overlay, an intro overlay, or a “coming soon” overlay.

Displaying an offline graphic will also help you engage your audience when you’re not live streaming. This is a space where you can engage anyone who lands on your channel with links to your social media or merchandise website.

You can get stream overlays from many talented designers and artists on Upwork. Depending on the artist and the type of graphics they are creating, your contract hire will work in Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, or After Effects to deliver your Twitch stream overlays.

To add your static or animated Twitch overlay to your Twitch account, you’ll need to use Open Broadcaster Software (OBS). You can add the image to your scene and then make sure your webcam and game sources are listed below your stream graphic. You can also find tutorials online to help you upload your Twitch overlay.

All Twitch overlays are meant to allow further customization to your stream, so it’s hard to say which is the best. Each Twitch streamer will have a different preferred style, whether that is static or animated.

If you’re still figuring out your style, you may want to try a website such as Nerd or Die that has free resources and stream overlay templates. But if you are gathering a following and want to highlight your brand, you should invest in a premium overlay so that your stream screens fit your personal style.

There are a few places where streamers can get free Twitch overlays for their channel. Free Twitch overlay templates may serve your needs if you’re a gamer or performer just getting into the live stream space.

However, if you are looking for a cohesive look and more customization, then you will want to engage a freelance designer in getting a high-quality overlay package to fit all your needs.