Elevate Zoom presentations with OBS Studio - Masterclass

OBS Studio is free!
It’s an open source software, meaning that anyone can contribute to the development.

If you wish you can support the project by donating to Open Collective or Patreon. Your contributions help support the developers and fund equipment purchases for easier testing and development. They also go towards software licenses and other project expenses such as website and server hosting.

The program can be relatively light or heavy on your computer processor and graphic card depending on the use you make of it, with resolution and scene complexity playing a major role.

You can find the system requirements for running OBS Studio directly on the OBSproject website.

From the OBS project website:

“Encoding video is a very CPU-intensive operation, and OBS is no exception. OBS uses the best open source video encoding library available, x264, to encode video. However, some people might experience high CPU utilization, and other programs running on your computer might experience degraded performance while OBS is active if your settings are too high for your computer's hardware. In some cases, OBS will say "Encoding overloaded!" on its status bar, meaning that your computer can't encode your video fast enough to maintain the settings you have it set to, which will cause video to freeze after a few seconds, or periodic stuttering.”

As best practice you should close all applications running on your computer that you don’t need, including those running in the background. For example, if they are not involved in your OBS project, you should close Microsoft Teams, Outlook, any unnecessary browser window etc.

If you are still experiencing performance issues, you can refer to this guide to find a solution.

OBS Studio is a software that helps you creating engaging online presentations.

What are you up for tonight? A quick bite or a 5 Michelin stars restaurant?
I’d like to introduce you to OBS with a restaurant analogy. Think about a restaurant where you are the chef.
In the restaurant we find:

• The dining room where the guests eat at their table

• The kitchen where you prepare the tasty courses. Inside the kitchen there’s you, the chef with the ingredients and the cooking pans

• The waiter, who takes the plate from the kitchen and serves the course to the guests

OBS is your kitchen

In this analogy you can consider:

• The restaurant as your overarching project

• OBS is the kitchen where you put the ingredients (media, graphic elements, camera etc) in the cooking pan (a scene) and prepare your presentation (the course)

• The table where the guests eat is your videoconferencing platform where your audience "consumes" your presentation

• The "waiter" that takes the presentation from the kitchen (OBS) and serves it on the table (your videoconference) is the virtual camera

Time for a knowledge check before we move to the next lesson, where we'll download and install OBS Studio.

The first thing we have to do is download and install the software.
Download

If you are new to OBS, go to the OBSproject web page (link in the resources), select your operating system and download the file.

Installation

After download, click on the installer and run the Auto-Configuration wizard. This wizard will automatically test your system and attempt to find settings that your PC can handle. If you already have it running on your computer you can skip this lesson. However, if you are unsure whether you have configured OBS properly, you may want to run the Auto-Configuration wizard again. No need to reinstall OBS, just click on Tools --> Auto-Configuration Wizard.

In the dialog box, select "Optimize just for recording, I will not be streaming"

Click on next to select "Resolution" and "Frames Per Second". If you want to work in Full HD, select "1920 x 1080". For FPS select "Either 60 or 30, but prefer 60 when possible"

In the next lesson you'll start familiarizing with the Graphic User Interface

The Graphic User Interface

Let's get familiar with it and start knowing what is what.

The preview and output window
It's the black large rectangle in the center. This is where you'll see what you are cooking and it's also what your audience will see when you are live in the videocall. It's your eyes on the cooking pan while you prepare the meal as well as on the final course.

Scenes panel
Scenes are the empty containers that you will fill with the ingredients. You will cook a course in each scene and, when ready, the final scene will be one of the courses of the menu you are serving to the audience.

Sources panel
By clicking on "+" you open the ingredients cupboard. You select what you need (camera, microphone, media, etc.) and then add it to the scene.

Audio mixer
Whenever you add an audio source to your project, you will see the audio meter for that source appearing hear

Transitions
Transitions define how you move from one scene to the other one. You can see them as the animation that takes from one "slide" to the next one (e.g. cut, fade, swipe etc.)

We'll get to know the interface in detail throughout the course. The only other things you have to know at this point are:

• The virtual camera button: click it at the bottom right to send the OBS output to the videocall

• How to access the settings: you can do it either by clicking on the button at the bottom right or by going to the File menu and then Settings.

• You can resize and move around all panels. Customize the interface how you prefer! In this course I will be working with the default look.

Let's quickly pause for a knowledge checkpoint. In the next lesson you'll create your first simple scene with camera, lower third and logo and send it to your videconferencing platform.

Create your first OBS scene with camera, logo and lower third

Let’s start from the simple ham sandwich. Three ingredients: the bread, the ham, and a salad leaf.
In presentation terms, you will now create your first scene including your camera, logo and lower third.

Step 1 - Rename the scene

• Rename the default scene to a name of your choice, e.g. "webcam with logo and lower third"

Step 2 - Add the sources

• Logo: Image source --> give it a name --> browse --> choose the image --> resize it and reposition it

• Lower third: Text source --> give it a name --> type the text --> format font, color and background

• Webcam: Video capture device --> give it a name --> select the camera from the list

Step 3 - Resize and reposition sources

• Layers: sources work in layers. A source that is on top of another one with cover it. Rearrange the layer order by drag and drop the sources in the sources panel

• Move a source: Select it and drag and drop it to move it around

• Resize a source: Select it, then drag and drop the red handles to resize it

• Crop a source: Select it, then ALT (Option on Mac) + drag and drop the handles to crop it

Step 4 - Send the OBS output to the videocall

The virtual camera

I have the pleasure to introduce you to the waiter of your restaurant: his name is “virtual camera”. The virtual camera takes the course from the kitchen (the output window content in OBS) and delivers it to the guest table (your videoconferencing platform) ready to be consumed by your audience.

Why is it called virtual camera? Let’s consider what your webcam does: it collects video information and sends it to the computer, so that you can use the video in any application like Zoom, Teams, or OBS. Your computer recognizes that there is a camera device connected to it and makes it available to all applications that can use it.

The virtual camera functions in a very similar way. The only difference is that it is not a real physical camera that captures video signal. Instead it’s a software (a virtual camera) that captures video signal from an application in your computer (OBS Studio) and makes it available to other applications. The virtual camera software is a kind of an impostor. It’s a software but it dresses like a camera, so the applications in your computer believe it’s a camera, even if it’s not. Magic isn’t it?

• Click on Start Virtual Camera

• Open your videocall and in the video devices list choose "OBS Virtual Camera"

If you are wondering about your audio, you can keep using your microphone as you’ve been doing so far, so you can REALLY use this OBS scene already from your next videocall! We'll learn everything about sending audio from OBS to the videcall later on in the course.

Exercise:
Create the following scene

1. Camera: add your camera, crop it, enlarge it and reposition it such that you appear in the middle of the preview window with little space above your head

2. Lower third: add your name with black text on a white background

3. Logo: add an image, resize it, and place on top of the camera source

Activate the virtual camera, open a video call and send the OBS output to it

The virtual camera

I have the pleasure to introduce you to the waiter of your restaurant: his name is “virtual camera”. The virtual camera takes the course from the kitchen (the output window content in OBS) and delivers it to the guest table (your videoconferencing platform) ready to be consumed by your audience.

Why is it called virtual camera? Let’s consider what your webcam does: it collects video information and sends it to the computer, so that you can use the video in any application like Zoom, Teams, or OBS. Your computer recognizes that there is a camera device connected to it and makes it available to all applications that can use it.

The virtual camera functions in a very similar way. The only difference is that it is not a real physical camera that captures video signal. Instead it’s a software (a virtual camera) that captures video signal from an application in your computer (OBS Studio) and makes it available to other applications. The virtual camera software is a kind of an impostor. It’s a software but it dresses like a camera, so the applications in your computer believe it’s a camera, even if it’s not. Magic isn’t it?

• Click on Start Virtual Camera

• Open your videocall and in the video devices list choose "OBS Virtual Camera"

If you are wondering about your audio, you can keep using your microphone as you’ve been doing so far, so you can REALLY use this OBS scene already from your next videocall! We'll learn everything about sending audio from OBS to the videcall later on in the course.

Assignment:
Create the following scene

1. Camera: add your camera, crop it, enlarge it and reposition it such that you appear in the middle of the preview window with little space above your head

2. Lower third: add your name with black text on a white background

3. Logo: add an image, resize it, and place on top of the camera source

Activate the virtual camera, open a video call and send the OBS output to it

In OBS 28 there is a cogwheel next to the Virtual Camera button. It gives you the possibility to change the Output Type and the Output selection.

You have the following options:

Internal

• Program Output: the virtual camera will show what OBS Studio normally outputs

• Preview Output: if using Studio Mode, the virtual camera will show the Preview. This means anybody watching the video feed will see you changing scenes, making edits, etc.

  
  

Scene: the virtual camera shows only one scene, regardless of what is currently showing

Source

For now just use the default settings.

To learn more, check the OBS Virtual Camera guide webpage (link in the lesson resources)

Let's start exploring the OBS building blocks by creating a new scene collection.

Scene collections

A scene collection is similar to a Powerpoint or Keynote presentation file. It's the sequence of scenes (slides in Powerpoint) that constitute the presentation. You can create a new scene collection for each different presentation. You can also create a scene collection as a presentation template that you can duplicate, re-use and customize for future presentations.

Scene collections can be exported, shared, and imported by other users. This is useful if you want to create or use a branded template across your team. Important: if you export or import a scene collection, you also have to share or have access to the media files associated with the scene.

To learn about OBS sources let's create a new scene collection and call it "Remote presentation hero"

Profiles

Let's say you use OBS for live presentations on Zoom as well as for recording vertical videos that need to be consumed on a mobile. For this purpose you can set up two different profiles with different settings (output window size).

In this course we will work with only one profile with the settings that we have set up at the beginning. However, you're free to create your custom profiles according to your needs.

Exercise
Create a new scene collection that you will use to practice in this first part of the course. In the next lessons we will be adding, modifying, and deleting sources. If, during your learning journey, you do something that you want to preserve from future modifications, you may create an additional scene collection and call it something like "my best scenes".

In the next lesson you are going to learn how to add your camera source and optimize its settings

Add your camera

At this stage of the learning journey we will create one scene for each new source we'll explore. So let's start by creating a new scene and calling it "Camera".

• Add Video Capture Device source: A camera is added by selecting the "Video Capture Device" type of source from the sources menu click on "+" to expand the list of sources"

• Give your camera source a name

  
  

Warning! In OBS you can use a name only once, so you can't call a scene "Camera" and a source "Camera".

Tip: as you may be using different cameras in your project, you should consider giving the source a name that is specific to that camera, so you can better recognize it at a later stage. I'm using a Sony camera now, so I'm calling it "Sony"

• After you have chosen the name for the camera source you now have to select the appropriate camera from the device list

• To adjust the appearance of your video you can click on "Configure video" and play with brightness, contrast, exposure and other parameters

The camera settings you can define through the "Configure video" option depend on your camera. If you are interested in learning more about the camera settings, check out my YouTube video

The video will fit the preview window if its resolution is the same as the one you have defined in the profile settings. For example this is the case if you have a 1080p preview window resolution and you are adding your fullHD camera. In case the resolution of your video doesn't match the one of the preview window you can resize it by drag and drop or go to Right click on the source --> Transform --> Fit to screen. In the Transform menu you will also find additional options to format the source.

Warning! One device source can be added only once (e.g. you can't add the same webcam twice as two separate independent sources). If you need to use one camera source across multiple scenes, then you can do that by adding a reference to the existing source. If you modify the original source, then all modifications (except resize and crop) will also be applied to the reference source.

Exercise

• Create a scene with one camera

• Adjust brightness, contrast and exposure

• Crop the camera to a square, resize it and place it at the top right of the preview window

• Add again the same camera to the scene, flip it and rotate if by 180°

• Add a second camera (if available) to the same scene, set a 720p resolution and center it to the preview window

In the next lesson you will learn the new object transform options in the OBS 28 update

Improved transform features in OBS 28

• Positioning guides with pixel distance: now the pixel distance of a source from the Output window borders is automatically displayed as the source is moved around

To facilitate source positioning there are also 3 new options:

• Snap to border

• Snap to center

• Snap to source

It's now possible also to rotate a source directly from the Output window

You can further adapt the colors of the source border and of the audio mixer. You can find this options in Settings --> Accessibility

Add and format text

• Go to the sources panel -->"+"-->Text

• Give the text source a name

• Insert the text in the black rectangle field

• Choose font type, size and format

• Choose font color (solid or gradient) and opacity

• Add background color

Warning: when you add a background color nothing will appear on screen. That's because the background color opacity is set to 0% by default. Use the slider to increase the background color opacity

• You can also add a text outline

Tip: you can hide/show a source by toggling the eye icon close to the source

Tip: you can add a space right before and right after the text to make the background color box look nicer

Copy/paste a text source

Different from the Video Capture Device source where only a reference source can be copy/pasted, there are two option for a text source:

• Paste reference: same as in the Video Capture Device case, pasting a reference means that we are pasting the same source. Whatever change will be made to it (except from resize and crop) will be reflected also to all its copies

• Paste duplicate: when we select this option we are pasting a new, totally independent source. The new source will have a different name (by default it will be "original source name - 2"). It will inherit the properties and formatting of the original source, but it will not be linked to it. So any change to the original source will not be reflected in the new one and vice-versa

Tip: pasting a text duplicate source is useful if we want to add new text with the same format as the original one, as it will save us the time to reformat the text from scratch.

Tip: if you need to continuously change text on the go, you can use the "Read text from file" option. When you modify the text in the file, it will be automatically updated also in OBS

Exercise

• Add a text source

• Change the font to Calibri bold 14

• Underline the text

• Change the color to RGB values 255, 56, 192

• Add white background color with 50% opacity

• Add black text outline with thickness = 3

In the next lesson you are going to learn how to capture the content on a screen (Display Capture) or from an application (Window Capture). Before let's do a knowledge assessment

Display Capture

This source type allows you to capture the content on one screen. If you have multiple monitors you'll have to choose the appropriate one from the display list. If you want to share only a portion of the screen, then you can crop the source. All other standard source "transform" options are also available.

Window Capture

This source type allows you to capture one application. It's useful if you want the content of the application to be visible even if the application itself is not shown on screen. For example, you can show a Powerpoint presentation even if it's running in the background. Note: the application must be open for the source to show it. If it is closed the source will still be there in OBS but nothing will show in the preview window.

Exercise

• Create a Display Capture source where you show the content of a website. Crop the source to hide the browser navigation menu and the computer bottom task bar

• Create a Window Capture source with the browser application showing the same website as above

• Minimize the browser application and notice the difference. What happens to the two sources in OBS? What do you see in the Display Capture and in the Window Capture sources?

In the next lesson you will learn how to add images

Image source

An image can be added to a scene by selecting the Image source. Alternatively you can also drag and drop the image file from your computer directly into the sources panel

Image slide show

With this source type you can select multiple images and have them play automatically as a slide show.

You have control over several image slide show parameters, like the image display duration, whether you want to loop the slideshow, the transition type between images and the image order.

Exercise

• Add an image of your choice, crop it and play with the formatting

• Add an image slide show with 3 images and with the following settings: loop, fade transition 350 ms, 3s duration for each image

In the next lesson you are going to learn about the Browser source and the possibilities this source offers to connect to third party web services

Browser source

A browser source will display the content from a url of your choice.

This source type is very useful in combination with third party web based services, where you can share your custom content via web. Version 28 of OBS has now added the possibility to interact with the browser source by clicking on the "interact" button.

Two examples are H2R Graphics and VDO (OBS) Ninja.

H2R Graphics

This FREE service allows you to create lower thirds, ticker, add your logo and much more and have the content displayed on your OBS via browser source. You can find H2R Graphics here
If you are interested in knowing more about it, check out my YouTube video tutorial

VDO Ninja (former OBS Ninja)

This FREE service allows you to add a camera to your project via browser source. You can use it to connect your phone as second camera, but also to add a video from another remote person. You can find VDO Ninja here.

If you are interested in knowing more about it, check out my YouTube video tutorial

Exercise

Create a scene with:

• Your video from your phone camera via VDO Ninja

• Lower third and ticker via H2R Graphics

In the next lesson you'll learn how to add recorded media (video and audio). Before let's do a knowledge check

We've already learnt how to add images with the Image and Image Slide Show sources. Let's now look at how to add recorded video or audio media.

Media source

To add a Media source you can click on "+" --> Media source --> Give it a name --> Browse your computer for the file or just drag and drop the desired media to the sources panel.


The media properties that can be selected are:

• Loop

• Restart playback when source becomes available: if this option is selected, the media will start playing from the beginning every time it becomes available. This applies to when you switch to the scene that includes the media or when you toggle its eye icon. If the option is unticked, then the media will keep playing. So if the media starts, then you switch to another scene, when you return to the media scene the media will not start from the beginning as it has been advancing while you were in the other scene.

• Show nothing when playback ends: if this option is selected, then nothing will show when the media ends. If it is not selected, a video will show its last frame when the playback ends.

• Close the file when it is inactive

• Playback speed: this is useful if you are using a video as an overlay for example. Say you have a transparent overlay with falling snow. You can speed up or slow down the snowfall speed

If you are adding a video with sound, then the audio will automatically appear in the audio meter.

VLC Video source

VLC is a FREE media playback software. It's very popular and you can use it to add multiple media files for example to create a playlist and have it playing in loop or shuffle mode in OBS.

Exercise

• Create a scene with a video (media source)

• Loop it and leave the other options unticked.

• What happens when you switch to another scene and then come back?

• What do you see at the end of the playback?

• Create another scene with a 3 video playlist

• Shuffle and loop the playlist

In the next lesson you'll learn how to add a color background/rectangle shape and how to add an Audio Input source

In this lesson we are going to look at two source types: Color source and Audio Input Capture

Color source

With the Color source you can add a color background to a scene. The background is a rectangle shape that fits the preview window and that can also be resized, so you can use it also as a smaller color rectangle for other creative purposes in your scene. Later in the course we'll see that, by adding transparency to a color source, we can also use it as a semi-transparent overlay.

Audio Input Capture source

We will cover audio in a specific section of this course. This lesson only covers the basics of how to add your microphone to a scene with the Audio Input Capture source. After you've added the source, you have to select your microphone from the list of devices. The microphone audio meter will appear in the Audio Mixer.

Note that by doing so, you are adding your microphone to a specific scene only. We'll learn later how to instead add it as a global source for all scenes and how to set it up correctly so that we can send the audio to the videocall.

Exercise

• Create a scene with a color background (RGB values: 144, 255, 230).

• Add another smaller rectangle on top of the background with RGB color: 255, 144, 35). Rotate the small rectangle clockwise by 30° (hint: use edit --> transform --> edit transform --> rotation

• Add your microphone to the scene

In the next lesson you are going to learn how to use an existing scene as a source (nested scenes)

Scene source

An existing scene can be used as a source. This practice is very useful and important and is called "working with nested scenes". As we move along with the course this concept will become clearer. For now let's learn how to add a Scene source.

When you add a Scene source you will have to choose from the list of the existing scenes. Note that the list is shown in alphabetical order, not the order in the Scenes panel.
The Scene source will be a reference to the original scene, so whatever modification you do in the original scene, this will be reflected also in the nested Scene source. As for all other source, you can resize and crop the Scene source without affecting the original scene. The same scene can also be added multiple times as a Scene source (multiple references). For example, the color source scene can be added as a nested scene two times, resized to different dimensions and used as a background for two other nested scenes (e.g. a video).

Now, if you modify anything in the original color source scene or in the original media source scene, the modifications will be automatically reflected in the nested scenes. If you are reusing the same nested scene in multiple parts of your project, you realize the convenience of making the modifications only once to the original scene and then having them automatically replicated in all the nested scenes.
We'll learn later that using nested scenes is going to be very important if we want to apply effects to a source (e.g. a mask to a camera) without impacting the native camera source. If this sounds a bit confusing at the moment, don't worry, as it'll be clearer in the next section.

Exercise

Create a scene with:

• A color background of your choice

• A Scene source that takes your existing camera with lower third scene as a source

• Resize the Scene source and make it smaller than the preview window

• Change the text of the lower third in the original camera with lower third scene

• What happens to the nested scene? Have the changes been reflected there?

In the next lesson you'll learn about a different way of displaying scenes in the Scenes panel (Grid mode), how to group sources and how to color-code them to keep your project nice and tidy.

The following three topics may improve your OBS experience and help you working in a clear and organized way.

Grid mode

The Grid mode is just another way of displaying scenes in the Scenes panel. So far we've been working with the List mode, where scenes are listed one above the other and this is my preferred view. However, feel free to try the Grid mode and see if you prefer it. Note: I prefer the list mode as it allows to create a clearer Scene skeleton with placeholder scenes (more on this when we'll work on your presentation project).

Group sources

Sources can be grouped by selecting multiple sources --> Group sources. A folder will appear in the sources panel that you can collapse or expand to have access to the sources contained in it.

Tip: Grouping sources can be useful not just for a better organization of your project, but also because you can modify (e.g. resize) or apply effects to the whole group instead of to the single sources. In the case of the above picture, if the group with the video + color background is selected, then you can resize both sources at once and keep the proportions. This avoids having to resize first the video and then the background and have to adjust position, margins etc.

Set color

Sources can be color coded to make them visually more recognizable. For example you may assign a color to all video sources and another one to all audio sources. Or assign a color to a specific source in a scene that you want to hide/make visible multiple times during your presentation, and you want to be able to recognize it immediately in the sources panel.

Exercise

• Try working with the grid mode

• Create a scene with your camera and a video. Resize the two sources so that they are both visible in the preview window. Add a color background to each of the two sources.

• Group the camera source, video source, and color background. Select the group and resize the whole group. Apply a 90° rotation to the group.

• Color code the sources in the scene: red for video, green for camera and yellow for background

Congratulations! You have completed Step 3: Learning the building blocks. It's now time to self assess your knowledge and, if needed, review some lessons where you feel weaker.
In the next section we'll learn how spice up a presentation by applying filters to sources. Let's first do a knowledge check.

Learning time: 30 min

Filters

In OBS effects are called "Filters". A filter can be applied to a source, to a group, or to a scene. Filters can be added by right-clicking on a source/scene and then selecting "Filters".

Common filters are:

• image mask/blend to apply a mask to a source

• chroma key to apply a green screen effect

• color correction to apply transparency

• scroll and others

Depending on the source type, different filters will be available (audio/video filters and effect filters). As we have not covered audio in detail so far, we will be focusing on non-audio filters in this section.

Some filters are included by default in OBS, whereas we'll need to install plugins to add other ones. Filters will boost your creativity and allow you to create great effects for your presentation.

Image Mask/blend filter

This filter allows you to add a mask to a source. One of it's main applications is to create a custom masked camera shape.
Select your camera scene --> right click on the camera source --> filters --> in effect filters click on "+" --> mask/blend

We will use the color channel of an image to create a camera mask. To do so you need a black and white image with the shape you want to give to your camera. If for example you want a circle camera, you'll have to create a white circle on black background image with the same resolution as your camera (e.g. if your camera is 1080p, then create a 1080p black rectangle with a white circle on top). In the Path field click on "browse" and select the mask image. You can then play with the opacity of the masked camera.

You can create your own masks in PowerPoint or Canva. Watch the video lesson to learn more about it. Here below you will find some masks that are ready for you to save on your computer and use.

A mask can also be applied to any other image, video or color source using the same method

• Download the files in the resource section and create a folder called OBS camera masks. Apply the different masks to the camera source.

• Create a custom camera mask in PowerPoint or Canva

• Apply the mask to your camera

In the next lesson you'll learn the best practice of applying filters to nested scenes

Learning time: 15 min

In the previous lesson we have applied an Image mask/blend filter to a camera, video and color sources. When a filter is applied to a source and multiple reference copies of that source are present in the project, then filter will automatically be applied to all sources.

So for example if we apply a circle mask to the camera in scene A, but in scene B we want to have the un-masked camera covering the whole preview window, well, this is not possible. The camera source in scene B will also be masked.

So how can we solve this issue? How can we apply a filter to a source, but keep an instance of the source filter-free, or apply another filter to it?

Apply filters to scenes

If we want to keep a source filter-free and also have "copies" of it with different filters (e.g. a native full screen camera source, a round masked camera source, and a cloud masked camera source) we can do that by applying filters to SCENES rather than to the SOURCES. To do that just right click on the scene and select filters.

In this example we will create three scenes:

• Full camera scene: including the camera source

• Circle masked camera scene: including the camera source

• Cloud masked camera scene: including the camera source

At this point the three scenes have different names, but look exactly the same because they all contain the native camera source. We can now proceed as follows:

• Leave the Full camera scene as is: this will represent our native camera source

• Apply a circle mask filter to the second SCENE

• Apply a cloud mask filter to the third SCENE

The fact that we are applying the filter to the scene and not to the source, will not impact the native source.
In any scene within our project where we need the native camera, the circle masked camera, or the cloud masked camera, we will use the corresponding scenes as sources (nested scenes) rather than the native camera source.

This applies to any source type and any filter, not just the masked camera.

Warning: if you have multiple sources in one scene and you apply a filter to the scene, then the filter will be applied to all sources contained in that scene

Exercise
Create a scene where you include 4 small cameras at the four corners. Top left the full camera, top right the circle masked camera, bottom right the cloud masked camera and bottom left the camera with a mask of your creation. (Tip: you will have to create a scene for each camera type, apply filters to scenes, and use scene as sources in the final scene)
In the next lesson you'll learn how to apply a scroll filter

Learning time: 15 min

Scroll filter

The scroll filter adds a scrolling effect. It can be applied to text, images, video, camera, and any visual source. The scroll can be horizontal, vertical, or a combination of the two directions. You can also choose the scroll speed, limit width, height and loop.

A very common application of the scroll filter is for creating live-news style ticker.

Tip: if you apply a loop scroll filter to text, make sure to add some space after the last word

The scroll filter can also be applied to other sources, like to example to the circle masked camera one.

Exercise

• Create a scene with your camera and a 4 lines text on top of it

• Apply a vertical scroll effect, like in the scrolling credits at the end of a movie.

• Loop the text and add spacing

• Play with the speed until you can comfortably read it.

Before moving on to the Color Correction filter, let's check what you have learnt

Learning time: 10 min

Color Correction filter

The Color Correction filter allows to play with the color properties of videos, images and color sources.

As we've seen for the mask in the previous lesson, we can apply a color correction filter to a scene and leave the native source filter-free. So for example we can have a native full screen camera, a circle masked camera, a color correct camera and a cloud masked color corrected camera.
If applied to a Color source, the color correction layer is useful to create a semi-transparent overlay. Just play with the opacity slider until you are happy.

Exercise
Create a scene with your full camera, and a semi-transparent overlay on top of it.

In the next lesson you'll learn about the Chroma Key and Color Key filters

Learning time: 20 min

Color Key and Chroma Key filters

These are two very similar filters that are used to eliminate a certain color or color range from an image, video or camera. I personally don't find any difference in the two, so you can choose one of the two and it will do the job. They are useful to obtain the "green screen" effect. The effect works with a real physical green screen, but can be applied also to a green virtual background to a speaker in a videocall.

When you apply the Chroma Key filter you can adapt the settings so that your background is keyed out properly. If you increase the Similarity, then a larger color range will be keyed out.
If you want to select the exact color of the background to be keyed out, then go to Custom --> Select color --> Pick screen color.

If you place your keyed out image on a color background then you can obtain a nice picture in picture effect.

Exercise

• Open a Zoom, Teams or Meet meeting and use a green virtual background.

• Create a scene in OBS where you capture your videocall video. Crop it and resize it as needed.

• Apply a Chroma Key filter by picking the exact background color.

• Adjust similarity, contrast and other parameters until you are happy with the result.

• Add a color source background and place your transparent background video on top of it.

In the next lesson we'll briefly look at the Crop/pad, Sharpen and LUT filters

Learning time: 5 min


There are three less used standard filters that we will cover in this lesson. These are the Crop/Pad, Sharpen and Apply LUT filters.

Crop/Pad

It does exactly what the name says, nothing more and nothing less.

Sharpen

Not much to say for this filter either. It just allows you to play with the sharpness of an image

Apply LUT

This a more useful filter for an advanced use of colors. LUT stands for Look Up Table and is a digital file that transforms the color and tone of an image or video.

You can think of a LUT as a preset Instagram filter. You can apply a LUT for a vintage tone, a cold one, a warm one etc. OBS has some predefined LUTs that you can try. Always using the same LUT adds consistency to your branding, exactly like for your Instagram profile.

Exercise
Apply the OBS available LUT filters to your camera and see the effect on your appearance.

In the next lesson you'll get an introduction to the StreamFX plugin

Learning time: 5 min

There are many plugins that add sources or filters to your OBS. Exploring them all goes beyond the scope of this course. However, it's worth mentioning a very popular plugin that, among many more features, adds some interesting filters and sources to OBS.

IMPORTANT: Check the OBS plugin update page (link in the lesson resources) to confirm plugins are compatible with OBS version 28. At the time of publication of this course the StreamFX plugin is not yet compatible!

StreamFX plugin

You can download the plugin from here.
The following are the sources/filters/transitions the plugin will add to your OBS. Please check the plugin page for the minimum system requirements and be careful with using too many filters as your machine may struggle with processing them. Check the plugin page for a thorough description of all the options below:

• 3D Transform (Filter)
  Transform any Source or Scene in 3D!

• Auto-Framing (Filter)
  Automatically track and zoom to keep your face in the frame!

• Blur (Filter)
  Add a blur to any source to hide unwanted content or create stunning new effects!

• Color Grading (Filter)
  Professional and fast real-time color grading, just like in your favourite Video Editing software!

• Denoising (Filter)
  Clear up noisy footage and give your Sources a higher quality look!

• Dynamic Mask (Filter)
  Perform advanced masking on any source with any other source!

• Signed Distance Field Effects (Filter)
  Add inner and outer shadow, glow and outlines to any source or scene!

• Shader (Source, Filter, Transition)
  Use your own HLSL effect files as a source, filter or transition.

• Source Mirror (Source)
  Create a mirror of any source without any overhead, and filter both video and audio again.

• Upscaling (Filter)
  Upscale any Source to any Resolution, to gain that extra bit of HD!

• Virtual Greenscreen (Filter)
  No Greenscreen? No Problem! With this filter you can say good bye to the bulky green cloth.

If you are interested in the Blur filter you can watch my YouTube video tutorial (link in the resources).

Congratulations, you've completed this section. It's now time for a knowledge checkpoint before moving on to Step 5: Set up your audio, properly

Learning time: 5 min


This section will be completely dedicated to audio.

Add your microphone to a scene

We've already seen in Step 3: Learning the Building Blocks section how to add our microphone to a specific scene. In the source panel go to "+", select Audio Input Capture and then select your microphone from the list. As soon as you add the audio source, it will appear in the Audio Meter

Audio Meter

In the audio meter we find three areas: the green, the yellow and the red one. The audio should most often be in the green/yellow area, only seldom touching the red area. If the audio is constantly in the red area it's likely that it is clipping, which means it will be distorted.

In the next lesson we'll learn how to improve our microphone audio with noise suppression and compression and how to listen to and check our voice in our headphones.

Learning time: 15 min


Now that we have added our microphone let's see at how we can improve the audio quality and how we can check how we sound.

Noise Suppression filter

Select the microphone source, right click and select filters. Only the audio filter options will appear now. If you stay silent for a moment you will see whether your microphone has background noise. You will notice it by the audio meter bar showing a little in the green area. If you have background noise, then you can eliminate it by applying the Noise Suppression filter.

Tip: Noise Suppression is different from Noise Gate. Noise suppression uniformly gets rid of the background noise, whereas Noise Gate applies a mute/unmute effect when the volume goes below or above a certain value. I personally prefer not using the Noise Gate filter, but you can test it and decide what works best for you

Compressor filter

The compressor filter boosts the lows and reduces the highs. So if you talk quietly and then more loud the volume difference will be flattened by the compressor. This filter gives your voice a kind of "radiophonic" effect.

Tip: less is more. Don't add too many filters otherwise you'll mess up your audio

Warning: if you apply multiple filters, the order of filters matter. If the noise suppression is on top of noise gate, then the audio is first processed for noise suppression and then the resulting audio is processed with noise gate.

After you have applied all the filters, you can still adjust the volume with the volume slider in the audio mixer. The audio of a source can also be muted by clicking on the loudspeaker icon.

Monitoring

You can choose where the audio goes. To the output, to your headphones (monitoring) or to both. Right click on the audio source, then Advanced Audio Properties, and then select "Monitor only" or "Monitor and output" if you want to listen to the audio in your headphones. Listening to your voice is useful to understand the impact of the filters you want to apply. You can toggle the filter visibility and adjust settings while you talk and hear yourself. If you don't like hearing yourself or if you, like me, experience a delay in hearing your voice, you can record your audio to evaluate the effect of the different filters.

Exercise

• Create a scene with your microphone source

• Apply compression, noise gate, noise suppression filters

• Go to the microphone advance properties and start monitoring your voice

• Toggle the visibility of the different filters and change their order. Listen to the differences

In the next lesson you'll learn how to add global audio sources to your OBS project

Learning time: 15 min

Global audio sources

Adding your microphone via Audio Input Capture source will add the audio to only one specific scene. If you want the microphone to appear also in another scene, you would have to copy/paste the source. But what if you want your microphone to appear automatically in all scenes? To obtain this you have to select it as global audio source.

Go to File --> Settings --> Audio --> Global Audio Sources and here choose your microphone in the firs mic/auxiliary audio drop down list.

If you had applied audio filters to the Audio Input Capture source, you'll have to apply the same filter again to the global audio source. Despite the sources point at the same microphone device, they are two different sources.

Another source that you may want to have as global audio source is your Desktop audio. That's the case if you have multiple scenes where your desktop audio is needed (e.g. you are sharing a YouTube video). To add Desktop audio as a Global Audio source, go again to File --> Settings --> Audio --> Global Audio Sources. Here select "Default" in the Desktop audio field, to use your default desktop computer audio.

Warning: I'm on PC, but Mac users may not be able to add their Desktop audio. There is a workaround that should solve the issue and you can check it on the OBS forum here.

Warning: if you add the Desktop audio as a Global Audio Source, then all audio playing through the Desktop will be heard by the audience on the videocall. This includes any email or chat alert, so make sure you close all unnecessary applications or silence notifications

Exercise

• Remove your microphone from the specific scene where you have added an Audio Input Capture source

• Add your microphone as Global Audio Source

• Add the Desktop audio as Global Audio Source

In the next lesson you'll learn how to add audio media to specific scenes

Learning time: 5 min

Besides adding your microphone and desktop audio as global audio sources, you will likely be adding other audio media to your presentation. If you add a video with audio, then you only need to add the video media source, as the associated audio will automatically appear in the Audio Mixer. You can also add an audio-only source, like a song or a sound effect.

If the media source is active, then the audio will be appearing in the Audio Mixer. If the media source is not active (you are in a different scene or in the same scene but the eye icon is turned off) then the audio meter will disappear from the Audio Mixer and the audio won't be active.

If you want to hear the audio media also in your headphones, then you have to go to the advanced audio properties and select Monitor or Monitor and Output. However, we'll learn in the following lessons a better way to send selected audio to the output and/or the headphones.

In the next lesson you'll learn about the new OBS 28 source Application Audio Capture

Application Audio Capture source

This source has been added in OBS 28. It allows to capture the specific audio of an application, apply filters to it and have full control over it.

In the next lesson you'll learn about the Audio Monitor plugin and Virtual Audio Cables

Learning time: 20 min


To properly configure the audio and send it to the videocall as well as to our headphones we first need to do two things.

Install the Audio Monitor plugin

You can download the Audio Monitor plugin from this link. Install it and restart OBS

Virtual Audio Cable

The second step is to download and install a virtual audio cable from VB-Audio (here's the link).
A real physical audio cable connects two devices, for example your headphones to your computer. A virtual audio cable is an application that connects two other applications. We'll use it to take the audio from OBS (OBS output goes into the virtual cable input) and bring it to the videocall (virtual cable output goes into the videocall audio input) or to your headphones.
 
Exercise

Download and install the Audio Monitor plugin as well as the VB audio cable (links in the resources)

In the next lesson you'll learn how to set up the audio in OBS so that you can send it to the videoconferencing platform

Learning time: 15 min

Send the audio to the videconference

Let's start from setting up the microphone. Right click on the global audio source and then select Filters --> Audio Monitor. This is a new filter that has appeared in the filters list after installation of the Audio Monitor plugin. The Audio Monitor filter takes the audio and makes it available to be taken "somewhere else". The "somewhere else" is the input of the VB-virtual audio cable.

Warning: the order in which filters are applied has an impact on the final result. So make sure you first apply the audio improvement filters (e.g. Noise Suppression and Compression) and only after (at the bottom) the Audio Monitor filter. If you do the other way round, you will be sending to the videocall the unprocessed audio.

Tip: you should always test in advance that your audio and video are in sync. If you are experiencing a video delay, you can add an audio delay in milliseconds. To learn more about this, watch the video on my YouTube channel here.

You should repeat the same process for all other audio sources you want to send to the videoconference, e.g. the Desktop audio, any song, sound effect or audio associated to video. You can add an audio monitor filter to each of the source and select VB audio cable in the device list, or you can do the process once, copy the filter and then paste it to all applicable sources. Note that if your are copying filters from a source with multiple filters, then you are going to paste all filters to the other sources. So in case you only want to copy one filter, open the source filters, copy only the desired one, and then paste it to the other relevant sources.

The Audio Monitor plugin allows you to choose the volume at which you want the audio to be monitored. For example you may want a song to play louder to your audience and more quietly to your headphones.

Exercise

• Apply the Audio Monitor filter to your microphone, name it "audio to videocall" or something similar, and choose VB-cable input from the device list

• Copy the Audio Monitor filter you've just created and paste it to the Desktop audio source as well as to all other audio sources in your project

In the next lesson you'll learn how to send the audio to your headphones

Learning time: 15 min

Send audio to your headphones

To send the audio to the headphone we'll repeat the exact same process that we followed for sending the audio to the videocall.

First of all, you have to decide which audio you want to hear in your headphones. Probably you don't want to hear your voice, so you'll not be monitoring the microphone. And usually you are hearing your Desktop audio anyway through your headphones, because the headphones are the default computer audio output device. So, probably, the only audio sources that you have to consider are audio and video media present in the project.

Take one of them, right click --> filters --> Audio Monitor --> give it a different name, like "audio to headphones". Again, the Audio Monitor plugin makes the audio available to "something else". Now the "something else" is not the virtual audio cable anymore, but your headphones, because this is the device where you want the audio to be sent to. From the device drop down list select your headphones. You can now copy the filter and paste it to all other relevant audio in the project.

At this point the audio sources in your project will have

• 1 audio monitor filter if you are only sending the audio to the videocall

• 2 audio monitor filters if you are sending the audio to the videocall AND to your headphones

Tip: using the Audio Monitor filter is a better method to monitor the audio than selecting "Monitor" in the Advanced Audio Properties

Exercise

• Apply an Audio Monitor filter to an audio source in your project that you want to hear in your headphones. Call it something like "audio to headphones"

• Select your headphones from the device list

• Copy the filter and paste it to all the sources that you want to hear

In the next lesson you'll learn how to set up your videconferencing platform so that it can accept the audio coming from OBS

Learning time: 15 min

Set up the videoconferencing platform audio

The audio is ready in OBS. The only step that is left is to open the videoconferencing software and tell it that it should use the audio coming from OBS.

You do that by accessing the audio properties/devices and instead of choosing your microphone as usual, you'll have to select the VB-Virtual audio cable output. The audio is capture by the cable as it comes out from OBS and it includes your microphone, desktop, and media and it is delivered to the videocall.

Tip: turn on the "original sound" option in the videocall. If the audio is processed by the videoconferencing software, it may take any background music or sound effect from your project as noise and may cut it out.

Exercise

• Open a videocall

• Activate the OBS virtual camera in OBS

• Select OBS virtual camera from the videocall video devices list

• Select VB Audio cable out from the videocall audio devices list

• Speak through your microphone and make sure the videocall audio meter is showing activity

• Play an audio media in OBS and make sure the videocall audio meter is showing activity

• Record a short part of the videocall, then listen back to it to assess the different volumes. Adjust the volumes in OBS if needed

Congratulations, you've completed the section on audio. It's now time for a knowledge checkpoint before we move on to Step 6: Adding movement with scene transitions and animations

Learning time: 25 min

Transitions

Transitions are animations that you can use to transition from one scene to another one. You can use them to add movement to your presentation and make it more dynamic. The "Scene Transitions" panel is found to the right of the Audio Mixer.

By default your have two preset transitions:

• Cut

• Fade

You can also add other transition types as:

• Slide

• Swipe

• Stinger - In a stinger transition you have three elements: the existing slide, the appearing slide and a video that plays between the two. You can create your own stinger transition video with Cava or similar free software (check the video lesson for more). Share your stinger transition in the community!

Exercise

• Set a Fade transition with 150ms duration. Then change the duration to 2000ms and note the difference

• Set a Slide transition from top, 350ms duration

• Set a Swipe transition from right with swipe in option, 1000ms duration

• Create your own stinger video or use a random 2s video. Create a stinger transition with the video.

In the next lesson you are going to download the Move Transition plugin and learn how to use the Move Transition

Learning time: 30 min

Move Transition

The Move Transition plugin adds features to OBS that help adding movement to your presentation.

The first step is to download and install the Move Transition plugin (link in the resources).

As usual, after installation of a plugin, you may have to restart your OBS. In the Scene Transitions drop down list you will now find the "Add: Move" option.

Let's consider going from Scene A to Scene B. In a Move Transition there are three types of items

• Matched items: elements that are present in Scene A AND Scene B. By default, two items will be identified as matching if they have the same name (for example "my masked camera" present in Scene A at the bottom right and "my masked camera" present in Scene B at the top right. However, we can tell OBS to consider two items as "matching" also if their name is slightly different. The Move Transition will make the item present in Scene A smoothly moving/morphing to the position and size of the matched item in Scene B.

• Appearing items: elements that are NOT present in Scene A that are appearing in Scene B

• Disappearing items: elements that are present in Scene A that are disappearing in Scene B

For each of the item type there are a few options:

• Easing: select whether the ease function is applied when items start and/or end the move transition

• Ease function: the type of easing (e.g. bouncing, accelerating, etc.)

• Zoom (only for appearing and disappearing items): if selected this option will add a zoom effect to the item at the start or end of the transition respectively

• Position: where items appear from or disappear to

• Transition: we can apply a transition to the move transition. In other words we can decide if we want an appearing item to fade in, or a disappearing item to slide out, or whatever other transition type

• Curve: by default movement happens on a straight light. By adding a curve value we are adding a curvature to the movement from the starting to the ending point.

• Duration: as for the other transition types we can define the Move Transition duration. To best appreciate the effect of the various settings I recommend you in create the duration value to at least 750 to 1000ms.

Warning! Matched, appearing or disappearing items are specific to two scenes: the starting scene and the ending scene. A disappearing item in the Scene A to Scene B sequence, is an appearing item in the Scene B to Scene A sequence and may be a matched item in the Scene A to Scene C sequence for example.

Exercise
Install the Move Transition plugin (link in the resources)
Use two scenes ( A and B) that have matched items, appearing items, and disappearing items
Create and experiment a Move Transition between Scene A and Scene B with the following settings:

• Duration: 1000ms

• Matched items: Easing in and out, cubic ease function, no transition, 0 curve

• Appearing items: Easing in and out, bounce ease function, zoom: yes, position top left, fade transition, curve +1.5

• Disappearing items: Easing in and out, elastic ease function, zoom: no, position bottom right, swipe transition, curve -1.5

In the next lesson you'll learn how to assign different transitions to different scenes across the project

Learning time: 30 min


So far we've looked at the transition types. This lesson answers to two questions:

• is it possible to create multiple transitions of the same type, but with different settings? E.g. two different Move Transitions?

• Is it possible to apply different transitions to different scenes in the project?

Adding transitions

Multiple transitions of the same type can be added. For example you could have two different stinger transitions with two different videos, or two or more move transitions with different settings for appearing, disappearing and matched items. Just open the dropdown list in the Scene Transitions panel and click on "Add:.....", selecting the desired transition type. Name your new transition in a way that it's clear to you the difference from the existing transitions of the same type.

Transition Override

When you select a transition from the Scene Transitions dropdown list, then this transition will apply by default to all scenes in your project. However, you may want to have different transition types depending on the Scene. For example you could Fade from an intro video to your camera scene, but then want a Move Transition to apply to two scenes where you want your masked camera to move from bottom right to top right of the screen.

The first simple option to do this is with the Transition Override option.

• Create all transitions you want to use in your project

• In the Scene Transitions panel choose the transition that you want to be the default one in the project

• Select the specific scenes where you want to apply a different transition, right click and select Override Transition. This will allow you to override the default transition and use another one instead.

Transition Table plugin

A better way to use multiple transitions for more complex projects is to use the Transition Table plugin that you can download from the link in the lesson resources.
Once installed, go to Tools --> Transition Table. You can now define transitions for each specific scene:

• From: the starting scene

• To: the ending scene

• Transition: choose the transition

• Duration: choose the duration

Remember to always click on "Set" to have OBS record the transition.

Tip: you can define a transition type to go from one specific scene to ANY scene, or from ANY scene to a specific one.

Tip: if there is conflict between two scene assignments, e.g. ANY to Scene B and Scene A to Scene B, then the more specific assignment will get priority (Scene A to Scene B in this case) over the more generic one.

Warning: if you install the Transition Table plugin then Transition Override function won't work anymore

Exercise

• Use the Transition Table plugin to assign different transitions to different scenes

• Create two scene transition assignments: ANY to a Scene B and then Scene A to Scene B. Which of the two transitions is playing from Scene A to Scene B?

Congratulations, you've completed this section. Let's check what you have learned before moving to the next section, Step 7: Design your session with the Remote Presentation Canvas

Your project

At the beginning of this course I have asked you to choose a presentation/session and to take the course having it in mind. It's now time to get concrete and focus all the next steps on YOUR PROJECT!

Is the project you have selected at the beginning of the course still the one you want to work on?

It's totally fine if in the meantime you've changed your mind.

It's important that you take the time to reflect and choose a project that matters to you, something that you will be able to use in the short-mid term. A concrete occasion like a future presentation, team meeting or project update with a defined deadline will keep your motivation high!

Close OBS and start sketching!

In the next lesson I'm proposing you a framework to design your presentation/session. It will make the following step of creating your presentation with OBS Studio much easer!

Let's go download and print the Remote Presentation Canvas and use pen and paper to design your presentation!

Learning time: 30 min

The Remote Presentation Canvas

Download it here Remote presentation canvas.pdf 233.18 KB

The Remote Presentation Canvas is a 10-step framework that helps you design engaging professional remote presentations.
The Remote Presentation Canvas should be used AFTER you have identified the needs, the audience, the objectives and the agenda of your session and BEFORE you start the creation process. It's composed of three parts:

Instructions sheet: It guides you through the process, from writing SMART goals until ending your session with impact

Sketchnote sheet: Use this template to brainstorm and sketch how the different "scenes" in your presentation should look like

Worksheet: When you are happy with the scene design, consolidate here your ideas for each of the sections


It's now your turn to design your presentation. Choose a project that is scheduled in a 2-3 weeks for which you already know the target audience, objectives and agenda. Use the Remote Presentation Canvas to design your session. Your canvas will be the basis for all the activities that you'll do from now until the end of this course, so make sure you dedicate enough time to it.

Congratulations, you have completed this section Step 7. In Step 8: "Create your presentation" you'll put in practice what you have learnt in Steps 1 to 6 and create the presentation you've designed in this Step 7.

Badge and Certificate of completion

Heroes deserve a recognition, don't they? After so much work you should be proud to boast your Remote Presentation Hero badge and certificate of completion.

Download your badge here below and share it on social media (it would be great if you can mention me on LinkedIn and on Instagram). Reach out to me directly if you'd like a personalized certificate of completion with your name!

If you liked this course please leave a review and let your friends and colleagues know about it!

There's only one last thing I want to say:

THANK YOU!

Enrico