Have you seen people on Twitch with some really cool webcam borders? Most people have the standard 16:9 box camera but that’s pretty boring. If you want to stand out adding an image mask to your webcam can really make your stream overlay look much more professional.
In todays tutorial we are going to explain what image masks are and how you can easily use them in OBS to make your stream, look a lot better. Let’s jump in and get started.
How An Image Mask Works
If you have ever used masks in a program like photoshop you may already know how it works but for those who don’t here is a very brief explanation.
A mask is an image that you overlay on your webcam. This image will be made up of black, white and grey colours. Any part of the image that is white will stay (Your webcam). Any part of the image that is black will be made transparent. Any thing that is in between will partially stay and give you a faded effect.
For example let’s take a look at the diagram below. When you apply this circle image mask to my webcam it removes everything that was in black. Everything in white stays giving me a circle effect.
Obviously a circle is a very simple design and these masks can get much more complex if need be. However that is the basics of how an image mask works.
Let’s jump into OBS and see how you can apply an image mask to your webcam.
How To Apply An Image Mask In OBS
Adding an image mask in OBS is really easy. All you need is your image mask at the ready. If you want to use the circle example click here to download the image mask we are using. Below this tutorial we have linked some more complex image masks you can download or purchase.
- Open OBS Studio
- Navigate to your sources tab and right click on your webcam layer (A mask can also be applied to any other image or video layers you have). From the dropdown select and click on filters.
- In the filters section go to effect filters –> “+” –> Image Mask/Blend.
- Give the filter a name and click OK
- You are now inside the mask settings where we can upload our mask. You should have the mask you downloaded above or a mask you have created/purchased saved on your computer.
- In the Path section click on browse and select your mask image file.
- Once you have selected your mask you will see tat the black section of your image gets removed.
Just like that you have applied and image mask to your webcam. You can get really creative with this and create some amazing effects. You can also slide the opacity bar if you want to adjust the opacity of your image.
As you can see you now have a circular webcam effect in OBS studio. You can drag this around your scene to get your desired effect.
Where To Find Image Masks
If you want some really creative effects for your webcam there are people and companies out there creating some amazing image masks. We have linked to some of our favourites below.
Visuals By Impulse
Visuals by impulse have a free pack on their website which includes 21 Free Webcam Masks.
You can download this pack and check out all of the different shapes they have to offer. Maybe one of them is exactly what you are looking for.
Nerd Or Die
Nerd or Die also offer a free pack of webcam image masks that you can use in OBS studio.
This pack seems to have a few more advanced overlays with fading effects etc. If that’s the style you want to go with this free image mask pack from Nerd or Die might be for you.
Wrapping Up
So, that’s all you need to know to add an image mask to your webcam in OBS Studio. We would love to see some of the amazing designs you come up with using a mask. Feel free to leave a link to your stream down below in the comments so we can check it out.
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