How to Add Lower Thirds and Overlays on Live Videos

When you record a livestream with Riverside, you might want to add lower thirds and other graphics onto your video live during the production with the Riverside Media Board, you could play full screen, video clips, audio clips, and of course share your screen to share images or other slides. But if you wanna do overlays and lower thirds, you'll need to use a third party application.

We're gonna show you three ways to add lower thirds and overlays to your recording. Two of them you can do live and one of them in post-production. Before we jump in, don't forget to hit the like button and subscribe to the Riverside Channel. The first method is to use the free broadcasting tool called OBS. Now you can use OBS to also livestream, but we're actually just going to use it for overlays inside Riverside. You can download OBS from the link here in the video description.

Again, it's completely free. Once you've installed and opened the application on your computer, the first thing you're gonna do is go up to tools and then Auto Configuration Wizard. In this pop-up choose I will only be using the virtual camera. Hit next and then hit apply settings. Then in the OBS window, you'll need to add both your video source and your overlay files. Here in the sources column, click the plus button and then choose video capture device.

I'm gonna create new, you can name it whatever you'd like, whether it's a webcam or even a video switcher. And click okay. From here, you can choose your device, whether it's a webcam continuity camera, and here I can even just choose my webcam and hit okay. Now that your video is in the OBS application, you can begin to add lower thirds and other overlays.

To add your lower third or other graphic overlay, click the plus button in the sources column and then choose image. You can title the lower third and then browse your computer for the image file. Remember, if you're using an overlay image, like a lower third, it has to be a png file, so it has transparency, and you can see the video behind the graphic.

Here I'm gonna choose a png file I have saved on my computer, and here you'll see that title is now overlaid on top of my video. You can hide the title by clicking the I icon and then click it again to reload it if you'd like for it to fade in. When you click it, you can right click on the title file, go to show transition, and then choose Fade. Now when you click the I icon, it will fade in slowly over your video.

Once you have your video and overlays set in OBS, go down to start virtual camera and click that. Now you're ready to choose OBS as your camera in Riverside. And here under the camera option, choose OBS virtual camera. Now here in the Riverside Studio, you'll see that that title lower third Overlay is on my video, and when I start to record a stream live with Riverside, those overlays will also be present.

Now those lower thirds and other graphics might appear cut off because you're not in full frame mode and they could be reversed. To fix that, go to the studio settings by clicking this gear icon on the top right, go to general scroll down, and for live call framing, choose full frame.

This way you and your gas can see the entire overlay and lower Third, then go to audio and video and mirror Video might need to be enabled or disabled depending on your lower thirds. And now you'll see even during the live recording, you see the full frame, the 16 by nine video with the lower thirds from OBS, and then you can change that graphic and OBS as you record and it will change live here in the call.

One thing to keep in mind as you send overlays and other graphics in the OBS window to Riverside, your Riverside recording will have all of those graphics built in or baked in. You will not be able to remove them later. So again, your Riverside recording will include all those lower thirds and graphics baked into the file. You will not be able to remove them later. If you want the flexibility to add or remove those later, you should do it in post-production and we'll show you that in a minute.

Now, another way you can add lower thirds and graphics to your video is using a BlackMagic A10 switcher. I have here the A10 Mini Pro. We actually have a whole video on using video switchers with Riverside. You can check that out above or in the description with the A10 mini software, there's actually a place for media files here.

When you click the media tab, you can upload lower thirds and other graphics and then choose which one you'd like to overlay. Here, I'm gonna choose my Riverside Lower third, but one of the unfortunate things is you can only have one media item loaded at a time, so you'll have to go back to that media page and switch which graphic you'd like to overlay while you record.

Once you've chosen your media item, go to the pallet section in the BlackMagic AEM software Downstream Key and Fulfill Source. Choose Media Player one, which is that graphic that we just chose. And for Key Source, choose Media Player One Key. Those will be built in once you've added things to the media board. Now, during the Riverside recording, I can click Auto, which will fade that overlay onto the video. I can keep it up for as long as I'd want and then click auto again and it will disappear from the video.  

Again, just like OBS, any overlays or graphics that you add during the recording will be baked into the video. You will not be able to remove them later. So those are two ways to actually add lower thirds and overlays while you record or livestream with Riverside. You can use OBS, which is a free software you can download on your Mac or Windows computer or using a BlackMagic 810 mini. Again, we'll put links to that product in the video description.

Finally, the third way to add lower thirds and overlays is doing it in post-production. When you record with Riverside, you can download the individual video tracks in high quality up to 4K video and uncompressed audio, and you can even export your recordings to Adobe Premiere Pro. We have a whole video on exporting to Adobe Premiere. You can check that video above or in the description

Once you've brought your video recording into Final Cut or Premiere, you can add lower thirds that are built in or use third party packs like Mkb HD. He has some customizable lower thirds where you can drag it down, and now you're adding a lower third here and post. You can customize it with your name and now you have a nice animated lower third on your video that you can edit, change, or remove if you need to.

So for the most flexibility, we would recommend adding your lower thirds and overlays in post-production in an editor like Premiere or Final Cut. But if you'd like to do those live because you're live streaming and you want those lower thirds or even tickers, you can use OBS, the virtual camera feature or use something like a BlackMagic A10 mini Pro.

Again, if you'd like to learn more about video production or even video podcasts, subscribe to the Riverside Channel. We have lots of content on the best USB mics equipment for starting a video podcast and a ton more. Thanks for tuning in. We'll catch you in the next video.