How to Create a Simple Twitch Stream Overlay in Photoshop

Being a Twitch streamer is quickly becoming one of the most sought after jobs by people, young and old. With the rise in popularity of personalities like Pokimane, XQC, and Nickmercs, many individuals are throwing their hat into the Twitch space and trying to grow a community and business. However, the popularity of Twitch does bring about obstacles for new creators.

Unlike Twitch’s infancy, it’s not as simple as going live and the viewers will follow. Twitch creators are on a massive boom, seeing a 71.5% increase in channels joining from 2020 to 2021. As a newer creator, this means that you have to do everything possible in your power to stand out. While personality and overall Twitch stream quality are key, one easy way to stand out is making sure you are using a custom Twitch overlay to really show off your brand. But how do you do that? We will show you how to create a general Twitch stream overlay in Photoshop! When finished, you’ll have created an overlay like below, which you can then adjust to your stream and brand as you like. Let’s jump into it!

What Do I Include On My Overlay?

Creators like Courage, Dream, and Ninja ensure that their overlays are showing donations, bits,  and/or subscribers because their entire business revolves around this type of monetization. As a newer creator, you can certainly include this, but we don’t believe it should be the focus.

For newer creators, we recommend including a stream label for new followers and recent donations (if you have that enabled). This covers you in two cases:

  1. Newer creators are going to see more new followers than subscribers, bits or donations. Therefore, you want to make sure you are acknowledging those individuals who are engaging with you as a follower.
  2. You can include a donation link in your panels, even at 0 followers. You definitely want to make sure you are thanking those that send actual money, so that label covers this group.

Your overlay needs will shift as you become a Twitch Affiliate and then a Twitch Partner. Think about the activities that are happening on your stream most to determine what will work best for you. The overall goal is to ensure you are recognizing those that engage with you through follows, subscriptions, and donations. You can always populate the overlay with a “placeholder” event in case you want to include an event that hasn’t happened on stream yet.

 

How to Create the Stream Overlay

We prefer to use Photoshop for our overlay creation for the sheer ease and functionality. However, you can also use programs like Gimp or even Microsoft Paint. The general look and feel will be the same, just the execution will differ a bit.

Your stream overlay size is going to be determined by the size you are broadcasting in from your preferred streaming program. For most setups, a 720p 60fps or a 1080p 30fps stream is definitely achievable. Determine what resolution you want to stream at. This resolution will then be what we size the overlay to. In this tutorial, we are using a 1080p 60fps stream, so our stream overlay will be:

  • Width: 1920
  • Height: 1080
  • Resolution: 150 pixels/inch

Once you’ve determined what size your overlay is going to be, we will begin working on the look. Our overall goal is to create an overlay that is minimal in size, but still prominently show off the stream labels and branding.

PRO TIP: Place a gameplay image of the game you plan on streaming the most so that you can see where to place elements.

 

Stream Design

Let’s start by creating a box that will hold our two stream labels.

  1. Navigate to the Rectangle Tool and select it.
  2. On the canvas, left click and place the following dimensions into the Create Rectangle box:
  • Width: 458px
  • Height: 75px

3.Click Ok

 

You’ve now created the main box for the branding and stream labels. If you want to adjust the color, ensure the rectangle is selected in the Layers and navigate to the Properties tab. Under Appearance, click on the Fill and Stroke. We want an black with no stroke.

Next, let’s create another box, but this one will house our branding. We have a logo that is just a letter, so it can live in a square box. However, adjust the box and placement to what fits your logo.

  1. Navigate to the Rectangle Tool and select it.
  2. On the canvas, left click and place the following dimensions into the Create Rectangle box:
  • Width: 75px
  • Height: 75px

3. Click Ok

You’ve now created the branding box! On the left sidebar, select the Move Tool and move the new squared box over the rectangle. You can also change the color and stroke like the rectangle.

 

Now that we have the general area, let’s add our branding.

  1. Navigate to the top and click File
  2. Select Place Embedded
  3. Choose your logo
  4. Using the Move Tool, move it to the squared box and center it out.

 

The overlay is coming together! Now we want to divide the rectangle into 2 sections for the labels. We will use the Line Tool for this.

  1. Navigate to the left sidebar and select the Line Tool 
    • At the top bar, you can change the Weight for how thick you want the line to be. We will put this to 1px for now.
  2. Holding Shift, drag the line the length of the rectangle and center it out.
  • Width: 383px
  • Height 3px

Great! We’ve sectioned the overlay off. Next, let’s add the stream label titles. We will place a box with Recent Follower and Recent Donation, but these can be changed as you see fit.

 

  1. Navigate to the left sidebar and select the Rectangle Tool
  2. On the canvas, left click and place the following dimensions into the Create Rectangle box:
    • Width:149px
    • Height: 26px
  3. Center the Rectangle out so all the sides fit within the first line and have equal spacing
  4. Navigate to the left sidebar and select the Horizontal Type Tool
  5. Drag the length of the new rectangle and type “Recent Follower”
    • At the top bar, you can adjust the font size to fit within the rectangle
  6. Center the font out within the rectangle
  7. Repeat this for Recent Donation

Congratulations! You’ve created a customized Twitch stream overlay! As we mentioned before, this is just a template for you to start with. Your stream may only need one stream label title, or you may opt for an animated stream overlay. It’s your stream, so you’ll know what is needed most for you!

Creating a stream overlay that shows off your brand and engaged viewers is a perfect first step into building your stream empire. Using modern and simplistic techniques in Photoshop will provide you a clean overlay that doesn’t take up much space and can house your webcam perfectly! Ensuring you show off your brand and reward those new followers will help you on the road to success as a Twitch streamer.

Good luck out there and have fun streaming!

 


About the author

With a passion for Knowledge, Smashinghub has been created to explore things like Free Resources For Designers, Photographers, Web Developers and Inspiration.

Twitter Visit author website

Subscribe to Smashing Hub


Comments are closed.