How to use animated overlays to grow your gaming channel

Why you should use animated overlays for your gaming channel 

Increasing audience engagement and creating lasting impressions is essential for your channel’s growth. Animated stream overlays are powerful tools for building your brand image and enhancing your channel’s viewing experience. 

Well-designed animated overlays will not only make your channel stand out from the crowd but also make your livestream look more professional. They provide your audience with useful information, help connect with them, and encourage consistent engagement with your channel. 

However, designing overlays can be challenging for beginners. Follow our guide below to create overlays that look good on your screen.

Planning the layout of your overlays

• Choose your tools: Most gaming streamers like to add a little personal flair to their overlays. If you have some graphic design skills and plenty of free time, you can create animated overlays from scratch using image editors like Photoshop or Canva, and a new web-based tool like overlays.uno that provides customizable and easy-to-use templates for both beginners and pros alike. If you don’t have the skills, you can hire someone to custom-design you an overlay or choose ready-made overlays. You should also pick a live streaming software and platform that matches your needs. Streaming software like OBS, vMix, and Ecamm Live can help you organize your sources (such as your webcam, mic, game feed) and stream to Twitch. 
• Keep it simple: Most viewers agree: simplicity is the key when watching a gaming stream. Avoid using complex graphics or overwhelming the viewers with too much information. Don’t put everything on the screen simultaneously or change these elements too frequently. Normally, the main focus should be the gameplay, followed by other less important parts such as the face cam, be right back screen, and notifications for follows, donations, or subscriptions.
• Use the rule of thirds: When planning where to place each element, divide the screen into a 3 x 3 grid (9 equal rectangles). By aligning your elements with the grid lines, you can keep things organized, create points of interest, and leave some whitespace. You can follow this tutorial on YouTube for using this technique in OBS or create a custom image yourself.

• Maintain consistency: Create cohesive branding with consistent fonts and colors that match your personality and content. Also, ensure your fonts have enough contrast and are easy to read, so viewers can easily identify the highlights they should pay attention to.
• Make them easy to update: Streaming content may require graphic adjustments due to several reasons such as technical issues, experimentation, improvement, or changes in brand image and direction. Make sure that every element can be updated in the future without spending hours making minor changes or starting over from scratch.
• Optimize the resolution: Consider the platform or device you are targeting, your computer’s processing power, and internet speed. If the resolution is too high, it can slow down your stream. If the overlays are too big, they might obscure your content. You might also consider optimizing your overlays for viewers using smartphones, ensuring that all elements remain readable on small screens.
• Test before going live: Before going live, it’s important to test all animated overlays to make sure they look good on different screen sizes and work properly. There may be a few initial hiccups but you will get the hang of it with practice.

Ways to improve your overlays

• See what the others use: If you are not sure how to improve your overlays, you can search for ideas from articles, YouTube videos, Twitch forums, or connect to communities on Discord.  Learn from popular streamers, figure out how to apply their strategy, and make it your own.
• Update regularly: Live streaming content is always an ongoing process. So, update your overlays regularly when you come up with new ideas or better ways of communicating with your audience.
• Ask for feedback: Ask your viewers for their opinions and suggestions. You’ll benefit from various perspectives to improve the watching experience and help your viewers feel that they’re contributing to your channel.

Ready-made animated overlays for your stream

Have trouble creating animated overlays to suit your needs? uno has several options for you, all for free! We offer a variety of overlays for game streaming, including our Game Frame overlay, our Fullscreen Matchup overlay, and other elements that can be applied to gaming channels, such as timers, counters, and much more. Edit them in real time and customize them to align with your brand.

Our overlays also support multiple broadcasting software and hardware, and are simple to use. Try out your first uno overlay and connect with your audience in no time!