Introducing our new Dreamscape Screens, do you want a cute aesthetic for your stream or a cute background for your virtual meeting? In this article/readme I'll go over how to use the "Virtual Camera" plugin for OBS Studio. While this plugin is not compatible with StreamlabsOBS, you can run OBS with the virtual camera and use it as a video capture device inside of StreamlabsOBS. I'll also go over setting these up for zoom and google meets

Adding screens into OBS/StreamlabsOBS:

Thankfully OBS makes this super easy and the majority of the time you're able to simply drag and drop the screens into your source.

1. First you can start by adding in a new source, you'll want to add a "Media Source"

The setup is the exact same for StreamlabsOBS click the "+" and add a media source

2. From here you can label the source whatever you want for now I'll be leaving it as default.

In StreamlabsOBS you'll want to ensure you have "Add a new source instead" selected to ensure you do not override an existing source already in your setup.

3. Now that your source is added you'll simply want to click "Browse" and find where you have unzipped your download, make sure you give it a permanent home as OBS & SLOBS constantly read from file paths to load the backgrounds.

4. Once you've found the screens go ahead and double click on the screen you want to use or simply left-click and select "open" I'm going to be using the "Room Sunset.mp4" file for this readme.

5. Once you've "opened" them the next thing you'll want to do is ensure you have the following selected.

Loop (Ensures that the file plays over and over and doesn't cause a black screen)
Restart playback when source becomes active (Ensure the file starts from the first frame when you first load it)
Close file when inactive (Ensures that the file closes when you are no longer on the scene this maximizes your performance and makes sure that the animations are not constantly playing in the background.)

That's it! You've added in your brand new screens. Now what you could do to get really snazzy is add in some text for your stream such as this.

I've just added in a basic "Text (GDI+) source and used a font from google fonts. You can do this by adding a new source

From here you can label it what you want, I called mine "Stream Starting"

Next, you should get a popup that includes a box where you can type in text, and choose a font. In my screenshot, I used "Barlow Condensed ExtraBold" with a 72 font size so it scaled great with the big screens.

That's it! You're screens are all setup and you can use them or add any text you may want. You'll notice that OBS includes an option to "Read from file" so you could go into Photoshop and create your own custom text and export it and have OBS read it. Just make sure you select "Read from file"

Zoom Setup:

First lets go over how to add this in Zoom, since Zoom has native support for a Virtual Camera/backgrounds this is the easiest.

1. Head to your settings and click "Virtual background"

2. Click the "+"

3. Add Video

4. Select Virtual Background

5. Once added you'll have to select the background Zoom will also save your previously used backgrounds so you can add multiple and swap between in the middle of your call if you'd like.

Virtual Camera Setup (Google Meet, Microsoft Teams):

1. You'll start by opening up OBS Studio, nothing manually needs to be installed since OBS has made this a default plugin within their software now. On the right side of the software, there is a button labeled "Start Virtual Camera" Click this.

(Note it's easier if you do this in its own scene)

2. After you've started the Virtual Cam, you'll want to head to your sources and add a "Video Capture Device"

3. Your webcam settings may vary based on what cam you're using, but make sure the video capture device is set up as your active webcam.

4. From here you'll want to right click your webcam source and select "Filters"

5. Click the "+" and add a "Chroma Key"

The default settings should work well, but you may need to edit some of the settings for it to look how you want it to.

6. Now that we've got our greenscreen setup, we're going to want to add in our background of choice. Once you've got the background you want selected simply drag it in

7. Ensure that it is placed under your Video Capture Device source in OBS

8. Next right-click the source > Go to "Transform" and select "Fit to screen" if you're not streaming in 1920x1080 you'll need to do this.

9. The final step within OBS is you'll want to ensure if you're using an animated background you need to select the source to "loop" simply double click the source or right-click and go to "Properties" and select "Loop"

10. If you're looking to use this in software such as Google Meet, you'll need to ensure that your camera output is correct. Simply head to the bottom right while in a call and go to "settings"

11. Head to "Video" and ensure it is selected to "OBS Virtual Camera"

If you want to use this on Zoom, they already have native support for Virtual Cameras, however software such as

Meet
Streamyard

Do not have native support and will require you to use this Virtual Camera or some similar software that has the same support.

We also made a video over on Loom that shows you how to do all of this. Check it out.