\n\n\n\n
#1 Overview<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
These days there are quite a few online design tools that help you to create incredible looking designs without needing any design skills or background.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Two such tools are Placeit<\/a> and Canva<\/a>, and we’re going to show you how to create Twitch overlays for your stream with both these tools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Before we get started there are a couple of alternative options for Twitch overlay designs that might be a better fit for you if you don’t want to create Twitch overlays yourself using online design tools:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Twitch overlays are graphics that sit over your live stream feed. Typically these will be webcam overlays<\/a>, chat boxes, or stream information such as sponsors, social media handles, etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Having high-quality overlays creates a more engaging experience for your stream viewers, and can help set you apart from other Twitch streamers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n It also makes your stream look more professional and visually appealing (if you have a good design, of course!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n When you’re creating your own overlays, the following guidelines are usually a good starting point:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Make sure when creating your overlays to stick to the ideal specifications:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Placeit<\/a> is a template-based online design tool. You simply need to choose one of their pre-made designs and customize it to your liking. <\/p>\n\n\n\n They offer plenty of templates for streamers such as logos, banners, starting soon screens, panels, YouTube templates, and of course overlays<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Navigate to the Twitch overlays section<\/a> on Placeit, browse through them, and select a template that you like (there’s plenty to choose from):<\/p>\n\n\n\n There are a few things you can do here to make your search easier:<\/p>\n\n\n\n All the free templates have a ‘FREE’ ribbon at the top left side of their thumbnail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When you’ve got your chosen template just click on it to go to the editor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is roughly how the editor will look when it loads (there may be some slightly different options depending on the overlay template you choose):<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you scroll down the page you’ll see some template presets (different versions of your chosen overlay template) and also similar templates to the one you’ve chosen:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Back up to the editor, on the left side you have a few customization options to go through:<\/p>\n\n\n\n You can see any changes you make immediately.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you want to save your edits and come back to them later you can do so, but you’ll need to create a Placeit account (free signup) to have this option.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You just click on the ‘Save Draft’ at the top right of the template editor and this will saved to your account for you to come back to later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On the right side of the editor there are some more options:<\/p>\n\n\n\n In terms of the actual elements on the design, the text and icon elements can be moved around and resized.<\/p>\n\n\n When you’ve completed your customizations and are happy with your design it’s time to download it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There are a couple of options, you can do one of the following:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Placeit gives you two versions of your overlays. One with a background and one with a transparent background to make it easy to add to your streaming software. <\/p>\n\n\n\n This great-looking overlay took us about 2 minutes to make:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Thankfully Placeit<\/a> has created a page that outlines their license in a ‘human-readable’ format so everything is pretty clear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Anything you create on Placeit is copyright free and can be used for commercial purposes. You can even sell and trademark the designs you make on Placeit!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Obviously, this means you can use any Twitch overlay you create on your channel with no problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Check out the full details of the Placeit license here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you’re a streamer then Placeit has even more to offer you. You can easily create the following with their tool:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Click here to see all the Twitch templates on Placeit<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n If you want an easy way to quickly create incredible looking overlays for your Twitch stream then Placeit<\/a> is a fantastic option.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We’d say the only downside with the tool is that it is a little bit basic in terms of the customization options and resizing some of the design elements is a bit tricky at times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, the huge number and quality of the templates they offer are great so you’re bound to find a lot of design templates that have the look and feel you’re going for with your stream!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Like Placeit, Canva<\/a> is an online design tool for non-designers that has a huge variety of different templates and tools to help you create designs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n With Canva you can also create your own designs by modifying existing templates that they have provided but we’re going to show you how to create designs from scratch because it’s incredibly easy to do in Canva. <\/p>\n\n\n\n We won’t show you all the different ways to use Canva, so if you need a full run-through we recommend watching this video<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Go to the homepage on Canva<\/a> and click the ‘Create a design’ button at the top right. Then click the ‘Custom dimensions’ option and put in 1920x1080px, and click ‘Create a new design’.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On the left side of the editor click on ‘Elements’, go to the ‘Shapes’ category and find a rectangle that fits with the look you want for your webcam frame:<\/p>\n\n\n\n There are plenty of elements you can use to create a great looking webcam frame. Not all of the elements on Canva are free to use, some are for Canva Pro<\/a> users only. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Note:<\/strong> To see only the free elements on Canva click the filter button in the search bar and select free elements only:<\/p>\n\n\n\n To ensure your webcam frame is the correct size, stretch it out to the edges of the canvas (1920 x 1080 px) and this will ensure that it is the correct dimensions:<\/p>\n\n\n\n You can then select all the webcam frame design elements and resize them all together to make the webcam frame smaller:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Once you’re happy with you’re webcam design, click on the duplicate page icon to create your next overlay:<\/p>\n\n\n\n The reason we duplicated the page was so we could easily use the same elements and colors from our webcam frame on our ‘just chatting’ overlay. <\/p>\n\n\n\n We recommend you do the same to keep things looking on brand and consistent. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Spend some time modifying the design elements until you’re happy with your ‘just chatting’ overlay and click the ‘Duplicate page’ button again:<\/p>\n\n\n\n To create a simple gameplay overlay, modify duplicated just chatting overlay. We did a few simple modifications and copied our webcam frame and pasted it into the gameplay overlay design:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Everything in the designs we have done so far was 100% free to use, minus the Twitter and Discord icons in the gameplay overlay which are only available to Canva Pro<\/a> users. <\/p>\n\n\n\n However, you can easily find those icons elsewhere and upload them to Canva if you want them for your design. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The last design we’re going to create is a lower third overlay. Again, you simply need to duplicate your last design and then modify it to easily create a lower third overlay:<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you want to get a bit fancy you can even animate your lower third. <\/p>\n\n\n\n To add animation all you have to do is click on the background of the page you want to animate, click on ‘Animate’ in the toolbar, and select one of the animation options (there are several free options):<\/p>\n\n\n\n Here’s the final designs we made on Canva:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
What are Twitch overlays and why use them?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/mk0designhubco907rrt.kinstacdn.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/own3d-overlay-1024x576.jpg\")
What makes a good Twitch overlay?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\n
Twitch overlay size, dimensions, format:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\n
#2 Creating a Twitch overlay with Placeit<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Step 1 – Choose a template:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/mk0designhubco907rrt.kinstacdn.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/placeit-templates-1024x506.jpg\")
\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/designhub.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/sort-by-best-selling.jpg\")
\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/mk0designhubco907rrt.kinstacdn.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/favoriting-template.jpg\")
\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/mk0designhubco907rrt.kinstacdn.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/go-to-favorites-1024x766.jpg\")
\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/mk0designhubco907rrt.kinstacdn.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/free-overlays-on-Placeit-1024x525.jpg\")
Step 2 – Customize your template:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/mk0designhubco907rrt.kinstacdn.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/editor-1024x521.jpg\")
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/mk0designhubco907rrt.kinstacdn.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/extra-template-options-1024x392.jpg\")
\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/designhub.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/customization-options.jpg\")
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/designhub.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/save-draft.jpg\")
\n
\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/designhub.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/more-customization-options.jpg\")
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/designhub.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/moving-design-features.jpg\")
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/designhub.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/moving-design-elements.jpg\")
Step 3 – Download your template:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/mk0designhubco907rrt.kinstacdn.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/placeit-pricing-1024x680.jpg\")
\n
Overlays we made with Placeit:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/designhub.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/final-overlay1.jpg\")
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/designhub.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/final-overlay-2.jpg\")
Commercial usage of the templates:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/designhub.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/license-801x1024.jpg\"){kind=spacer}
What else you can do on Placeit:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\n
Conclusion:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
#3 Creating Twitch overlays with Canva<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Step 1 – Click ‘Create a design’:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/designhub.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/dimensions.jpg\")
Step 2 – Create your webcam frame<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/designhub.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/shapes.jpg\")
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/designhub.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/free-filter.jpg\")
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/designhub.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/full-canvas.jpg\")
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/designhub.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/webcam-frame.jpg\")
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/designhub.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/adding-a-new-page.jpg\")
Step 3 – Create your ‘Just Chatting’ overlay:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/mk0designhubco907rrt.kinstacdn.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/just-chatting-design-1024x563.jpg\")
Step 4 – Create your ‘Gameplay’ overlay:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/mk0designhubco907rrt.kinstacdn.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/gameplay-overlay-design-1024x622.jpg\")
Step 5 – Create your lower third overlay:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/designhub.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/lower-third-design.jpg\")
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/mk0designhubco907rrt.kinstacdn.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/adding-animations-1024x470.jpg\")
Overlay Designs we made on Canva:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/mk0designhubco907rrt.kinstacdn.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/final-webcam-frame-2-1024x576.png\")
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/mk0designhubco907rrt.kinstacdn.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/final-just-chatting-overlay-2-1024x576.png\")
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/mk0designhubco907rrt.kinstacdn.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/final-gameplay-overlay-2-1024x576.png\")