Using Scenes and Sources in OBS: A Short Tutorial

Understanding Scenes and Sources in OBS

At the heart of OBS is a fundamental architectural principle: the relationship between scenes and sources. For any Creator looking to produce professional streams or recordings, mastering this distinction is the first step toward building a polished production.

What are Scenes and Sources?

In simple terms, a scene is a collection of sources. You can think of a scene as a container or a specific “layout” for your broadcast. To be functional, a scene must be composed of at least one source. By creating multiple scenes, you can quickly switch between different layouts—such as moving from a full-screen camera view to a gameplay screen with an overlay—without having to manually rearrange your elements every time.

The Logic of Source Layering

One of the most critical aspects of managing sources within a scene is the stacking order. Sources are layered on top of one another, similar to layers in image editing software.

The position of a source in the list determines its visibility: the higher a source is placed in the stack, the more it occupies the foreground. Conversely, sources at the bottom of the list act as the background. Understanding this hierarchy allows you to ensure that your camera or alert overlays remain visible on top of your game capture or screen recording.

Exploring Different Source Types

OBS supports a wide variety of source types, allowing you to mix and match different media formats to create a dynamic visual experience. Common sources include:

• Visual Sources: These include cameras (webcams), screen recordings, game sources, and text sources for labels or alerts.
• Audio Sources: Beyond visuals, you can integrate specific audio sources to manage how sound is captured and delivered to your audience.

Customizing Your Layout and Effects

Once your sources are added to a scene, you have significant control over how they appear on screen. You can manually adjust the size and position of each source to fit your desired composition.

Furthermore, OBS allows you to apply filters to these sources to enhance their quality or add specific effects. A primary example is the calibration effect, which is an essential tool for Creators using green screens to remove backgrounds and create a more professional look.

Protecting Your Work with Backups

Because setting up complex scenes can be time-consuming, it is important to maintain a backup of your configurations. You should regularly export your scene collections. By exporting these files, you ensure that if you move to a new computer or experience software issues, you can simply import your collections and restore your entire production setup instantly.

Original transcript

Transcript

The core principle of OBS revolves around scenes and sources. A scene is composed of at least one source, and a scene is essentially a collection of sources. The sources in the scene are stacked on top of each other, and the higher a source is, the more foreground it will ultimately have in the stream or recording. Sources can take various forms, such as text sources, cameras, screen recordings, or game sources. Audio sources are also possible. Additionally, the Creator can adjust the size or position of sources or customize them with filters like a calibration effect, which is needed for green screens, for instance. Remember to regularly export your scene collections to create backups. If you need them later, you can simply import them again.

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