Random Lower Thirds

• 1. Purpose
• 2. Example
• 3. How it works
• 4. Examples
  • 4.1. Timed Lower Third with Stream Deck, OBS Studio and scene transition
• 5. Credits
• 6. License

1. Purpose

This package contains a couple of files you can use to implement lower thirds with randomized texts in your streaming software.

It should work with any streaming software which is capable of reading and rendering text from plain text files, such as:

• Elgato Game Capture
• OBS Studio
• Streamlabs Desktop
• XSplit

Note:
This package is currently targeted at Windows users. If you are streaming from a different operating system like Linux or macOS, there are probably better (native) tools at your disposal.

2. Example

3. How it works

You will be working with the following files:

File	Description
lower-third.bat	Windows batch script which must be executed
lower-third.txt	Text file containing the randomly selected text
lower-third-lines.txt	Text file containing the text lines to choose from

When executed, lower-third.bat selects a random line from lower-third-lines.txt (using the bundled randline.bat script) and writes it to lower-third.txt.

lower-third.txt can then be added to your streaming software as a text source, ready to be used in your lower third.

The way you design your lower thirds is completely up to you. This package just provides a facility to have a random text line in there.

NOTICE:
Depending on your streaming software, it may take some time to detect that lower-third.txt has been updated with new content which may cause the text on your lower third to update while it is already being displayed.

To avoid this, you can either add a delay between running lower-third.bat and showing your lower third, or you can try to run lower-third.bat after displaying your lower third. That way the text would be randomized off-screen, with the updated text being used the next time you show the lower third.

Which method works best highly depends on the streaming software you use and how it handles text sources.

4. Examples

To give you an idea how you could use our script, this section contains some example setups.

4.1. Timed Lower Third with Stream Deck, OBS Studio and scene transition

Requirements: Elgato Stream Deck, OBS Studio

Note: In more recent versions of OBS Studio, you can achieve the same effect using a combination of source groups and source show / hide transitions without having to create a new scene.

OBS Studio Setup

1. Create a new scene and give it a suitable name (e.g. "Cam + Lower Third" ).
2. Add a new scene source and choose the scene on top of which you would like to layer the lower third (e.g. "Cam" ).
3. Add a new media source and select your pre-designed lower third. This could be an image or a video you designed yourself or one you got from the web which contains the visuals for your lower third.
4. Add lower-third.txt from this package as a text source to your "Cam + Lower Third" scene.
5. Setup custom scene transitions for both scenes:
   • Luma Wipe for switching from "Cam" to "Cam + Lower Third"
   • Inverted Luma Wipe for switching back from "Cam + Lower Third" to "Cam"

Using scenes with custom "scene-to-scene" transitions allows you to animate your lower thirds so they "roll" into and out of view.

Stream Deck Setup

1. Set up a Multi Action in Stream Deck.
2. Add an OBS Studio: Scene action which switches to your "Cam + Lower Third" scene.
3. Add a Stream Deck: Delay action with a delay of about 6000 milliseconds so the average viewer has enough time to read the lower third without getting distracted.
4. Add an OBS Studio: Scene action which switches back to your "Cam" scene.
5. Add a System: Open action which runs lower-third.bat.

Your setup should now look similar to this:

5. Credits

This package contains the 3rd party component randline.bat created by Paul Houle.

6. License

See LICENSE.txt for full license details.