Week 5

Content

  • Personalizing Your Stream

    At this point, you know about streaming, the industry, and the hardware/software combos that will keep you up and running. You also understand the basics of software settings and how they relate to your hardware. Let's turn our attention personalizing your stream. This means digging into your preferred broadcast software and configuring it to your style. By the end of this week, you should understand the core of what you can manipulate, as well as how to apply overlays and graphical add-ons that will be applicable to your stream.

    This week you will...
    • Explore peripherals to be used in streaming
    • Discover settings that will allow you to implement personalizations
    • Discuss alerts and widgets useful to your stream
    • Design overlays and scenes in OBS
    • Connect your channel to social media

  • Loot for your mind

    Weekly Materials


    It's finally time to get to some of the fun stuff! We'll be covering a number of ways to personalize your stream, but you should know that how you actually go about your personalizations is rather dependent on how you like to design. For example, are you strong with Photoshop? Design your overlays with Photoshop! Don't have access to Photoshop? Try Gimp. Never used Photoshop? You can use Microsoft Word, Paint, or any number of programs that have some graphical capability to create what you want. Are you a wizard with HTML and CSS? Then build your visuals using the latest W3C standards.

    So where do we start? Well, it's always a good idea to see what the current trends are to form some sort of "baseline" or to help generate ideas as to what you want to do. Check out a few of your favorite streamers and just think of what you like about their design. Next, there are plenty of places online where you can find free pre-made overlays (which you can then edit as you please). This can get you into a professional looking product and save you a lot of time, but it's always nice to have something that's uniquely "yours", so try not to settle for a completely unedited pre-made overlay. Lastly, your broadcasting software may have a number of options built in. For example, Streamlabs OBS has a large collection of free Scenes that work well with their widgets. Here are a few popular options for finding free overlays:

    The other major topic to consider are the different widgets, widget themes, bots, Twitch stream alerts, integrations and other tools that you can use to personalize your stream. We touched on this a bit last week, but there is a lot here to make your stream distinctly yours. For example, if you happen to have a Razer Chroma keyboard, there is an integration that can be used to make its lights respond to different events on your stream (such as if you gain a new subscriber). If your keyboard is visible in your streams, that can be a cool effect, but even if it's not visible, things like that can be fun or a good feedback mechanism to you, the streamer. That also brings up the consideration of your peripherals. Mics, webcams, headsets, seats, and more. Express yourself!

  • Discussion

    Discussion Requirements

    In each week, you will have a Discussion assignment that will help to prepare you for that week's main assignment. You are required to:

    • make an initial post answering the questions provided, and
    • to respond to at least one peer.

    You won't be able to see any of your peer's posts until after you have posted. Your response should be go beyond a simple "good job" or other basic complement. While there isn't a hard requirement on the length of your response, 100 words would be a good starting place. 

    The reason we only require a single response is that we are encouraging you to engage your instructor and peers through Blackboard Collaborate and Discord in real-time discussion. The questions presented here are to help you to form ideas for your main assignment, as well as allow you to more deeply analyze what your peers are thinking about as they prepare for their assignments. Your peers may be in-class students, or they may be remote and in an entirely different time-zone. We want to ensure that you all have the same opportunities to collaborate and learn from each other. We want you to be fully prepared and confident going into your main assignments.

    Discord

    Discord chats are set up by week, and are supplemental to your actual assignments. Click the icon below to access the channel. Please participate in these chats! Discord is a very popular tool used by the streaming community, so if you're not familiar with it, this is your chance! Use the Discussion assignment to help organize your interactions. It's our hope that you find people through this class that you can collaborate with, game with, and stream with in your careers; you are welcome to invite your peers to other channels that you use!

    discord icon and link to channel


    Discussion

    10 Points

    Discuss the building of your personalizations. Be specific on the following points:

    • As you will be creating an overlay this week, what programs or approach will you use (Photoshop, Paint, HTML/CSS) and why? How does this cater to your abilities and desires as a streamer? Remember that you are absolutely allowed to use pre-built themes that you might find online, but you still are required to make modifications that personalize them specifically to you. Be specific on what you will do here.
    • If you have questions on how to accomplish something that one of your peers has commented on doing, ask them!
    • What alerts and widgets will you be using in your stream and why? How will you personalize them to fit the visual style you are creating?
    • What can a non-PC streamer do to personalize their stream?
    Submission Instructions
    • Read the discussion rubric. You will be graded on this rubric!
    • Make an initial post based on the assignment prompt provided.
    • Reply to at least one peer with a substantial response.
    • Use Discord for further discussion.

  • Your Personalized Stream

    20 Points

    What will you do regarding hardware and software to personalize your stream? This is a good place to consider your peripherals, such as cameras and microphones. Will your stream feature your face of an overlay of you? If so, do you have a "wishlist" of items that you want to include in your environment (such as room decorations, the type of chair you use, headphones, etc...)?

    • Put together a layout or "scene" in your broadcasting software
      • This can include overlays, alerts, animations, Twitch Panels, and more. Take screenshots of your broadcasting layout.
    • Create a 5 min video discussing all of the above
      • This is a great opportunity to use the new layout you created and test it out!
    Submission Requirements

    Previously you had the option to write an essay as an alternative. In this assignment, we really do want you to go the video route. Remember, if you have a smart phone, you have the tools right in your hand! If either video or audio recording of yourself is not possible, please reach out to your instructor for alternatives. YouTube or Twitch are likely to be the easiest platforms to accomplish this assignment. If on YouTube, you may wish to set your video to "unlisted" so that only those who receive the link can find your video.

    Use the "Write Submission" option to provide a link to your video. It is highly recommended that you use an online service such as YouTube or Twitch rather than trying to attach a video file directly.

    This assignment is due no later than 11:59 PM at the end of the seventh day of class.

    Start Assignment

    Assignment Rubric

    Before starting your Assignment, please review the Assignment rubric. You will be graded using this rubric.

    Click below to view the Assignment rubric.

    Click Here

  • twitch.tv/bellevueuniversityeSports

    Check out our Twitch Channel below! If you want to participate in chat, you should click the Twitch button on the video player to head to the Twitch website. You'll want to do that if you want to keep the stream open while you switch tabs to work on your assignments, as well. Also, head on over to our Video on Demand page to see a collection of all of our videos.

  • script-styles - do not edit or hide - only visible in edit mode - if viewable in student view, contact your instructor or the service desk for software updates