Your starting soon screen is the first thing a viewer sees when they click your channel, and for most streamers it is also the last thing they think about. A strong starting soon screen gives early viewers a reason to stay, a countdown to look forward to, and a clear reason to follow. The same care should go into your BRB (be right back) and offline screens, which keep the channel looking intentional even when you are not at the keyboard. This guide explains what each screen should communicate, how to plan them as proper OBS scenes, and how to design an on-brand starting soon screen from scratch — including the animation and automation options that make these scenes feel alive on Twitch, YouTube Live, and Kick.

What Starting Soon, BRB, and Offline Screens Actually Do

The three "between-action" screens all solve the same underlying problem: viewers should never stare at a blank canvas and wonder what is going on.

Starting soon screen. This plays before you go live. Its job is to give followers time to arrive, set expectations for what is coming, and collect follows while the stream is still warming up. It typically carries your logo or character, the stream title or schedule, a countdown timer, and social handles. Editors that build them point out that these screens let viewers "slowly trickle in, chat, and get comfortable" before the broadcast begins, which is exactly why they exist.

BRB / intermission screen. This plays while you step away mid-stream for a break. Its only job is to set the expectation that you are coming back. Keep it short and legible: a "be right back" message, a timer if you know how long you will be gone, and your socials so the moment does not go to waste.

Offline screen. This shows when the channel is not live at all. It stops the flood of "where are you?" messages, tells new viewers your schedule, and points them at your social accounts and VODs. Because it is your channel's resting face, it should be as on-brand as your live overlay.

Twitch Creator Camp treats stream scenes and overlays as a core part of a well-put-together channel, and the principle carries across every platform: the moments between live action shape how professional your channel feels.

Design Principles for Stream Screens

Good screens share the same fundamentals, whether you design them by hand or generate them with an AI tool.

One clear message per screen. A starting soon screen says "starting soon." A BRB screen says "be right back." Do not cram a manifesto onto the canvas. Large, bold, easy-to-read text beats clever but tiny copy every time.
A 1920×1080, 16:9 canvas. This is the standard stream resolution, and keeping every screen on the same canvas means nothing gets cropped or letterboxed when you switch scenes. Tutorials on building these screens consistently recommend 1920×1080 at 16:9.
A single focal point. Your logo, character, or mascot should anchor the composition. Everything else — timer, schedule, socials — supports it rather than competing with it.
Readable on any background. Add an outline, drop shadow, or dark panel behind text so it stays legible whether your background is bright, dark, or animated.
A call to action. At minimum a follow button or handle and your schedule. Waiting viewers who know exactly how to follow you will actually do it.

Plan Your Screens as Real OBS Scenes

The biggest mistake is treating a screen as a single static image. In OBS Studio, every screen should be its own scene built from multiple layers, because that is how you get playback control, flexible text, and clean switching.

OBS's Sources Guide is the reference here: scenes and sources are the heart of OBS, and each scene is made up of sources such as a browser window, media file, image, or text. Concretely:

Create one scene per screen — "Starting Soon," "BRB," "Offline" — so you can hotkey-switch between them without rebuilding anything.
Layer your sources. Put the background image or animated WebM at the bottom, then text, timer, and social icons on top. In OBS, a source higher in the Sources list renders on top of the ones below it, so order matters.
Use the eye icon to hide or show a source instead of deleting it, and use the bounding box or Edit Transform (Ctrl/Cmd-E) to position and resize precisely.

A starting soon scene might be: an animated background WebM, your logo as an image source, the stream title as a text source, a countdown widget as a browser source, and a follow button as another browser or image source — all stacked and positioned once.

Design a Starting Soon Screen: Step by Step

Here is a repeatable workflow for building a starting soon screen, from blank idea to a scene you can flip to before going live.

Write the message first. Decide the exact text: stream title, "starting soon," your handle, and the schedule or countdown. Writing the copy before the visual stops you from squeezing text in later.
Pick a brand direction. If you already have an overlay, match its palette, fonts, and character. If you are starting fresh, settle on a style sheet — a consistent palette, logo, and vibe — before generating anything, so the screen matches everything else you ship.
Design or generate the visual. You can build it in an editor, use a template like Canva's Twitch screen templates, or generate a themed starting soon screen with an AI overlay tool. AI Animated Overlay Packs generate Starting Soon, BRB, Just Chatting and Ending scenes from one approved style sheet, which keeps the whole set visually consistent.
Add it to OBS as a scene. Create a new scene, add your background as an Image or Media Source, then add text and logo layers on top. Position everything with the bounding box and confirm it fills the 1920×1080 canvas.
Add a countdown or timer. A countdown gives waiting viewers a concrete "we go live soon" moment. Add one as a browser source or a looping transparent WebM and key it out or keep it in an alpha-friendly format.
Preview and switch to it. Before going live, switch to the Starting Soon scene, confirm every layer is visible and nothing overlaps awkwardly, then switch back. The whole loop takes minutes and prevents a rough first impression on stream.

Reuse the Same Direction for BRB and Offline Screens

Do not design three unrelated screens. Reusing one style sheet across Starting Soon, BRB, and Offline is what makes a channel feel like a brand instead of a folder of random images.

For BRB, keep the same background and swap the main text to "be right back" or "BRB," plus a timer if you know how long the break is. For Offline, keep the same canvas and lead with "offline," your schedule, and your socials. Because AlertForge overlay packs generate the whole set — Starting Soon, BRB, Just Chatting, Ending, and a static Offline scene — from a single approved direction, the screens come out coherent without you hand-matching colors and fonts.

If you build them by hand, save your master file with the background and non-text layers, then export a variant per screen. That way any palette change updates every screen in one edit.

Animation Options: Transparent WebM, Browser Source, or Still Image

Your screens do not have to be static, but the animation method changes how they behave in OBS.

Transparent WebM as a Media Source. A WebM with an alpha channel plays as a self-contained media file in OBS, with local playback controls and no chroma keying required. AlertForge exports transparent WebM files that OBS handles natively — no plugins, no extra software — which you add as a local Media Source. This is a great fit for an animated logo, character, or looping background.
Browser Source. OBS's own docs note the browser source is "primarily used for stream alert overlays and chat boxes" — it is also how you embed live web content like a web-based countdown widget into a scene. Use it for anything that needs live data from the web.
Still PNG as an Image Source. When you only need a lightweight static background, an image source uses almost no resources.

A common combo: a transparent WebM background (Media Source) under a live countdown widget (Browser Source) with your text on top. For a deeper look at the transparent WebM workflow, see the transparent WebM alerts guide.

Keep Branding Consistent Across Scenes and Alerts

Your screens should not contradict your alerts. If your sub alert looks nothing like your starting soon screen, the channel reads as a collection of mismatched assets. One approved visual direction should guide everything — scenes, alerts, panels, and labels. AlertForge's AI stream alert maker and animated overlay workflows are built around a single style sheet, and brand kits carry that approved direction into future alerts and packs so follow-up assets stay on-brand. When you generate each result, review it for consistency before you export — generative output can vary, so a quick visual check is worth it.

The same discipline applies if you DIY: keep one brand file with your palette, fonts, and logo, and reference it for every screen, alert, and panel you make.

Common Mistakes and Quick Fixes

Tiny or low-contrast text. Viewers watch on phones too. Increase the size and add an outline or drop shadow behind the copy.
Wrong canvas size. Anything other than 1920×1080 16:9 risks cropping or letterboxing on switch. Resize every screen to the same canvas.
A source hidden behind another. If text is invisible, check the Sources list order — a source higher in the list sits on top.
No countdown or schedule. Waiting viewers drift without a time anchor. Add a countdown or a clear "starting soon" schedule.
A static, stale look. A channel that never changes feels abandoned. Add a subtle animated element so returning viewers notice it is alive.
No call to action. If a screen does not ask for the follow, the wait was wasted. Keep the follow button and handle visible.

FAQ

How long should a starting soon screen run? Around five to ten minutes is typical — long enough for regulars to get the notification and arrive, short enough that you are not keeping people waiting pointlessly.

Do small streamers need all three screens? You can start with a single starting soon screen and add BRB and Offline as you grow. But an offline screen is cheap and stops the "where are you?" messages, so it pays off immediately.

Can I use one design for all three screens? Yes. Keep the same background and brand, and change only the main text and call to action per screen. That is exactly how coherent channels look coherent.

Transparent WebM or Browser Source for a screen background? Use a transparent WebM (Media Source) for self-contained animated backgrounds and logos, and a Browser Source for live web content such as countdown widgets or chat-dependent overlays.

Do I need OBS plugins for transparent WebM screens? No. OBS handles WebM with an alpha channel natively, so transparent WebM files drop straight in as Media Sources without plugins or chroma keying.