Animated lower thirds
Name straps for guests, analysts and casters: name, role, quote or social handle. Animate in, hold, auto-dismiss — or leave them up until you clear them.
Early access
Broadcast graphics & lower thirds for live streaming
LowerThird Software is a broadcast character generator (CG) for streamers and production teams. Build animated lower thirds, stream overlays, scoreboard bugs and news tickers — then put them on air over your stream with a single OBS browser source.
Football and basketball commentary, news and talk shows, esports, podcasts — anywhere a live picture needs a name, a score or a headline on top of it.
Runs on your own Windows PC. No cloud upload, no capture card, no per-seat monthly fee.
OBS BROWSER SOURCE
NYC2 : 1BOS78:12
Match analyst
Alex CarterFormer midfielder · 214 caps
BREAKINGLower thirds, score bugs and tickers — all from one transparent page
One tool, a dozen names
Broadcast engineers call it a character generator (CG). American crews say chyron, after the company whose name became the generic word for an on-screen title. Post-production people say titler or titling software. On Twitch, YouTube and Kick everyone just says lower thirds and stream overlays. They all describe the same job: putting live text and graphics over a live picture. LowerThird Software does that job in plain HTML5, so any encoder with a browser source can show it.
- lower third maker
- animated lower thirds
- stream overlay maker
- OBS overlay
- live stream graphics
- broadcast graphics software
- CG software
- live titler
- chyron maker
- CasparCG alternative
- news ticker software
- scoreboard overlay
How it works
No hardware, no capture card, no complicated install. Your encoder does the compositing; LowerThird Software draws the graphics.
-
1
Open the control panel
The app runs locally on your Windows PC and opens in your browser. Enter names, teams, colours, headlines and ticker messages — or import a squad and let the panel fill them in.
-
2
Add one browser source
In OBS Studio, vMix or Streamlabs, add a browser source pointing at
http://localhost:5275/outputat 1920×1080. The page is fully transparent, so only the graphics land on your scene. Step-by-step OBS setup → -
3
Hit TAKE
Click TAKE (or press a shortcut) and the graphic animates on air; CLEAR takes it off. Commands travel over a WebSocket, so the overlay reacts in the same frame you click — no refresh, no restart.
What you can put on screen
A complete live graphics kit. Every element is HTML5 and animates in and out on command.
Scoreboard overlay
A score bug with team colours, live match clock and period indicator for football and basketball, plus goal, card and substitution graphics.
News ticker & breaking band
A bottom crawl for headlines, sponsors or chat highlights, and a full-width breaking-news band you can fire in one keystroke.
Layout designer
Drag every graphic where you want it, save window layouts per scene, and switch between design families that follow your own brand colours.
One-click take
TAKE / CLEAR / UPDATE travel over SignalR (WebSocket). Scores and clocks update live on screen without re-taking the graphic.
Ready-made design families
Seven complete graphic packages out of the box — each one covers name straps, score bugs, tickers, cards and announcements in a consistent style.
Works with any encoder
Anything that can open an HTML5 browser source: OBS Studio, vMix, Streamlabs, Restream Studio, XSplit. NDI output for studio vision mixers is on the roadmap.
Local, offline, yours
Everything runs on your machine — no account, no upload, no dependency on a service staying online. Back the whole setup up to a single zip file.
Who it is for
The same engine serves a one-person Twitch channel and a multi-camera studio gallery.
Streamers on Twitch, YouTube & Kick
Give your channel the look of a broadcast studio: a proper name strap when a guest joins, a score bug during a watch-along, a ticker with your schedule.
Sports commentary channels
Built first for match commentary without match footage: score, clock, cards, substitutions and squads all driven from one panel while you talk over the game.
News, talk & podcast shows
Name and title every speaker, run a headline crawl, and fire a breaking-news band the moment a story lands.
Broadcast & production studios
A lightweight live titler that sits next to your switcher instead of replacing it — HTML5 graphics your operator can drive with the keyboard.
How it compares
Most people arrive here from one of five places. Here is the honest difference.
| Video-file lower thirds (After Effects renders) | A rendered .mov looks great until the name changes. Here the text is live data: type it, take it, change it mid-show without re-rendering anything. More on animated lower thirds → |
|---|---|
| CasparCG | CasparCG is a powerful open-source playout and CG server, but you build the client and the HTML templates yourself. This is a finished control panel for the same idea. CasparCG alternative → |
| vMix titles | vMix titles live inside vMix, at the licence tier you bought. This runs beside any encoder — including OBS — and stays in one place if you switch. vMix titles alternative → |
| Chyron and other broadcast CG systems | Full broadcast CG systems are built for playout chains, newsroom integration and hardware keyers. This is the same on-screen result at streaming scale and price. What people mean by “chyron” → |
| Browser-based overlay services | Cloud overlay sites go down with their servers and charge per month, per seat. This installs on your PC and keeps working with the internet unplugged. |
Under the hood
A boring, proven stack on purpose — stability matters more than novelty when you are live.
- HTML5 + CSS animation
- Transparent (alpha) output
- .NET 10
- Blazor Server
- SignalR / WebSocket
- SQLite
- OBS Browser Source
- NDI — planned
The output is a single transparent HTML page. Your encoder composites it over the video on the GPU, exactly the way it composites a webcam — so there is no extra render pipeline to go wrong. How HTML5 overlays work →
Guides & background
Plain-language explanations of the tools, the terminology and the setup — written for people who have to go live tonight.
For streamers
- Lower third makerWhat a lower third is, why animated ones beat rendered video files, and how to build your own.
- OBS lower thirdsAdd animated titles to OBS Studio with a single browser source — setup, sizing and troubleshooting.
- Stream overlay makerBuilding a live overlay for Twitch, YouTube and Kick — layout, branding and what to keep off screen.
- Live stream graphicsThe working graphics kit for a live show: what each element is for and when to put it on screen.
For broadcast
- Broadcast graphics softwareWhat the category covers, how the pieces fit together, and a checklist for choosing.
- Character generator (CG)What a broadcast CG is, what it is not, and why the term confuses search engines.
- Titling softwareLive titlers versus editor titles — two different jobs that share a name.
- Chyron softwareWhy an American crew says “chyron”, what they actually mean, and what to use.
Alternatives
Technical
- HTML5 overlayHow browser-based broadcast graphics actually work — alpha, compositing and performance.
- NDI graphicsSending overlays over the network with alpha — when you need NDI and when a browser source is enough.
- News ticker softwareCrawls, rolls and breaking bands — how to build a ticker people can actually read.
- Scoreboard overlayScore bugs and match clocks for football and basketball, built for commentary streams.
Frequently asked questions
The questions we get asked most about live stream graphics.
What is a lower third?
A lower third is the graphic in the bottom third of the screen that tells the viewer who is talking or what they are watching: a name and role, a match score, a headline. The name comes from the old television grid — the picture is divided into thirds and titles live in the bottom one. Full explanation →
Is this a character generator?
Yes — it is a broadcast character generator (CG) for live streaming: the software that puts lower thirds, score bugs and tickers over a live picture. It has nothing to do with creating characters for games; in television “character” means typed characters on screen. What a broadcast CG does →
Does it work with OBS Studio?
Yes. OBS is the primary target. You add one browser source pointing at the local output page and every graphic arrives through it — no plugin, no capture card, no second PC. It works the same way in vMix, Streamlabs, XSplit and anything else that supports an HTML5 browser source.
Do I need special hardware?
No. A normal Windows PC that already runs OBS comfortably will run this too. There is no capture card, no SDI, no dongle. The graphics are drawn by your existing GPU as part of your existing scene.
Can I use it for something other than sport?
Yes. Sport is where it started — the score bug and match clock are the hardest parts, so we built those first — but name straps, tickers, breaking bands and announcements are equally at home on a talk show, a podcast, a news stream or an esports broadcast.
Is there a free version?
The software is in early access and pricing has not been fixed yet. Write to us and you will get an early-access build to try on your own machine; we would rather have your feedback now than your money.
Does it need an internet connection?
Only for optional extras such as pulling squad data. The panel, the output page and the graphics all run on localhost, so a venue with hostile Wi-Fi cannot take your titles off the air.
Can it replace CasparCG, vMix titles or a Chyron system?
For the on-screen result — lower thirds, bugs, tickers, straps — very often yes, and with far less setup. For newsroom (MOS) integration, hardware key/fill or a full playout chain, those systems still do things we do not. How to choose broadcast graphics software →
Does it support NDI?
Not yet. Today the output travels as an HTML5 browser source, which is what OBS, vMix and Streamlabs want anyway. NDI with alpha, for studios feeding a vision mixer, is the next big item on the roadmap. NDI graphics explained →
Put studio-grade graphics on your stream
LowerThird Software is in active development and we are handing out early-access builds. Tell us what you stream and we will send you one.
Get early access