A camera bubble in OBS is your face, cut to a circle, on the lesson while OBS records the screen. Add a Display Capture, put the webcam above it, and mask the camera. The file then holds both. A source left in the corner will not move itself off a button.
What a camera bubble in OBS is
A camera bubble in OBS is a face cam shaped to a circle, or a small rounded window, placed over a screen capture. The shape comes from a mask on the camera, or from a window that is already on the monitor being captured. It is one picture, not a face glued on in a second edit.
Add the screen, then the camera
OBS treats these as two sources. Display Capture takes one whole monitor, and you only want one of those per display. Video Capture Device takes the webcam. The face has to sit above the screen in the source list, or the monitor paints over it.
- Make one scene for the lesson you are about to record.
- Sources, then the plus, then Display Capture. Pick the monitor the lesson is on.
- Sources, then Video Capture Device. Pick the webcam. Drag that source above the Display Capture.
- Move the camera to a corner and scale it down. Leave a little gap at the edge so a window title is not under your chin.
- In the mixer, drop the desktop until your voice is the loud part. People came for the explanation, not the click sounds.
Cut the camera into a circle
The webcam arrives as a rectangle. Image Mask/Blend is the filter OBS ships for changing that shape. Transparent pixels in the mask image remove the matching part of the camera. Opaque pixels keep it.
- Crop the camera toward a square first. A wide picture under a circle mask turns into an oval.
- Right-click the Video Capture Device, then Filters.
- Under Effect Filters, add Image Mask/Blend.
- Set the type to Alpha Mask (Alpha Channel). The default is Color Channel, which is a different mask.
- Choose a square PNG that is opaque inside the circle and transparent outside. Leave Stretch Image off unless you mean to stretch it.
A filter hangs on the source. Every scene that uses that same webcam source inherits the circle. If you also need the full rectangle, put the mask on a scene instead of on the shared camera source.
When the corner has to move
The mask does not know which button you are about to press. The face stays until you grab the source and drag it, then drag it back. On a long stream that pause is normal. In a lesson it is the edit you were hoping to skip: the click is hidden, and the hello and the goodbye are waiting in another timeline.
Face Bubble is a window on the screen OBS is already capturing. The face is in those pixels. A click moves the bubble aside, and it comes back. The app does not take the keyboard, so the program you are teaching still receives the keys. It runs on Windows 10 and 11. Mac is not a download yet. It is not part of OBS Studio, and the OBS project does not make it.
| Fixed camera source | Face Bubble window | |
|---|---|---|
| Where the face lives | A Video Capture Device in the scene | A window on the captured screen |
| Moves off a click | You drag the source | A click moves it aside, then it returns |
| Keyboard | Whichever window you clicked | The app you are teaching keeps the keys |
| Mac | OBS has its own screen capture | Not a download yet |
Mistakes that waste the take
- The camera source sits under the Display Capture, so the screen covers your face.
- The mask image is wide and Stretch Image is off, so the circle becomes an oval. Crop toward a square first.
- The circle filter is on a webcam source you also use full frame in another scene.
- The bubble window and a second Video Capture of the same camera are both in the scene, so the face appears twice. Pick one.
More of this scene setup lives with the other OBS recording notes. The two prices, and what each one renews, are on the Windows plans.
That is a camera bubble in OBS: the screen, the webcam, a circle, and a corner that can move when the click needs the room.
Written by Face Bubble, the Windows app that sits on the screen OBS records. Updated October 11, 2026.