Adding lower third graphic overlays to events

You can add lower third graphics to your virtual broadcast within Vimeo. 

The name “lower third” specifically refers to the bottom one-third of the screen. These graphics are typically used to introduce a speaker or participant on your stream or identify the location of your event, among other uses.

How to do this on Vimeo varies slightly depending on how you are streaming your event.

In this article:

• Lower third graphics when streaming with Vimeo
• Lower third graphics - RTMP or one time events

Lower third graphics when streaming with Vimeo

When you create a recurring event or webinar and click Stream with Vimeo from the setup page, you will be brought to our browser-based broadcaster page where you can add all the production elements for your event from a single browser page.

A lower third will automatically be created for the broadcaster (you) and every guest speaker you add to the event with their name and title if you added one. Polls and Q&A will have default lower third graphics such as the poll results and submitted questions. This guide will cover adding any additional lower third graphics you may add beyond these standard ones.

First, you can adjust the colors for all of your event’s lower third graphics:

1. On the broadcast page, click the Brand icon on the left side.
2. Below the logo setting, you can see a preview of a lower third.
   
   
3. Click on Primary color to open the color window.
4. You can either drag and drop the color selector, or insert your brand’s exact color codes (we show the HEX code by default; click HEX to switch to RGB and HSL code types if you prefer).
   
   
5. Click out of the color picker and repeat these steps for your Secondary color.
6. Click Save.

After selecting your colors, below the Brand option on the left navigation menu is the Lower thirds option. Click on it to open the lower third panel.

By default, the Scenes tab will be selected, where you can add custom lower third graphics that aren’t tied to speakers, polls, or Q&A. To create a scene lower third:

1. Click Add Lower Third to create a new lower third graphic.
2. Enter the primary text
3. (Optional) Add an image and secondary text if desired.
4. A preview of your lower third graphic will appear above.
5. Click Save when you’re finished.
   

In order to show your lower third, you need to add it to a scene. To do so:

1. Click on the scene you want to show the graphic in.
2. Hover over the lower third, then click the ••• menu.
3. Select Add to scene.
   
4. Alternatively, you can drag and drop the graphic into the preview player. 

Once your lower third is in a scene, select the scene, then click Show scene lower third to display the graphic overlay. Click Hide scene lower third to hide it.

⚠️Note: You can create as many scene lower thirds as needed, but only one scene lower third graphic can be added to an individual scene at a time.

To remove a scene lower third from a scene:

1. Hover over it from the lower thirds panel
2. Click the ••• menu
3. Select Remove from scene.
4. If you no longer need a scene lower third for this event, click Remove from event.

The other tab in the Lower third panel is Speakers. These lower third graphics are automatically created for the broadcaster and any guest speaker added to your event. To edit these:

1. Hover your cursor over the lower third.
2. Click the pencil icon. 
3. You can edit their Name and Title. These lower thirds do not include image fields. 
4. Click the < icon to exit the editor. Your changes will save automatically.

Speakers’ lower thirds will be available on any scene their corresponding speaker is added to. When a scene is in the stream output and you want to show the speakers’ names, click Show lower thirds to bring in the graphic. Click Hide lower thirds to hide it.

Lower third graphics - RTMP or one time events

If you are streaming with an external encoder, click Stream via RTMP on the event setup page. If you create a one-time event, click Next.

You can access lower third graphics by clicking the Graphics icon on the left side of your stream preview page.

Clicking Settings will allow you to customize the colors and font for all your Graphics, Polls, and Q&As on Vimeo.

⚠️ Note: If you edit the theme while any overlay is live, you will need to hide the graphic and then re-show it in order for the theme change to take effect. You can also hover over the player window and select “Hide all graphics” to remove all from the stream with a single click.

To create a lower third graphic, click the (+) button next to Lower Third or Create under the Lower Third drop-down menu. You can add an image and two lines of text per lower third.

We recommend using a square PNG or JPG that is at least 200x200 pixels and no more than 5MB for the best result.

Once created, you can click Preview to view the lower third in the preview player for 5 seconds (which only you can see), click the Show (eye) icon to put the lower third on the live player indefinitely, and access the options menu (•••) to edit, duplicate, or delete the lower third.

You can create additional lower thirds using the (+) button. The duplicate option is a quick way to create multiple lower thirds with the same image. Lower thirds will only appear on the bottom left corner of the stream.

⚠️ Other Notes:

• If you are streaming to Vimeo via an external encoder, you may notice a delay in the graphics appearing on the player.
• Graphics for recurring virtual events will be retained on those events. However, new events will need new graphics created each time. 
  • Additionally, while your graphic will save to your recurring event, your graphic will not display automatically each time you stream. You need to click the corresponding eye icon in the panel in order to display your graphic overlays.