Creating a virtual camera with countdown for Microsoft Teams
Leaving my current job in a few weeks, I came up with the idea of having some fun during calls with some (selected) colleagues (not sure everyone would appreciate), and use a video of myself with a countdown to my last day in the company during the calls. Here is how to proceed for those of you curious about it
Context
- Windows computer (but the same can be done on Linux or MacOS)
- Microsoft Teams : In my case, I was using Microsoft Teams, but as you create a virtual camera on your system, it can be used with any other application getting a feed from a webcam, including Zoom.
Requirements
Download the following software
- Snaz : you can download it from GitHub.
- OBS Studio : you can download it from official site https://obsproject.com/
Make sure you have administrative rights on your computer to install software
How to
Let see how we can achieve the following result including a background picture, a live video feed from webcam and a dynamic countdown
To do so, we will create a virtual cam in OBS, that will be usable in Microsoft Teams.
Step 1 – Snaz setup
- Download and install Snaz from Github
- Run Snaz
- Create a countdown to the targeted date
- In the “Time, date and countdown” tab, go to the Countdown settings at the bottom of the screen
- Input your target date/hour in “Count to:” and change the target file if needed. By default, Snaz will write the countdown value in the file “C:\Snaz\TextFiles\Countdown.txt”. Note down the path as you will reuse it later in OBS
Step 2 – OBS Setup
OBS Studio will be used to compose the sources and create a virtual camera with the composite image
- Download and install OBS Studio
- Once installed, run it and make sure your webcam is not used by another application
- In “Sources”, add a new Text (GDI+) source
- In the Text File path, copy the path from Snaz, adjust other settings if needed and click on “OK”
- In “Sources”, add a new “Video Capture Device”
- Select your integrated Webcam as source and click on “OK”
- If you want, don’t hesitate to add another source with a static picture, like a nice sunny beach with coconut trees đ
- Arrange the sources positions as it suits you and once ready, click on “Start Virtual Cam” on bottom right panel
Step 3 – Microsoft Teams setup
- Make sure to (really) quit Microsoft Teams so that it detects the virtual camera during startup
- In Teams settings, make sure to select “OBS virtual camera” instead of your usual webcam
- You’re now ready to enter you next call with your customized feed. Note that you can also change settings in OBS, and it will be reflected in real time in Teams
Enjoy !
