I've been messing around with live streaming the last little while.
It started on the computer while playing Assassin's Creed Origins, but I've just found a way to stream from my iPad screen so I did a few drawings over the last three nights to try it out - like the above drawing.
The first one I tried on Vimm.tv. It seemed to work alright but there was a bit of lag here and there. I think eventually, this will work really well as the website improves. One thing I'm not a huge fan of is the fact that once the live stream is over, that's it. There is no replaying of the video. It's not saved and it's just gone. Even if it was saved for 7 days until the steemit post pays out would be ideal. Maybe that can be implemented in the future.
On the computer this wouldn't really be a problem on Vimm if I wanted to save the video as I could hit record and broadcast at the same time. With the iPad, that's not the case.
Here's the final picture. It's very strange how it turned out. I was just doodling on a page to test the stream and all of a sudden, I was left with this picture. Tell me what it is, if you can; because I have no idea.
I was curious how well the video turned out afterward so I tried a second drawing on YouTube.
I know, I know. Fuck YouTube and all that, but the video platforms that are coming to take it down just aren't there yet. I couldn't even set up live streaming on DTube even though it's supposed to work. I have also never been able to upload a video to DTube yet, either. So YouTube will have to do for now.
Anyway, it turned out pretty good for a first run at it. There seems to be some lagging here and there, but much less than Vimm right now.
I wouldn't expect you to watch the videos as they're about 3 hours of me drawing (with no audio). But, here they are anyway.
Video 1 is the sketch in Procreate and most of the inking in Affinity Designer.
Video 2 is the coloring and shading in Affinity Designer and some touchup in Affinity Photo.
So How Did I Stream From My iPad Screen?
Okay, at first I was using OBS (Open Broadcast Studio). This is a really great program, it's free, and it's easy to learn. I did the initial streams with that as I was figuring out Vimm and YouTube settings. But the problem was with the iPad. How was I going to stream from the iPad screen?
There were a number of apps on the app store for live streaming, but they only streamed from the cameras. Nothing I could find allowed me to stream the screen.
I ended up doing a search to see if there were any plugins I could use with OBS. There were some, but what caught my attention was Streamlabs OBS (SLOBS). Looks like, because OBS is open source, someone took it and made a way better version.
With this program, there are a ton of extra features. There are a ton of overlays and widgets you can add right from the program if you're gaming on Twitch or YouTube. Some of the widgets include chat, follows, donations, etc. These are all cool, but not what I was interested in. There is a merchandise store that links directly to your stream so fans can purchase t-shirts and other things. I took a look at that but everything seems really overpriced. I may put some things up there, because you never know, but not something I would put a lot of time into.
What really grabbed me about this new find was the fact that I could use my iPad as either a remote for when I'm streaming on my computer, or I could stream directly from the iPad screen. The remote for streaming looks really cool. You can switch scenes with a single touch, show and hide different elements like chat windows or pre-programmed messages, or turn microphones or other audio on or off without leaving the screen.
I haven't tried it in a stream yet, but it looks great and I'll be sure to try it soon.
I was sold. So how much does this new program cost? Absolutely nothing, just like the original OBS.
The only thing missing is to be able to broadcast music from the iPad at the same time. Maybe there is a way, I just haven't found it yet.