OBS Default Backdrop on Mac

As we move online I have been experimenting with Open Broadcast Software (OBS Studio) as a way to improve my video input while I am in meetings and conducting lectures.

Although it had a small learning curve and often produces a lag between the audio and video; I really like the flexibility that OBS brings to my remote meetings. Some tools I particularly like include:

• Custom away messages
• On screen logos
• Changing background images
• Over the shoulder coding

Today I figured out how to change the default OBS image that appears when the software is not running. Although I didn't mind the built in default I wanted to have something that was more personal and less distracting than an advertisement for OBS. It took me a little searching so I thought I would share the steps that worked for me:

1. Create a 1920x1080 image (Not sure if this exact size is required but I matched the size I found). Name this file placeholder.png

2. Copy and replace the image in the corresponding/Application/OBS.app folder and the obs-mac-virtualcam.plugin folder. I assume that only the second one is required but I went ahead and copied both. here are the exact commands (note the second one requires root privliges)

   cp placeholder.png /Applications/OBS.app/Contents/Resources//data/obs-plugins/mac-virtualcam/obs-mac-virtualcam.plugin/Contents/Resources/placeholder.png

   sudo cp placeholder.png /Library/CoreMediaIO/Plug-Ins/DAL/obs-mac-virtualcam.plugin/Contents/Resources

That should be it! The new image started working for me right away. I haven't done much else checking to see if I could use a different size image and/or if I needed to coy both files.

Edited Oct 6, 2021

Recent update to OBS changed the wrokign path and overwrite my placeholder file. I updated the path in the first command from /Applications/OBS.app/Contents/Resources/data/obs-mac-virtualcam.plugin/Contents/Resources/placeholder.png to /Applications/OBS.app/Contents/Resources//data/obs-plugins/mac-virtualcam/obs-mac-virtualcam.plugin/Contents/Resources/placeholder.png. Again, I am not sure if this copy is required.