How to make a PNGTuber.
A PNGTuber — also written PNG Tuber — is a still character that switches between a talking face and a quiet one. It is the cheapest way to stream without showing your face, and there are four ways to get one. Three of them have nothing to do with us.
This is the whole job: two images, something to switch them, and a source in OBS. Everything below is a variation on who draws the images and what does the switching.
Wanted the character to move with your face instead? How to become a VTuber covers the same four routes with a rig in the middle of them.
What a PNGTuber is made of
- Part one
At least two images
One with the mouth closed, one with it open. Transparent PNGs, exported at the size you will actually show them at — usually somewhere between 500 and 1200 pixels tall.
- Part two
Something to switch them
A mic threshold is the traditional switch: above it, the open mouth shows. This is the part every PNGTuber tool exists to do.
- Part three
A way into your scene
OBS or Streamlabs has to see it, either as a Window Capture of whatever is drawing the avatar or as a Browser Source.
The four routes
Cheapest first. There is no best one — there is the one that matches how much you want to draw, how long you are willing to wait, and how much you want the character to do once it is running.
- 01
Draw it yourself
Free, plus your timeAn afternoon to a weekWhat is good about itYou own every pixel and it looks like nobody else. Two images is a genuinely achievable first drawing, even if you have never drawn a character before.
What it costs youIt looks like a first drawing until it doesn't. Most people redo it two or three times, and the second version is when they learn what a transparent background is for.
Any drawing app that exports PNG with transparency.
- 02
Commission an artist
Typically tens to low hundredsDays to weeks, in a queueWhat is good about itIt looks finished because a person who draws for a living drew it. A PNGTuber commission is a fraction of what a rigged model costs, because there is no rigging in it.
What it costs youYou are waiting, and revisions cost either money or goodwill. Agree up front how many expressions you are getting and that you can use it commercially.
A brief, a reference or two, and a written scope.
- 03
Use a dedicated PNG Tuber app
Free to cheapAn eveningWhat is good about itThis is the category built for exactly this job: load two images, set a mic threshold, done. If two faces is all you want, stop here — nothing further down this page beats it on effort.
What it costs youYou still have to supply the images, which is the part people underestimate. And two states is two states: no reactions, no outfits, no growth.
Images you drew, bought, or were given.
- 04
Generate the character
Credits, or a one-off purchaseMinutesWhat is good about itYou skip the drawing and the queue, and you get more than two faces — a character with an expression sheet, which is the difference between an avatar that switches and one that reacts.
What it costs youYou did not draw it, and generated art is not to everyone's taste. It is also a bigger tool than a mic threshold, so it is overkill if two images is the whole ambition.
Windows, and a webcam if you want expressions driven by your face.
Five steps, whichever route you took
- 01
Decide what the two faces are
Closed and open is the minimum. If you can get four — closed, open, happy, surprised — the avatar stops looking like a switch and starts looking like a person, and every route above can deliver four as easily as two.
- 02
Export them properly
Transparent PNG, same canvas size, character in the same position in every frame. Different positions is why an avatar appears to jump when it talks, and it is the single most common mistake.
- 03
Set the switch, then test it quietly
Whatever tool you use, set the mic threshold with your normal speaking voice and then check it against your quiet voice. A threshold tuned while excited leaves your avatar mute for the calm half of a stream.
- 04
Get it into OBS and crop it
Add a Window Capture or Browser Source, crop away the chrome, and place it. If the avatar is drawn in a normal window, keep that window above your game — a plain Window Capture goes blank the moment something covers it.
- 05
Watch your own VOD once
Not the preview — the recording. Size, position and whether the mouth actually tracks your speech are all obvious in a VOD and all invisible while you are live.
Step four is the one people come back to. The setup page walks through the OBS side with the capture dialog on screen.
Three things that go wrong
The background isn't actually transparent
A white background looks fine on a white canvas and appears as a box the moment it is over gameplay. Check the export, not the drawing.
The avatar jumps when it talks
The two images are not aligned on the same canvas. Fix it in the export rather than nudging position in OBS, which only fixes one of the two frames.
It vanishes mid-stream
Something covered the window being captured. Always-on-top on the source window, or a Browser Source instead, and it stops happening.
Route four, if you want it.
A character with an expression sheet, no rig to build, and nothing to commission.