OBS stinger transitions with alpha WebM

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What a stinger actually needs

During the transition, the stinger video is drawn over the whole scene. The animation itself — a logo sweep, a hand sliding in, a shape closing and reopening — sits on a transparent background, so the scene underneath shows through everywhere the animation isn't. That requires an alpha channel in the file, and OBS reads alpha from WebM (VP9). MP4 cannot do this job: MP4 has no alpha channel, which is exactly why stinger tutorials that hand you an MP4 end in a black box.

Getting the animation

Three sources, in increasing order of effort:

• Shoot it for real. Film a hand, object or motion on any background — then remove the background with AI. The video background remover on this site takes a clip up to 60 seconds and returns the transparent WebM OBS needs, with 5 free credits after Google sign-in to try it. This is the no-editing-software route, and real filmed motion stands out among generic stingers.
• Make it in an editor. Animate in After Effects or Premiere and export with alpha: the After Effects export guide and the Premiere export guide cover the settings that keep it.
• Download or buy one. Plenty of stinger packs exist; before buying, confirm the pack ships VP9-alpha WebM (or ProRes 4444/PNG frames you can convert with the free ProRes → WebM converter).

Adding the stinger in OBS

1. Open the Scene Transitions dock (if hidden: View → Docks → Scene Transitions).
2. Click +, choose Stinger, give it a name, then browse to your WebM file.
3. Set the transition point — the moment in the animation (in milliseconds) when OBS actually switches from the old scene to the new one behind the animation.
4. Make it the default transition, or use scene-specific transition overrides in a scene's settings for just some cuts.

That's the whole setup. The companion transparent video in OBS guide covers the other ways alpha video enters OBS — overlays via Media Source, browser sources, and the settings that keep edges clean.

The black box, fixed

If the transition plays as a full black rectangle instead of an animation over the scene, the file has no alpha channel — the "background" is real black pixels. Run the file through the transparency checker (free, in your browser) to confirm; 0% transparent settles it. The fix is to go back to a source with real alpha, or remove the background from the clip properly — the black background guide walks through every variant.

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