Free tools to make your streams better or
improve your workflow. The premise is simple, but somehow I've let
it go an entire YEAR since my last post in this playlist, despite the fact that my list
of resources I want to share just keeps piling up, so let's dive in. This video is sponsored by CuriosityStream. Get access to my own streaming service, Nebula,
when you sign up with the link below. First up is Bio.Link. This is another service that allows you to
compile all of your necessary social media and other links in one place for an easy link
you can drop in social media profiles that only allow for one - such as TikTok and Twitter. BioLink goes above and beyond other link services,
though, allowing not only a wide set of pre-existing social media listings with icons ready to
go, but custom links and custom icons for them - even with GIF support - custom animated
backgrounds, different link formats with your own domain support coming soon, and more. They have analytics built in, allowing you
to see who has visited your bio.link page, who has clicked on what, etc. Plus, they've implemented a mailing list subscription
setup - something I consider to be heavily *under*-used by streamers and content creators. Even better, the main premise of the site
promises that it will be "always free", which is nice to see. This is potentially the most complete and
thought-out link service I have seen to date, I am very impressed. Second up, we have a FFMPEG script from fellow
stream educator, Nutty, which allows you to drag your alpha channel exports of stream
graphics on it and convert to VP9 WEBM files for distribution or use in OBS, without the
hassle and without the slowdown of the After Effects plugins. I released something similar in videos a few
months back but just... never posted it to my Github for some weird reason? So we'll just point to Nutty's. THAT BEING SAID, I did investigate recently
and come to the conclusion that most streamers maybe shouldn't be using VP9 and should be
using ProRes or uncompressed instead, for performance reasons - video on that linked
below. I'm still including this resource, as there
are plenty of people who still want to stick with VP9, regardless. Next up is a security measure. There's a new wave of malicious Twitch extensions
going around where people can sniff your IP address and leak it just by you visiting their
Twitch page. This is why people have been saying to ban
users *without* clicking on their channel a lot recently. Someone by the name of CommanderRoot has created
FireFox and Chrome extensions which allow you to block some or all Twitch extensions
to help keep you safe. Add the extension to your browser, then click
to configure it. You can either block all Twitch extensions,
all except ones you have manually allowed, or allow all except ones you have manually
blocked. It's tedious to manage these one by one - though
you can certainly just wait until you see one worth allowing on a stream - but it's
worth it to keep yourself secure. Livecurtain allows you to quickly throw up
a full-scene countdown timer. This is useful for taking a pause to run to
the bathroom during your stream, waiting for students to connect to your online class,
intermissions, and so on. Obviously there are a lot of ways to set up
countdowns - some more involved than others - but this is the quickest and simplest way
to just toss one up - either via screen capture or browser source - and easily customize the
theme, time, and modify it as you go. Kamua is a browser-based video editor that
can save you a TON of time when converting your videos to vertical for social media. It has fully-automated cropping and re-framing
for vertical format, automatic captions and subtitles in 60 languages, and can even identify
the different cuts and scenes in a video to help you choose the right one. You get 1 gigabyte of free video usage per
month before it costs - and yes, they do have paid plans, but they start at just $2 per
month, so it's super affordable. I think the free tier could save people a
lot of time - especially those of you who ask me how to juggle the many different social
media platforms you're somehow expected to post to for growth. If you want to learn how to quickly and easily
edit your videos for TikTok or other social media using another free tool, stay tuned
to the extended cut of this video. That's available over on my own streaming
site. My videos are higher quality there, ad-free,
and often extended from the YouTube versions, just like this one. The site is called Nebula and we've partnered
with CuriosityStream. It features Youtube's top education creators
such as MKBHD, Thomas Frank, and LowSpecGamer. CuriosityStream saw what we were doing for
educational content and wanted to partner up - We've worked out a deal where if you
sign up with the link below, you not only get access to CuriosityStream and their library
of thousands of educational and documentary content, but you get access to Nebula for
FREE! For the entire duration of your subscription
to CuriosityStream. For a limited time CuriosityStream is offering
26% off of their annual plan - making it less than $15 per year for BOTH CS and Nebula. While you're there, check out "Cat Nation"
to learn about the bizarre and unique world of Japanese cat culture. Head to CuriosityStream.com/epos for the best
deal in streaming and get access to both sites for under $15 per year. It's crazy. Just do it. I have a giant list of free tools for streaming
and content creation to share, so hit the subscribe and notification bells so you can
stay informed. Thanks for watching and join us on Discord
at Discord.gg/eposvox to talk more about improving your stream. Remember: Be kind, rewind.
