Which format keeps the transparency?

ProRes 4444 for Premiere, Final Cut and DaVinci Resolve; a PNG sequence for anything that reads image sequences, which is nearly everything; WebM for the web. An ordinary MP4 cannot carry it, which is why a graphic exported that way arrives with a black background.

What if my editor cannot read any of those?

Export a green-screen MP4 and key it. It is a worse result than real alpha at the edges of soft shapes, but it works in every editor ever made and it is one of the export options here.

Will it look right over dark and light footage?

Check it before you export. The preview draws over a transparency chequer rather than over a colour, so anything that only reads against black shows up as a problem while you can still fix it.

Yes. Set the animation so its last frame matches its first and export with a loop count, and the result runs under a clip of any length without a visible seam.

YouTube Overlay Maker — Transparent Video Overlays

An overlay is the one kind of graphic where the transparency is not a detail of the export — it is the entire point. Everything else about building one follows from that.

A graphic that sits over footage has to have nothing behind it. That sounds obvious and it is where most overlays go wrong: exported as an ordinary MP4, the transparent parts arrive as black, and the result is a rectangle sitting on the video rather than a graphic over it. The formats that carry transparency are ProRes 4444, a PNG sequence, and WebM — and which of those your editor reads decides what you should export.

Building one is otherwise a question of restraint. An overlay is on screen while something else is happening, so it competes with the thing the viewer came for. The ones that work take an edge or a corner, hold a shape rather than moving constantly, and leave the middle of the frame alone. Motion that never settles is motion that pulls attention away from your own video.

Everything in these is editable geometry: frames, banners, corner badges, callout arrows and progress strips, each built from shapes and text rather than from a rendered picture. Recolouring one to your palette is changing a property, not repainting an image, and the same overlay scales from a Shorts vertical to 4K without softening.

If you are unsure whether an overlay is carrying its weight, build it and watch a minute of your own footage under it. The editor previews over a transparency chequer, which is the honest background: what you see through it is exactly what will not be in the file.

What you can change

Shape and geometry: Frames, bars, badges, arrows and strips, built from editable shapes rather than flattened artwork.
Transparency: Any part can be fully clear, partly clear, or frosted. What you see through the chequer is what the file will not contain.
Colour and material: Solid, gradient, frosted glass, brushed metal or ceramic — all properties, so a whole overlay recolours at once.
Motion: Entrance, hold and exit as keyframes, or a loop that runs under the whole clip without drawing attention.
Frame size: 1920×1080, 4K, or 1080×1920 for Shorts, with the safe area for YouTube's own controls shown while you place things.

Or start from one that already moves

All 23 overlay templates

Before you start

Which format keeps the transparency?: ProRes 4444 for Premiere, Final Cut and DaVinci Resolve; a PNG sequence for anything that reads image sequences, which is nearly everything; WebM for the web. An ordinary MP4 cannot carry it, which is why a graphic exported that way arrives with a black background.
What if my editor cannot read any of those?: Export a green-screen MP4 and key it. It is a worse result than real alpha at the edges of soft shapes, but it works in every editor ever made and it is one of the export options here.
Will it look right over dark and light footage?: Check it before you export. The preview draws over a transparency chequer rather than over a colour, so anything that only reads against black shows up as a problem while you can still fix it.
Can I make it loop?: Yes. Set the animation so its last frame matches its first and export with a loop count, and the result runs under a clip of any length without a visible seam.

Other things to make

Browse the whole library · Which export format your editor reads