CamDeck floats an image over your webcam feed, adds a live lower-third text/weather bar, applies real-time video effects, and sends the whole composited picture to Zoom, Google Meet, or any app as its own camera called CamDeck. It runs as a small macOS camera extension plus a host app you control everything from.
Doesn't work in FaceTime. Apple restricts FaceTime from using third-party virtual cameras, so CamDeck won't show up there — that's an Apple limitation, not a CamDeck bug. It works normally in Zoom, Google Meet, QuickTime, and most other apps that read your Mac's camera.
Image & video library
Drag images or video clips (.mp4, .mov, and similar) into the sidebar well, or click it to browse. Videos are copied into CamDeck's own storage, so they keep working even if you move or delete the original file.
Paste an image URL to download one directly, or copy any image (a screenshot, a picture from a webpage) and press ⌘V anywhere in the window to add it straight from the clipboard. URL import is image-only.
The search field under the drop zone instantly filters the library by name as you type — while searching, folders are set aside and results show as a flat list.
Drag to reorder (only while the search field is empty); hover a thumbnail for a one-click delete.
Right-click an image for Rename… and Reveal in Finder, or a video for Delete Video and Reveal in Finder.
Click an image to make it the live overlay instantly, or a video to load it for playback.
Settings → General shows how much disk space stored videos are using, with a shortcut to that folder in Finder.
Organizing with folders
Click the new-folder button in the sidebar toolbar to create a folder — you'll be prompted to name it right away.
All Items is a pinned view at the top that always shows your whole library, no matter which folder things are in.
Right-click any image or video and choose Move to Folder to file it away, or Remove from Folder to send it back to All Items. An item lives in one folder at a time.
Drag folders up and down to reorder them, and drag items to reorder within a folder — both orders are remembered.
Click a folder's disclosure triangle to expand or collapse it; that state is remembered too.
Right-click a folder to Rename it or Delete it — deleting a folder never deletes what's inside; everything just moves back to All Items.
Playing video overlays
Select a video in the library to load it — you'll see a poster frame with Play, Stop, and Rewind controls, plus its name and length.
Press Play and the video takes over the entire CamDeck output, replacing your live camera — the lower-third bar still layers on top if it's on.
Click Live Camera on the preview at any time to switch straight back to your webcam, or just select an image in the library.
A picture-in-picture button lets you keep your live camera visible in a corner while the video plays, so you can react or narrate on camera.
Any of the 15 real-time effects can be applied to a playing video, exactly like the live feed.
Floating-image controls step aside automatically while a video plays, since an image can't float over full-frame video — they come back the moment you return to the live camera.
No audio. CamDeck sends video only — a playing clip's sound comes out of your Mac's normal speakers, not into your call. If you need viewers to hear it, route your Mac's audio through a virtual audio device (like BlackHole) into your call's microphone input.
Placement & size
Show Floating Image toggles the overlay off entirely for a clean camera feed — your image and its placement are remembered for when you switch it back on.
Click any corner button directly on the preview to move the overlay there.
Drag the Size slider to resize it live.
The expand icon "blows up" the image to the largest size that fits — centered, clearing the lower-third bar if it's on. Click again to snap back.
The bordered-square icon opens a quick color popover for the image's frame; the checkmark-rectangle icon next to it turns that frame border on or off entirely.
Fancy Mode adds a soft reflection, subtle 3D tilt, a highlight edge, and a glow behind the floating image, for a more polished look.
Lower-third bar
Toggle it on/off and type text right on the main window — built for changing on the fly, mid-show.
A transparency slider sits right under the toggle on the main window, so you can adjust the bar's see-through-ness without opening any panel.
The smiley-face button focuses the text field and opens the macOS emoji picker so you can drop an emoji straight into the bar text.
The alignment buttons (left/center/right) and the bar-color and text-color swatch buttons all live right on the main window for quick mid-show changes.
The presets menu (list icon) saves canned phrases like "Bathroom Break" for one-click reuse, each with its own delete button.
The gear icon opens the full design panel — text color, alignment, scroll speed, a "Text Shadow" checkbox, an "Allow Any Text to Scroll" option to force scrolling even on short text, and "Freeze Scrolling Preview to Save CPU" (the outgoing feed keeps scrolling normally — only the on-screen preview pauses).
Weather mode replaces the typed text with live conditions for a zip code you set, refreshed every 10 minutes.
Now Playing mode replaces the typed text with whatever's currently playing in Spotify or Music (Spotify takes priority if both are playing). The first time it's turned on, macOS will ask permission to let CamDeck see what Spotify/Music are doing — that's expected, just approve it.
RSS mode tickers headlines from any news feed URL you set, refreshed every 5 minutes — always scrolling, regardless of length.
Video Title mode shows the name of whatever video overlay is currently playing, and falls back to your typed text when nothing's playing.
Weather, Now Playing, RSS, and Video Title are mutually exclusive — turning one on switches the others off automatically.
Google Meet mode — the "Adjust Bottom Bar for Google Meet Calls" toggle in the design panel grows the bar's solid color down to the true bottom edge and lifts the text up, so Meet's camera cropping and zooming doesn't clip it. Leave it off for Zoom and other apps that don't crop the feed.
Camera & effects
Settings → Video Devices lets you pick a specific physical camera if you have more than one connected.
The Effect row applies a real-time look to the video itself — each one a distinct filter, not just a color tint. Effects work on a playing video overlay exactly the same as they do on your live camera:
Old TV — black & white, heavy contrast, rolling scanlines and picture-tear, film grain.
Security Cam — cool desaturated tone with a CCTV-style "CAM 01 / REC" readout and timestamp.
Flame — a warm color grade with procedural rising embers along the bottom edge.
VHS — color-channel bleed, tracking-glitch bands, a pixelated "▶ PLAY" counter, a fake "12:00" clock, and a classic camcorder battery icon top-right.
Thermal — real blue-to-red heat-map luminance mapping.
Snow — a cool blue/white winter grade with real falling snowflakes drifting down.
3D — genuine red/cyan anaglyph "3D glasses" processing.
CyberOps — falling green digital-rain code over a darkened silhouette.
NightOps — pure red-on-black night-vision-style look.
Local Cable — washed color, fuzzy signal, scanlines, a burned-in yellow station ID and blinking "LIVE" timecode — the vintage local-access-channel look.
X-Ray — an inverted, navy-and-icy-cyan radiograph look (not thermal — a genuine photographic negative technique).
Noir — classic moody black & white film noir with deep blacks and a dark vignette.
Drunk Mode — over-the-top double vision, heavy motion-trail shake, and a warm woozy color grade. Not for serious broadcast moments.
Mission Control — a dense green NASA-telemetry HUD: grid lines, a tracking bracket, scrolling readouts, a radar sweep, and a mission clock, over a cool technical grade.
Dream Sequence — a soft glowing flashback look with a liquid ripple, drifting pastel color wash, floating light orbs, twinkling sparkles, and a breathing "zoom burst" radiating from center.
Start/Stop Camera Feed shows a live broadcast timer next to the button while running.
Signed & notarized by Apple
CamDeck isn't on the Mac App Store, but that doesn't mean it's unchecked. It carries a Developer ID from Apple and has been through Apple's notarization process — the same automated security scan Apple runs on every app before it's allowed to run smoothly outside the App Store.
In practice, that means: Apple has scanned CamDeck for known malware, the app is cryptographically signed so macOS can verify it hasn't been tampered with since it left our hands, and Gatekeeper will let it open normally — no right-click-and-"Open anyway" workaround required, no "unidentified developer" warning. If macOS ever does show a warning, don't open it; download the DMG again from this site instead.
Developer ID signedNotarized by ApplePasses Gatekeeper
First-time setup
Drag CamDeck.app into Applications from the installer disk image.
Launch it — macOS will show a dialog about the camera extension. Don't just click OK — that dismisses the dialog without turning anything on. Click the other button (something like "Open System Settings") and switch the extension ON in the list that appears. If you click OK by mistake, a banner on the main window will bring you right back.
The first time you click Start Camera Feed, macOS will separately ask for camera permission.
Add an image, pick a corner, and click Start Camera Feed.
In Zoom (or anything else), choose CamDeck from the camera list.
About the show
CamDeck was built backstage for The Thursday Night Tanked Show (TNT) — a live weekly comedy broadcast built around call-ins, stories, and community chaos. Full details, schedule, and how to call in are always kept current at thursdaynighttanked.com.
Live Thursdays 8 PM ETCall-In Showthursdaynighttanked.com
