Keep the alpha — only the artwork covers the footage — No Upload
The whole point of overlaying a GIF is that the footage shows through around it. That only happens if the GIF's transparency is preserved. This page explains how transparent GIF and PNG overlays work over video, why some files appear inside an ugly box, and how to drop a clean transparent animation onto your clip in the browser without uploading anything.
Overlay a transparent GIF or PNG with its alpha intact — only the visible pixels cover your video, exported locally, no watermark.
Open the Video Overlay tool →An image's alpha channel records, for every pixel, how opaque it is. When the tool draws a GIF or PNG over the video, it respects that channel: fully transparent pixels show the footage underneath, partly transparent pixels blend, and solid pixels cover the video completely. So a sticker, a logo with rounded edges or a sparkle effect sits on the footage with no rectangle around it — exactly what you want.
If your overlay appears inside a white or black rectangle, the file itself has no transparency. GIF supports only a single fully-transparent color index, and many GIFs are exported with a solid background baked in instead. The fix is on the source side: re-export the GIF with a transparent background, or use a transparent PNG / WebP. Once the file actually carries an alpha channel, the box disappears and only the artwork remains over the video.
Transparent overlays unlock the looks people actually want: a corner sticker that floats on the scene, an animated frame or border drawn around the edges with the middle left clear, falling snow or confetti that covers the whole frame while the video plays underneath, or a soft light-leak effect blended at low opacity. Because size is a percentage of the video, a full-frame effect scales to any resolution, and the opacity slider lets you tune how strongly it reads.
Drop the transparent file in as the overlay, then use the same controls as any overlay: anchor it to a corner or center it, size it, set the opacity and optionally rotate it. Keep an animated transparent GIF looping for the whole clip, or restrict it to a timed window so an effect appears only when you want. Everything is composited and re-encoded locally, so the transparency is baked into the output video and nothing is uploaded.
The overlay's transparency is preserved against the video — the artwork blends with your footage. The exported file is a normal opaque video (the footage fills the frame), not a transparent video. If you specifically need a transparent output video, that requires an alpha-capable format like WebM with VP9 alpha, which is a different goal from overlaying onto existing footage.
Yes, and often better — PNG has a full alpha channel with smooth edges, while GIF transparency is a single hard-edged color. Use PNG for static logos and stickers, GIF when you need motion.
GIF transparency is all-or-nothing per pixel, so anti-aliased edges look jagged. Export the overlay as a transparent WebM or PNG for smooth edges.
Yes. The opacity slider multiplies the overlay's existing alpha, so you can make an already-transparent GIF even fainter.
No. The overlay and video are composited in your browser and never sent to a server.