DrawnCamera help

DrawnCamera adds a second camera to Windows. It shows your webcam with your background, filter and face effect already applied. Your call app sees a normal camera, so DrawnCamera works anywhere you can choose one.

Get started

Download DrawnCamera and run the installer. It needs Windows 11 64-bit. It asks for administrator rights once, to add the camera to Windows.
Open DrawnCamera from the Start menu (there is no desktop icon). The main window shows your webcam with the Filter panel open.
In your call app, choose the camera DrawnCamera. Some apps show it as DrawnCamera (Windows Virtual Camera).

Everything is unlocked for your first 30 days. People in your call see exactly what the main window shows.

Choose it in your call app

DrawnCamera keeps running while its window is hidden in the tray, so the camera stays in the list. If you quit the app, the camera disappears from Windows.

Zoom: Settings, Video & effects, Camera. In a meeting: the arrow next to the video button.
Google Meet (in the browser): Settings, Video, Camera, or the camera list before you join. The browser must be allowed to use the camera.
Discord: User Settings, Voice & Video, Camera.
OBS Studio: add a Video Capture Device source and choose DrawnCamera. For a green screen, use the Green screen background, then right-click the source in OBS, choose Filters, and under Effect Filters add Chroma Key with +.
Any other app: look for a camera or video setting and choose DrawnCamera.

The camera sends 1280×720 pixels at 30 frames per second.

The main window

The top bar has the buttons Background, Face, Filter, Looks, Adjust and Settings, and Update available when there is a new version.

Each button opens its panel on the right. The picture gets smaller to make room. Only one panel is open at a time.
To close a panel, click the same button again, click the × at the top of the panel, or press Esc.
Next time you start the app, the panel you had open opens again.
Background, Face and Filter have a bar at the bottom: a switch that turns the current choice on or off, < and > for the previous or next one, and Undo.

Background

Choose how the room behind you looks:

Real: the room as it is.
Blur: the room in soft focus.
Bokeh: works like a portrait lens focused on your face: sharp around your face, softer towards the edges of the picture, with round spots of light. Nothing is cut out, so there is no edge around you.
Bokeh behind: the same lens on the room only. You are cut out and stay fully sharp.
Island: a ready-made photo.
Custom Image and Custom Video: click one to choose your own picture or video from your computer.
Green screen: pure green behind you, for cutting out in OBS.

Under Cut-out edge, the Softness and Edge sliders change how the line between you and the background looks. Reset puts them back.

Face

Choose a face effect: Real (none), Beauty - Woman Subtle, Beauty - Woman, Beauty - Man Subtle or Beauty - Man. The retouch follows your face as you move.

Filter

Choose a style for the picture from dozens of filters, from film and cinema grades to anime and manga, or None. Turn on Background only to change only the room and keep yourself as you are.

The Zoom filter is the long-lens zoom: the picture looks as if the camera were further away and zoomed in, like a telephoto lens.

Adjust

Fine-tune the picture with Brightness, Contrast, Saturation, Hue and Sharpness. Background only works here too. Double-click a slider to reset it, or click Reset to reset all of them.

Looks

A look saves your background, face effect, filter and adjustments together. Switch between your looks with one click.

Save current adds what you have now as Look 1, Look 2 and so on.
Click a look to use it. Double-click it to rename it. Drag it to change the order.
The × on a look removes it, after you confirm. Default is always first and cannot be removed.
Your looks are also in the tray menu, so you can switch without opening the window.

Tray and closing

DrawnCamera has an icon in the tray, next to the clock. Click it to open the window. Right-click it for Open DrawnCamera, Settings, Looks and Quit.

When you close the window with ×, DrawnCamera asks whether to Quit or Hide. Tick Remember my choice to stop the question. To get the question back, turn on Prompt when closing app in Settings.
Hide keeps the camera available in your call apps. While the window is hidden or minimized and no app uses the camera, your webcam and its light are turned off (Release the camera while in the tray, on by default). They turn on again the moment an app asks for the camera.
Quit stops the app. The camera disappears from Windows until you open DrawnCamera again.

Free month and premium

Everything is unlocked for the first 30 days. The month never ends in the middle of a call. When it ends, a window tells you.

After the free month

Keeps working, with no time limit: the camera, the backgrounds Real, Blur and Bokeh, and the Zoom filter (the long-lens zoom).
With a subscription: the other filters and backgrounds, the face effects and the Adjust sliders.
Until you subscribe, the picture has a small DrawnCamera mark in the top right corner.

Sign in, subscribe, promo codes

Open Settings, then Account, and click Log In. Sign in with Google, or with your e-mail: you get a 6-digit code to type in. Sign-in with Google is not available in some countries; the e-mail code works everywhere.
In the same window, Subscribe opens this site. Subscribe with the same account you signed in with. Prices.
Have a promo code? Enter it in the same window and click Apply code.
Your subscription belongs to your account, not to one PC. Sign in on another PC to use it there, on as many PCs as you like.
Settings, Account shows how many free days are left, or that premium is active.

Settings

Language: the app language. Same as Windows is the default.
Mirror: flips the picture like a mirror, in the window and in the call. On by default.
Run at startup: starts DrawnCamera with Windows, hidden in the tray. Off by default.
Prompt when closing app: closing the window with × asks whether to quit or hide. On by default.
Minimize to system tray: what × does when it does not ask. On: DrawnCamera hides in the tray. Off: it quits. On by default. The minimize button always works as usual in Windows.
Release the camera while in the tray: turns your webcam and its light off while the window is hidden or minimized and no app uses the camera. On by default.
Force watermark: keeps the DrawnCamera mark on the picture even with premium, if you like it there.
Reset windows: puts every window back where it was after the install.
Virtual camera, Enabled: turn it off to remove the camera from Windows while DrawnCamera stays open. It stays off, also after a restart, until you turn it on again.
Beta feedback: tell us what went wrong, what is missing or what you liked, and click Send. Your current settings are sent with it.

Keyboard

Tab and Shift+Tab move between controls. Inside a list or a row of buttons, use the arrow keys.
Enter or Space presses the button, card or switch you are on.
On a slider: arrow keys for small steps, Page Up and Page Down for big steps, Home and End for the ends.
Esc closes the open panel, except while you are typing in a text box.

Updates

DrawnCamera checks for a new version when it starts, and then once a day. When there is one, Windows shows a notification and the top bar shows Update available. Click either of them, then Install … now: the app downloads the update, asks for administrator rights once, and starts again on the new version. Not now keeps your current version. You can also look in Settings, Updates, where Update to … opens the same window.

Problems

DrawnCamera is not in my app's camera list

Make sure DrawnCamera is running: its icon is in the tray, next to the clock. If you quit it, open it again from the Start menu. Check that Settings, Virtual camera, Enabled is on. Then close and reopen your call app: some apps read the camera list only when they start.

The picture is black, or says there is no picture from the camera

Another app may be using your webcam, or Windows may be blocking camera access. Close the other app, or allow camera access in Windows Settings, Privacy & security, Camera. DrawnCamera keeps trying, and the picture comes back on its own. The first moment of a call can also be black for a split second; that is normal.

It says "Waiting for Windows to release the previous camera…"

After DrawnCamera closed unexpectedly or was forced to close, Windows can hold on to the old camera for about a minute. DrawnCamera tries again by itself, for up to 3 minutes. You do not need to do anything.

It says "DrawnCamera is already running"

DrawnCamera is open already, hidden in the tray. Look for its icon next to the clock and click it to open the window.

The tray icon is gone

If Windows Explorer restarts, the icon disappears. Open DrawnCamera from the Start menu again.

There is a DrawnCamera mark on my picture

Your free month is over, and you are on the plan without a subscription. A subscription removes the mark. If you have premium and still see it, check that Force watermark in Settings is off, and that you are signed in with the account that has the subscription. Your plan never changes during a call: if you subscribe while in a call, the mark goes away when the call ends.

DrawnCamera closed unexpectedly

At the next start, DrawnCamera asks if you want to send a crash report. Show report shows exactly what would be sent: no e-mail, no name and no files, only the crash details, the app version, the Windows version, and the camera and graphics card models. Nothing is sent unless you click Send report.

Still stuck? Use Beta feedback in Settings, or write to [email protected].

Uninstall

Open Windows Settings, Apps, Installed apps, find DrawnCamera and choose Uninstall. It asks for administrator rights once and closes the app by itself. The camera disappears from Windows.

Your settings and looks stay in %LOCALAPPDATA%\DrawnCamera, so a new install picks them up again. To start completely fresh, delete that folder. If Run at startup was on, turn it off before you uninstall. Otherwise an empty entry stays in Task Manager, Startup apps; it does nothing. To delete your account, write to [email protected] from the account's e-mail address.