Newsletter #10

Spark AR "Get Superpowered" Competition

The Spark AR team is running a pretty big competition right now. The theme is "Get Superpowered" and they are looking for anything that has to do with superheros or superpowers. I appreciate the non-specificity of the theme because it allows for some pretty creative filters. So far most of the entries seem to be playing it safe and are sticking pretty close to the theme, but hopefully we'll start seeing some super imaginative stuff soon.

The prizes for this competition are quite good. Like $160,000 USD worth of prizes going to the top 50 filters good. It is a pilot program though, so you can only enter if you live in the United States, Mexico, or Canada (excluding Quebec). The rankings are determined by the ratio of opens to shares, so they claim that accounts with large followings are not at an advantage compared to smaller accounts. We'll see how it plays out in practice.

Even if you don't work much with Spark AR, I still recommend you enter at least something. You do have to submit your effect from a personal account (no business or creator accounts), but I was still able to publish my effects to my creator page (it just splits up the statistics). I don't remember if previously I'd linked the accounts, but keep that in mind while submitting. I spent a while figuring all this out, so just remember to submit the filter from your personal account but publish as your creator account (if the two are separate).

Segmentation the easy way

Speaking of Spark AR, I'm back to making tutorials for it. My most recent tutorial is how to do background segmentation the easy way. There are already about one billion tutorials on how to do background segmentation, but they are all based off of Spark's own segmentation tutorial. My way is easier and only requires one rectangle instead of two. I also have another Spark tutorial in the works, so keep an eye out for that.

Call for content

And speaking of contests, Lens List is running a not-a-contest "Call for Content" right now for Snapchat with a "Fashion Through Your Lens" theme. There are no winners and losers and no money involved, so I personally am focusing on the Spark contest instead. According to Lens List, their motivation behind the Call for Content is to give you "more opportunities to get recognized by both the AR Community and potential clients who regularly visit our website in search of top Creators."