Newsletter #11

Published 2021-07-08

Ultimate LUT reference guide for Lens Studio

Lens Studio has a lot of really awesome built-in LUTs. The only problem is that you have no idea what they look like until you add them to your lens. The solution? My comprehensive guide to all the LUTs available in Lens Studio! I created a preview of each LUT applied to all six preview models and to two of the world previews. Hopefully this will take a lot of guesswork out of using the Lens Studio LUTs because now you can preview all the LUTs without needing to add them to your lens.

P.S. I also converted all the Lens Studio LUTs to the format that Spark AR uses. They're available for free on Gumroad.

Spark AR updates

I don't try to keep it secret that I love Lens Studio way more than I do Spark AR, but I am pleased to see the Spark team showing developers so much love. I hope to see Lens Studio add some extra goodies for scripting sometime in the future. Now if only there were more resources and examples for that confounded reactive programming that Spark uses.

New tutorials

Since my last newsletter I have created a couple tutorials. One goes over how to integrate multiple post effects/color corrections in Lens Studio. It is super straightforward to layer a color correction over the VHS post effect for example, but it isn't inherently obvious how to apply distinct post effects to separate parts of the lens. My tutorial goes over the latter - I explain how to use multiple cameras, layers, and render targets to keep your post effects organized so that you can display different post effects in different screen images.

My other tutorial teaches you how to create a "big head" effect in Spark AR. By big head effect I mean displaying just the user's head and adding a 3D body that is proportionally too small for the head. It's a pretty neat trick which just projects the camera texture onto a super simple 3D head model.

There are quite a few trending lenses that follow the pattern of sticking a user's eyes and mouth on either a 3D model or an image. If you don't want to be left out, I have a "Potato Boss" style tutorial that may be helpful. If you want to use a 2D image rather than a full 3D object, you can still follow the tutorial, just swap out the image for the 3D model and skip the smooth follow script part.

Coming soon

I recently asked on the Lens Studio forum what sorts of things people would like to learn. A popular request was style transfer with SnapML, so you can expect that in the near future. I've also heard that Spark AR creators sometimes have a hard time with Lens Studio due to Lens Studio not having a direct equivalent of the patch editor, so I'm thinking of creating some sort of guide to help people make that jump. And last, but not least, I've been learning how to make better videos so you can expect a change in my tutorials. The focus will still be on teaching in a clear manner, but I'm hoping to make the videos more interesting, more engaging, and more concise.