Newsletter #22

Memes really do come true part 2

In my last newsletter I made a meme about TikTok's Effect House being Mac only. I'd heard that a Windows beta was "coming soon," and it actually ended up being really soon because the Effect House Windows beta is happening now! I was lucky enough to get access, and for all my complaining you'd think that I would be making TikTok filters like crazy. I need to get on that.

The first time I opened up Effect House, it reminded me of how I felt when I first opened Lens Studio and Spark AR a few years ago - lost. Having knowledge of Lens Studio and Spark AR have definitely helped, but I've been taking for granted how fluidly I'm able to do things in Lens Studio now. It was a good reminder to me of how people are feeling when they reach out to me with questions about how to do things in Lens Studio. I definitely need to be more empathetic to that feeling of being overwhelmed.

Lensathon projects

I was feeling pretty good about my Snap Lensathon entry, and then I saw all the incredible projects made by everyone else. Please do checkout the project gallery.

AR creator you should follow

What drew me to AR was the storytelling potential. At a basic level you could use a lens/filter to be a different character or enhance a video. I'm not focused enough to be doing much storytelling with my lenses (I'm mostly playing around), but Brielle Garcia most certainly is pushing the field forward. Her most recent project is a proof of concept turning Snap's AR tech into a filmmaking tool. I know Snap's stock has tanked and they don't have nearly as many users as Instagram or TikTok, but their AR tech is lightyears ahead of everyone else and I think Camera Kit is going to open the floodgates and really unlock the potential of what it can be used for. If you are invovled in AR at all, you need to be following Brielle.