Tutorials
If you want to learn how to create awesome augmented reality filters, you've come to the right place! Browse by difficulty level, or use the search bar at the top if you're looking for something specific.
All Tutorials
Lens Studio Beginner Beauty
Introduction
Let's get started with Lens Studio! Lens Studio is Snapchat's tool for creating lenses. It is a super approachable, yet powerful piece of software. The first thing we need to do is install it.
Getting help with Lens Studio
Are you stuck? Whether you are creating your first filter or your thousandth filter, at some point you are going to get stuck. Fortunately there are lots of places you can turn for help.
Face retouching in Lens Studio
Learn how to add skin smoothing to your filter! Lens Studio has some great, automatic face retouching capabilities. All you need to do is add the retouching, adjust a few sliders, and you are good to go!
Color Corrections
Add a color correction or LUT to enhance the feel of your lens! A color correction is a nice way to enhance the look and feel of your lens. Color corrections are controlled by lookup tables, or LUTs for short.
Grain Overlays
Want to add some grain to your lens? Grain is a popular choice for lenses. It adds a more authentic or vintage feel and is super easy to add.
Text
Customize the lens experience with some dynamic text! Snapchat already lets users add text to their pictures and videos, but you can also add text to your lenses if you need something like a timestamp or the user's name.
Tap Interaction
Put the user in control! Tapping the screen is a great way to switch between two choices in a lens or to let the user cycle through several choices. Learn how to do this using the behavior script and a tap to change script.
Previewing lenses
Learn how to pair your phone with Lens Studio! Testing your lens on your phone is a great way to double check everything and make sure there are no issues with your lens.
Lens name, icon, and preview
Give your lens a name! A good name, icon, and preview will help users know what your lens does and how it works.
Submitting your lens
Get your lens out there! Learn how to submit your lens and then start sharing it with your friends!
Snapchat Beginner
Introduction to Lens Studio
Lens Studio is Snapchat's tool for creating lenses. It's super powerful and super flexible. While it's been designed to be easy to use, here's a quick overview of how the software is layed out.
Create your very first Snapchat lens in 10 minutes
There's no better way to learn lens making than by doing! Get started with Lens Studio by making your very first lens!
Make your own color correction filters with LUTs
Color correction filters using LUTs (lookup tables) are super popular. Color corrections can be used to enhance the look and feel of a complex lens, or they can be used as standalone filters. LUTs are usually created using Photoshop or Lightroom, but for this tutorial we will be using the freely available Photopea.
How to add a tap-to-change feature with Lens Studio
Letting someone tap to change the background or a post effect is pretty common in lenses. Lens Studio does not have this feature built in, but we can set it up pretty easily with visual scripting.
Quicky and easily add grain to your Snapchat lenses
Film grain is a popular feature of lenses, and fortunately it is easy to add to your own.
Make objects rotate around the head using tweens
In this Lens Studio tutorial you will learn how easy it is to make objects rotate around the head using the built-in tween scripts - no custom coding required. All it takes is adding your objects and using the right settings on the tween scripts.
How to make a twerking lens for Snapchat using Mixamo and Lens Studio
If you have not made some sort of twerking lens, can you still call yourself a lens creator? Not to worry, we will go over everything you need to know in this tutorial! All it takes is a 3D model, Mixamo, and a Lens Studio template.
Tap to change the background in Lens Studio
Learn how to add a virtual background or green screen effect to your lenses using segmentation!
Super easy freckles in Lens Studio
Learn how to easily add freckles to the user's face using the Face Mesh!
Add disappearing messages to your Snapchat lenses
Learn how to add your username to a lens and make it disappear automatically!
Add a sharpening or "alt" effect to your Snapchat lenses
Learn how to add a sharpening or HDR effect to your lenses!
Add a dancing character in the sky
Seen the dancing Shrek in the sky filter on Snapchat or TikTok? Learn how to create your own version!
Create a reduced framerate effect in Lens Studio using the visual script editor
In this Lens Studio tutorial you will learn how to create a reduced framerate filter to mimic old fashioned film cameras. You can easily add this effect to any lens and we will use the new visual scripting editor in Lens Studio.
How to get help with Lens Studio
Need more help? There are lots of great places to turn to.
Snapchat Intermediate
Multiple post effects in your Snapchat Lenses
Lens Studio does a really good job of setting things up behind the scenes so that you can focus on your lens. However, some effects will require you to manually create and adjust cameras, layers, and render targets.
Combine segmentation textures in Lens Studio
Learn how to combine two different segmentation textures into one unified mask.
Create the Time Warp effect in Lens Studio
If you have spent any time at all on Snapchat Spotlight, then you have seen the Screen Scanner Pro/Time Warp/Slit Scan lens in action. This seemingly advanced lens is actually super easy to make, you just need to make one small tweak.
Create customizable 3D text in Lens Studio
Lens Studio does not have native 3D text, but we can still fake the effect with some pretty convincing results! Learn how to use the Text Texture resource and a little scripting to create this effect!
Link an object's rotation to a facial expression
In this tutorial we'll go over how to control an object's rotation using facial expressions. We'll use the face expressions API to get an expression weight (e.g. how open someone's mouth is) and then drive the rotation of a separate object (e.g. the rotation of a jaw bone).
Tritone material in Lens Studio
Learn how to create your very own reusable and configurable tritone material in Lens Studio! Use it to convert any lens to only three colors.
Stencil effect in Lens Studio
Learn how to overlay yourself as a stencil in Lens Studio! This is a nice artistic look that does well when used in lenses.
Style Transfer with SnapML
Learn how easy it is to create a SnapML powered style transfer lens for Snapchat!
Make your own Potato Boss style lens for Snapchat and Snap Camera
Create your very own "Potato Boss" style lens using Lens Studio! Move beyond rigid 3D objects and learn how to add a little more motion and life to your creations!
Big Head effect in Lens Studio
Learn about using texture projection to project the face texture onto the head mesh!
Create an adjustable background blur/bokeh effect with Lens Studio
It's not too hard to add a blurry background to your Snapchat lenses for that portrait effect. But let's take it to the next level and make it adjustable!
Control a material parameter from a script
The material editor in Lens Studio is super powerful, but it is separate from the scripting system. In this tutorial we'll go over how to bridge the two and use a script to change material parameters.
Change the opacity of an image, color correction, or material with a slider in Lens Studio
Learn how to change the opacity of any image or color correction or material with a slider as we build a completely reusable script in Lens Studio!
Master the Tween Script in Lens Studio
If you need to animate anything inside Lens Studio - position, rotation, scale, opacity, etc. - the Tween script is your best friend.
Snapchat Advanced
Add dynamic text directly to 3D objects in Lens Studio
Text components and screen text are well known features of Lens Studio. The text texture, however, is lesser known but is a super powerful feature. With the text texture, you can add dynamic text directly to the surface of a 3D object.
Make things flop around with chain/swing physics in Lens Studio
Chain, or swing, physics can breathe a lot of life into your creations. With the proper setup, chain physics automatically adds swinging motion to elements of your lens. This can remove rigidity from objects in your scene and give everything a more organic feel.
Selectively apply post effects to a 3D object
Learn how to add a post effect to a user and a 3D object together without affecting the background! This Lens Studio tutorial will teach you everything you need to know to create some pretty awesome effects.
Sample colors and skin tone with a Procedural Texture
Sometimes you need to know what color something is, whether it is the user's skin tone or some area of the screen. The Procedural Texture Provider in Lens Studio gives us access to pixel-by-pixel color information.
Recreate the Clone Photos filter from TikTok using Lens Studio
The more the merrier. More is always better. These wise words of wisdom have been handed down for generations, and now you can bring them to pass inside Snapchat. Here you will learn how to exactly recreate my viral cloning lens. Just make sure you change it up a bit so we do not get caught ;)
Instagram Beginner
Background segmentation the easy way in Spark AR
Changing the background on your Instagram and Facebook filters is fairly straightforward, but there is an easier way. Learn just how easy it is to add background segmentation in Spark AR and ensure it is compatible with 3D head decorations.
How to add grain to your Instagram and Facebook filters
Film grain is a popular feature of filters, and fortunately it is easy to add to your own using some free resources.
Make objects rotate around the head in Spark AR
In this Spark AR tutorial you will learn that making objects rotate around the head is super easy to do. All it takes is a little scene setup and the click of a button.
Easily create freckles using Spark AR Studio
Learn how to easily add freckles to the user's face using the Face Mesh!
Create an old-fashioned reduced or stuttered framerate in Spark AR
Learn how to create a reduced framerate effect to simulate the look of old film cameras!
Creating a Big Head effect in Spark AR
The "Big Head" effect is a pretty fun type of filter to create. It is pretty easy to make once you learn the trick of texture projection.
Instagram Intermediate
Easy stencil or graffiti effect in Spark AR
Learn how to create a stencil effect to recreate a wood burning or graffiti effect!
Instagram Advanced
Shadertoy to SparkSL Conversion
SparkSL is a super powerful feature of Spark AR - with it you can create your own shaders with code. However, there are some key differences between SparkSL and GLSL which can make converting existing shaders tricky. This tutorial will go over the process of converting a shader from Shadertoy to Spark's own SparkSL.