A Peek into the Instagram AR Filter Making Process

Instagram's augmented reality (AR) filters have taken the social media world by storm the past few years, converting ordinary pictures into interactive and fascinating experiences. Ever wondered about the intricate process behind creating these captivating filters?

Check out the Instagram filter here!

Camlin Wonderland Instagram Filter

Let's explore the intriguing realm of creating AR filters for Instagram.

1. Brand Identity Exploration:

Before we get into the tech stuff, let's understand what the brand is all about. What feelings and values does it want to show? Knowing this is super important for making a filter that really fits the brand's vibe.

2. Conceptualization and Design:

With the brand identity as a compass, the next step involves conceptualizing the visual elements of the filter. Whether it's incorporating brand colors, logos, or thematic elements, this phase is where the creative vision begins to take shape. Design tools like Photoshop or Illustrator are often employed for this purpose.

3. Blender, Aftereffects and Meta Spark AR : Sculpting Visual Elements and Animation

The concept was to develop an AR filter to boost the promotion of our Wonderland game. The focal point of the filter is a space helmet that tracks your head movements. Inside this helmet, our promotional campaign video will play on the transparent glass, creating an immersive experience for users. Initially, we crafted a 3D space helmet using Blender, ensuring meticulous texture naming – a crucial step for seamless integration into Meta Spark later on. The model was exported in .gltf format, laying the groundwork for the augmented reality experience.

Next, we tackled the challenge of optimizing our promotional video in After Effects. Given Instagram's one-minute video limit, we had to be creative. Converting the video into a PNG sequence, we then imported it into Spark AR as a texture sequence. To meet the size constraints, we adjusted the frame rate to 12fps and reduced the frame size by 30-50%, successfully overcoming the obstacle.

The third step involved bringing all the elements together in Spark AR software. Leveraging Meta Spark AR's built-in templates, we selected the head tracking template and seamlessly replaced it with our Blender-created space helmet. Importing the PNG sequence video created in After Effects required the creation of a new texture in Meta Spark AR, which was then integrated into the glass texture of our space helmet.

Before unveiling our creation to the audience, rigorous testing of the filter's functionality and appearance was conducted, ensuring a flawless experience for users.

And there you have it—the behind-the-scenes magic of crafting an Instagram AR filter for Wonderland with Kokuyo Camlin.

Links to the product used in creating AR:

Blender :- https://www.blender.org/

Meta Spark AR :- https://spark.meta.com/download/

After effects :- https://www.adobe.com/in/creativecloud/