Reflection
Creating my snapchat filter was a super exciting experience because I always thought creating something like that was unachievable and sort of a mystery. I had never used Studio Lens before, so all the tools were brand new to me.
For my concept the brief said to be creative, so I decided to go for a picnic theme because I thought the idea was original in comparison to other snapchat filters already been done before – further, one of my favourite pass times is to have picnics with friends and family. I decided to create a composition in the lens based on the hierarchy of what a normal picnic layout would be like. The real life background is blocked out and I covered it with a grass background image. Masked to the face is a picnic blanket and then above the masked face I bound foods and drink to specific areas of the face, so it looked like they were sitting on a blanket. I also added a picnic basket onto the forehead to tie it all in together, and make it look like the user was balancing it. At first using Studio Lens was a bit difficult, trying to navigate the buttons and where they are located; additionally, finding the specific tools required to create the vision in your mind. However, it became pretty easy once I had time to just play around and experiment with through trial and error – but also the demonstration really helped a lot that we did in class. Although the images used here are not my own, I arranged them dynamically to create a new image that is unique. Plus, I wanted the filter to have authentic elements and not illustrative. I wanted to gain the understanding of the tools required to code for a snapchat filter too. I first thought about creating it so that when you smile or raise your eyebrows, text appears and says ‘Lets Eat!’. However, I came to the conclusion that it would make the composition of the lens look too crowded. - So I decided it would be a great idea to use audio to enhance my lens. I wanted to use a munching/ chewing sound to really encapsulate the whole essence of a picnic. This part was rather hard. I trialled a few of the audio buttons out in my coding; there are so many I didn’t know which one was the correct one to choose. However, the ‘Play’ one finally worked. I attached it to when the user smiles by undergoing ‘SmileStartEvent’ with the audio attached and the ‘SmileFinsihedEvent’ to conclude it. I used the mouth as a trigger because chewing is an action that comes from your mouth so it made the most sense in my scenario.
Alongside the process of creating my Picnic Face snapchat filter I wanted to also have a go at drawing my own images in illustrator and transferring them across. I created different waves and merged them together with light opacity to establish depth in the waves for an ocean. I did head binding and set the finished wave image on a top overlay too, this does not move on the picture plane. Further, I made a blue background which you could still see the everyday world through. I found this really interesting as it taught me a lot about the value of opacity and how it really changes the whole effect of an aesthetic outcome when using your camera and filter. The blue enhanced the ocean feel and made it more encompassing. Since I did not want to put text on my Picnic Face filter I was working on I wanted to try it out here. I created a code trying to follow what we did in class with our taco filter. I made it so when you smile the words ‘ocean eyes’ pops up above your forehead. It was unusual how the text was miles away from your face and you had to change the view; carefully positioning it as it would be too in front of the camera to even be seen. This filter could’ve been really intriguing if I got the waves to be animated and move, but I was limited in my knowledge. I might trial this more in the future.
I think making multiple filters was helpful in the process of learning how to manipulate images and effects in alternative ways and concepts. However, I decided to pick my Picnic Face filter as my final one as I spent a lot of time on this filter, positioning objects to establish a new realm on on your face and environment – transporting the user. Further, the audio took me a while to wrap my head around. Upon reflection my limitation involved was that I wanted to make my basket above my Picnic Face only appear when you smile and the crunching noise starts. However, it kept coming up with errors in the script code I wasn’t sure how to solve in the end. This filter made all my friends laugh and smile and I guess that was really a main aim; as well as gaining myself some new skills.
Final Product:
Here is my snapcode:
Snapchat Image:
Other Attempted filter:
