Spark AR Tutorial: basic tips to start from scratch

Discover the basic tools to manage the Spark AR software and create your first animated filters for social media, with Ayo Vega

The eruption of augmented reality filters has completely reshaped the way we interact with Instagram. They help us to express ourselves and give us the platform to transmit our ideas and feelings in a creative way. Although they haven’t been part of the platform very long, who could imagine Instagram without them?

As well as providing an interesting vehicle for artistic creation, they also provide a different way to generate engagement with our audience. And, to maximize this benefit, it’s essential to have a firm grasp of the software we need to create the engagement.

Ayo Vega (@ayo_vega), an artist who specializes in the creation of digital content, explains in this tutorial the basic tools to start Spark AR software from scratch. You can watch the video below:

6 tips to creating from scratch with Spark AR

1. Download the application

Spark AR is a tool created by Facebook that allows the development of augmented reality filters and has versions available for Windows and Mac. The first thing you should know is how to install the app on your machine. To do this, click here and press the Download button. Every so often you should see improvements in the software, as it is updated continually.

2. Familiarize yourself with the types of filters available on Spark AR

The first thing you’ll find when you enter the application is the welcome interface. Click the button Create New to start your project. You will see that there are different screens, predesigned according to the types of filter. Some, like Face Decoration and Head Decoration, incorporate 3D elements associated with the head which correspond to facial movement. Others, like World Object, offer you the possibility to integrate an object into a 3D scene.

You can also generate make-up filters with the Makeup screen, add a background using the screen of the same name, or use the Face Mask, Color Filter and Neck Decoration functions. Another option is to start a new project from scratch; to do so, you need to select Blank Project.

3. Explore the view board

Once you have selected the new project, you’ll arrive at the View Board. Here you can see how the elements you’re adding look on the screen. The camera will also appear if you activate the Camera icon, found on the Scene panel. Represented by blue lines, this camera enables us to see what is inside the viewfinder.

On the right-hand side of the screen appears a preview where we see what sort of effect our filter will have once it’s ready. You can choose the type of device, rotate the image and even change the appearance of the model, choosing between different physical aspects. This is particularly useful as it enables us to see how the filter adapts to different facial structures and how it is applied to effects in movement.

The tools in the upper part of the View Board help you to transform the filter elements. With them, you can rotate the elements, move them up or down, go deeper, move left and right and scale them.

4. Investigate the elements in the left-hand column

In the left-hand column of the screen we find different elements. The first icon is that of the Workspace. You can activate various screens, so we recommend that you explore the different options to familiarize yourself with the tool.

One of these tools is the Asset Summary. Here you’ll find all the project’s archives, with their respective sizes; this is important because in Spark AR there is a maximum size for each project. Instagram projects should be 4MB or less, while Facebook projects should be no bigger than 2MB, although in fact they can go up to 10MB. If you go over the size limit, you can easily delete elements from the Asset Summary.

The next item we find is that of the Video. Here is where you can change the model of the filter. Choose distinct skin tones and physiognomies to see how your filter would look.

If you keep going down the left-hand column the Play/Pause icon will appear. Click to start or pause the filter. Then you will see the Restart icon, which is very useful if you have a filter with various animations or more elaborate ones.

5. Find all the elements that make up the filter in the Scene panel

Just to the side of the left-hand column of the screen, we find the Scene panel. Here are all the elements that make up our filter: the device, the camera, the focal distance and everything that we create from there. To create a new element, simply click in Add Object or click right in the Screen panel.

6. Face Tracker and Face Mesh

We’re going to zoom in on two elements that you can add to the Scene panel and which will be very useful when you come to start creating your augmented reality filters: Face Tracker and Face Mesh. Face Tracker follows the movement of our face and can be applied to all the movements we want, but our main focus is on Face Mash, a 3D mesh that adjusts to our face.

If you click in any element of the Scene panel - in this case we’ll take Face Mesh - you’ll see that the Inspector panel appears on the right of the screen. Each element of our filter has its own values and can be configured from this panel. It can be activated or disactivated via the Visible icon to hide or make visible the selected element.

In the Layer window of the Inspector panel, you can modify or create new layers. And we can also play with the parameters of each specific element or create materials and patches, among other options.

If you have enjoyed this tutorial, remember that you can learn with Ayo Vega to master the techniques of animation for augmented reality with After Effects and Spark AR in his online course ‘2D Animated Filters for Instagram’.

You may also be interested in:

- Illustrated Filters for Facebook and Instagram Stories
- Artistic Augmented Reality Filter Creation
- Augmented Reality Filters for Instagram and Facebook