Make your own Instagram filters

Instagram filter production guide: You can easily get started even with zero foundation!

Absorbed to Instagram? Can't finish the exquisite life photos and interesting Stories? Not to mention those ever-changing filter effects! Want to make your own Instagram filter? Don’t worry, this article will teach you step by step to use Spark AR Studio, and you can easily create your own personalized filters even without experience!

First of all, you need to know some basic knowledge:

It's not difficult to make filters (depending on how complex you are in your creative mind)

The difficulty of making filters depends on the level of creativity complexity. Simple 2D effects can be easily achieved without complex animation production.

No experience is needed, but experience will make you twice the result with half the effort

If you are familiar with image editing software such as Cinema 3D or Adobe Photoshop, it will be easier to get started. First time getting into such tools? Don’t worry, explore more and try more, and you can master it quickly.

Spark AR has done most of the preparations for you

Spark AR Studio provides rich tutorials, materials and community support, so that even newbies can get started quickly. The software comes with some preset projects, such as animated rabbit masks, light effects and floating particles, which can help you understand how the filter works. There are also more advanced 3D animation material libraries, from skulls to Pokémon, everything!

Because I have no animation experience and prefer minimalist style, this article will explain it by making simple 2D filters as an example. You can combine, use it alone or overlay 2D elements to create richer effects.

Lesson 1: Familiar with Spark AR Studio interface

First download Spark AR Studio (supported for Windows 10 64-bit and macOS Mojave 10.14 and above). After the installation is complete, you can choose to use the preset project or click the "Create Project" button in the lower right corner to start from scratch.

The Spark AR Studio interface is mainly divided into four areas:

• Scene panel (top left): Shows the structure of the object in the filter. By default, you will see "ambientLight0" and "directionalLight0" (light elements).
• Assets panel (below the scene panel): contains material information for all objects in the scene panel. For example, if you add a red rectangle to the scene panel, the color element will be displayed in the asset panel.
• Viewport (middle): Your main workspace, providing two perspectives. The larger center window displays all objects within the range of the device's camera, making it easier for you to create camera space (moving with the camera) or world space (fixed position) effects.
• Inspector panel (right): Displays the properties of elements in the scene, allowing you to edit colors, textures, positions, rotations, and other details.

Spark AR provides multiple test faces, making it easier for you to test the effect of filters in people of different genders and races. You can also choose a local camera for self-testing.

The emulator in the upper right corner of the window displays the final effect of the filter, and you can choose different iOS and Android devices to preview.

You can send your work to the Instagram or Facebook app for testing at any time via the "Send to Device" button (the second button on the left side of the resource panel).

Lesson 2: Background replacement - Magic of instant teleportation

Let's start with a simple background replacement. This is technically called "segmentation", and is a basic but interesting special effect with infinite possibilities.

1. Select background image. You can create new images using ready-made photos or using software like Photoshop. I chose a picture of the bubble nebula taken by the Hubble Space Telescope.

2. Add two rectangles. One serves as the background (similar to green screen), the other shows your face and erases the background of the real world. Click "Add Object" in the lower right corner of the scene panel, select "Rectangle", and repeat twice. Rename them to "Background" and "Foreground" and make sure they are all nested under "canvas0".

3. Set the rectangle size. Select the "Background" rectangle, click the "Size" field in the Inspector panel, and then select the "Fill Width" and "Fill Height" drop-down menus to make the rectangle size suitable for different devices. The same is true for the second rectangle. The windows will be completely covered by rectangles and are displayed as checkerboard patterns (alphas), indicating that they are transparent.

4. Separate the layer. To make the segmentation effect effective, you need to place the rectangle in different layers so that the background is rendered after the foreground. Select the "Background" rectangle, click the "Layers" field in the Inspector panel, and select "Create a new layer".

5. Create a new material. Assign material to each rectangle. Select the rectangle, click the plus sign next to "Material" in the inspector panel, select "Create new material", and rename it. Select the material in the resource panel, and you can change the color, texture, opacity, blending mode, etc. in the inspector panel.

6. Create a split texture. This will convert any video captured by the camera into texture, separating you from the background. Click "Camera" in the scene panel, and click the plus sign next to "Split" in the inspector panel.

7. Add "Text Extraction" to the foreground material. Click "Camera" in the scene panel, and click the plus sign next to "Textile Extraction" in the inspector panel. In the inspector panel of the foreground material, change Shader Type to Plane, and under Diffuse, select "cameraTexture0" as the texture, and enable "Alpha", select "personSegmentationMaskTexture0" as the Alpha texture.

8. Change the background. Select "Background_Material" and change the color to contrast with the subject in the camera, which helps adjust the "mask size" and "edge softness" of the segmented edges.

You can use the color you like, or like me, upload the image you choose as the background (note the image size).

9. Add flash effect. Add "Particle System" to the scene panel, adjust its position, size, speed, life, force and material to create the particle effect you want.

Select particle material, change the shader type to "Plane" (or "Physics-based"), and upload an image with a transparent background as particle texture.

10. Share your filters. Click the "Export" button to upload the project to Spark AR Hub, set icons and sample videos, and wait for Instagram review (up to 10 days).

Spark AR Studio is powerful. Although it is a little difficult to get started, its infinite possibilities are worth investing your time and energy to explore.

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