Gal vibes💫 I just minted a photo on @moshicam! :•> moshi.cam/pics/0x7beb776d25dc5eb5ca155fe1dda632b179c1774e/7172968000000000
Welcome to LENS @moshicam%F0%9F%92%9C%E2%9C%A8 Create your memories into cute collectable digital Polaroids like this one💫 Border and number stickers by @kayakiko 🌟 moshi.cam/pics/0x7beb776d25dc5eb5ca155fe1dda632b179c1774e/7172968000000000/2lwwZVFLnFUaXJ6EEjsC3QKJBcT?bg=dark
I didn’t know there were so many New Zealanders on here🙄 Maybe we should form a club🥝🇳🇿
Fashion, pop culture and how to survive the new social media norm come hand in hand today. I wrote this post looking at the up coming Oasis Reunion tour from a fashion perspective. I feel it is fairly beginner friendly, would love to hear your thoughts and predictions on what you think the Pop Culture x Fashion world will look like in a years time! app.t2.world/article/cm0jls0me6554961xmccxy8jchf
How #OasisReunion and TikTok's Dolphin Trend Showcase Nostalgia's Power in Pop Culture
The Oasis reunion tour is definitely the fashion event to watch next year just like it was mentioned in this article by Vogue Business this week, but what's even more...
Back again with another AR ted talk, this time inspired by questions/comments on my last post✨
For more context, there has been heated discussions over the past few days on the topic of AR as Meta (formerly known as Facebook) announced this week they were discontinuing Meta Spark, a free desktop app for creators to make or be commissioned to make AR filters to be used on well known social media apps Instagram and Facebook. My first rant can be found here orb.club/p/0x01c74b-0x037f
Comment from @sankalpk …its kinda contradictory of Meta to close the SparkAr since mark himself was talking about exciting new AR Glasses that they gonna come up with soon. Maybe the AR filters didnt make good business now, but when we have AR glasses in the market and their adoption, any AR tech or features will sell
Totally agree on this point, a bit weird on the timing, I did read over on Substack one Meta employee mentioning how they are ‘working on something big for a Fall release’ though, weird timing for it all to be honest. Also if it is another new social media platform I will rip my hair out, I’m fairly sure my fellow web3 artists will agree😂 you do have a point with the glasses, Apple needs some good rivals (not in a negative way, but to encourage innovation and to create products that people will actually use) I personally don’t see AR as we know it now being a big part of the experience, not yet anyway for the masses with tech limitations and the reasoning behind using it other than for yourself is almost nonexistent but once that catches up it will be❤️🔥
Question 1 from @ruthness **What’s your opinion on AR Filters and their impact on self-worth and mental health, especially for young women and girls? Studies have shown that these filters, while popular and creative, can contribute to issues like body dysmorphia and lower self-esteem by promoting unrealistic beauty standards. ** My short answer would be yes I agree, they can be very harmful and miss leading and things need to be better.
As a longer answer, my take is a big company like Meta pulling their creator made filters is only going to make things worse. Whether we like it or not face filters are a big norm of the internet today especially in Influencer marketing.
At the moment, when you upload a video natively in an app using the filters there is a clickable link in the video for you to try it out or get more information. With the right education, this is a lot more transparency compared to the fashion magazines I devoured as a preteen in the early 2000’s, where everything was a lie. However, with Meta discontinuing creator made filters, this leaves no option for influencers but to create content on other apps like TikTok or Snapchat, download it, delete the watermark using AI and uploading to Instagram, this could result in even more confusion and misleading content. Sure, some do this already, but it will soon be EVERYWHERE. I believe this will soon become a huge issue that will need to be solved.
Question 2 from @ruthness As someone working in the AR industry, how do you see this balancing act between innovation and the potential negative effects on users?
Again this is a tricky one, as a creator and educator in the space I have several opinions. As you mentioned the issues AR is causing with younger generations needs to be addressed asap(this is where blockchain technology could play a perfect roll in a faster and more transparent option if Protocols like @lens can move fast this will be a game changer) With real-time AI-powered face and voice manipulations on the horizon, this issue is only going to increase, as it will no longer be only young people at risk but all of us with a fully developed frontal lobe will be equally vulnerable. The issue no longer lies in a little contour and lipstick.
On a separate note, when we take a look at what AR is and it’s potential, beyond the surface that is funny silly memes, face filters and fun games, although it is imperfect we start too see it also as a safe space to explore you and your identity with little to no risk. Unlike games or the Metaverse which are out of body experiences, AR allows you to be you where you are right now to explore. Whether it is a haircut, a make up look or a fun outfit, AR enables anyone with a smartphone to do so. I think this is what angers me the most about the situation Meta has put us all in, as imperfect as it is it also has the potential to literally save lives but they are taking this option away.
So to conclude in order to solve the issues and problems, innovation IS needed, and it needed to happen yesterday but we might still make it in time
Wow I was wondering where all my bot friends went, there you all are! Hello my minions😂
Learning a new skill is exhausting but also super exciting TouchDesigner has been a fun experience for me so far, excited to explore more techniques✨
May as well bump this video back to the top of the feed too so I sound a little less like crazy mad person in that last post✨ tape.xyz/watch/0x01c74b-0xa9
Instagram announced yesterday they are stopping the AR integration for individual creators. AR makes up a big part of the industry I currently work in (game-ready wearables, metaverse, fashion, digital fashion, digital art), so I’m still processing, but here are a few points for what I think happened and why.
As with a lot of things go, it just wasn’t worth the investment for them as a company, in their eyes. There are several possible reasons why this has happed.
With Instagrams algorithm built solely on engamgement, the only filters getting pushed are meme trends and easily shareable face deformations etc. these perform much better on TikTok due to the nature of the platform yet they are the ones that get pushed by the platform due to ‘shareablity’. While the actual cool stuff, created by amazing artists are hidden on a tab in their profiles. Meaning to get to the cool content you need to KNOW the artist, currently there are no social platforms that allow you to easily filter or search artists by their art(food for thought for those creating social platforms)
Another pain point is from the creator’s perspective on the backend. TikTok and Snapchat have put in A LOT of time and effort into optimising the AR creation experience to be begginer friendly. Not only providing fantastic tutorials to follow but easy to understand and customise templates that are designed in a way to some how make them go viral easily. This gives the new creator the dopamine hit needed to get quickly back onto creating. (I will add a photo of my Snapchat public filters I created for fun and the stats, none of my filters have gone viral but this is how many people they have reached) SparkAR (the Instagram backend app for AR) also have these templates but with no 3D knowledge it is a very hard UI to navigate causing artists (including myself) to never open the app up again🥹This means it was probably hard for them to bring onboard new artists and those who did try it out could not find a reason to stay.
In Instagrams eyes they probably ’did their best’ with creator retreats once or twice a year, adding content online... But the reality is they got rid of the core team working on AR last November and have been slowly fading out ever since.
Snapchat has been and continues to be the most beginner friendly, it is also optimised for a bigger variety of filters. For example Instagram only allows for filters superimposed onto people (tech term for this or rigging) to be only from the shoulders up(this is most likely due to app focus being on live streams and stories), while Snapchat alows not only for full body rigging but also provides features such as realistic clothing movement. These points opens up the possibilities for users and also allows the creation of wearable garments.
There was a study done in London a few years back by the Inovation Agency at the London Colllege of Fashion, where they conducted experiments and statistically proved the experience of AR fittings and the use of 3D models on EC sites lead to a significant decrease in returns and showed improvements in sales. Returns are one of the biggest issues the fashion industry is facing right now, meaning with more research AR can be utilised not just for viral content on social media😉
Fashion Tech companies like DressX and The Fabricant have built AR experiences in the form of apps using the Snapchat technology as a building base. However, with relying on this single platform there will always be the risk of them pulling an istagram on you at any moment with no warning.
Zero10 and Filta are the only web3 friendly AR platforms I am aware of, but have not explored them yet from a creator perspective so can’t comment on them yet, but from what I have been told they are both limited in beginner onboarding as of right now.
I can’t code, but I know the basics of AR filters. If someone is willing to build it here on Lens I’m happy to get involved building it❤️🔥
That is my ted talk for now, thanks for reading, I will probably brush this up at some point with proper data/links and upload it somewhere✨