Action Loop

Inspiration

As the brief provided asked to come up with an original, engaging lens that elevates spotlight submission. I started by looking for lenses that have created trends and studied them. I watched various Snap AR workshops on Snap AR Youtube channel, attended the Lensathons workshop, and simply scrolled through many social media posts for inspiration. I came across creators using Green screen suits to make some impossible, gravity-defying videos. I asked myself if is there a way I could give content creators the ability to create such videos without a green screen suit. Hence I came up with the idea for the Action loop: No more green screen.

What it does and How I built it

Action loop lens can capture a clone on the user in time and space. The body of the user in the scene is scanned while doing an action then the action of the user is converted into a 3d model of the user doing the same action in a loop. The user can interact with the Graphic user interface or use Voice commands to scan the body. It was important to use Voice commands for cases when the user is alone and wants to do an action far away from the device. Once the action is scanned, the user can configure the speed and type of loop by interacting with the GUI on the screen. Users can move around the 3d looping model or can place the model anywhere in space by clicking the "Move" button.

To build the lens, I used 3d body mesh to make copies of body mesh then snapped the device texture on the model. Used custom script and shader to turn on and off the series of mesh to make it look like an animated model. Designed the User flow and then used various Gui elements and VoiceML to make scanning, manipulating, and resetting the loop easier. Lastly, used world tracking to keep the mesh where the user was doing the action.

Challenges I ran into

The limited memory allowed for each lens was the bottleneck for the smoothness of the looping animation. Trying to make the loop less jittery was a headache. Apart from technical difficulties, making the user experience intuitive and easy was not easy. In the User testing phase, I realized that this was a new concept for users and they needed step-by-step interactive instructions to understand and complete the whole experience.

Accomplishments

Giving a loopable and fun 3d model of the user with limited memory and Ram usage would be my biggest accomplishment. On top of that, doing user testing on 10 people and working on their feedback is something I am very proud of.

What we learned

It gets easier for the developer to get lost in the technical aspect of the lens. Assuming that the user would understand the concept and the way to complete a task on the first go which can be dangerous. Keeping the process iterative and the user involved in the process can be beneficial.