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| Image Credits: Snap |
Snap today unveiled a $3.5 million new 2021 fund aimed at helping designers and users of Snapchat Lens who use the company's Lens Studio tool to explore the use of AR technology. The news kicked off Snap's multi-day virtual festival, Lens Fest, where an updated version of its Lens Studio programme was also unveiled and reported that the Snapchat community's lenses have now been viewed more than 1 trillion times.
Snapchat's lenses have become a huge part of the overall experience of the app, particularly now that the broader Snapchat community has been opened up to growth. Today, Snap claims that there are tens of thousands of lens makers around the world that have created more than 1.5 million lenses to date.
Meanwhile, every day more than 180 million individuals connect with a Snapchat Lens, up from just 70 million regular active Lens users since the Lens Explorer segment first launched in the app.
The company needs to invest more in these community-made lenses because they are currently driving much of the growth among Snapchat users in lens views, where the top lenses will climb to billions of views.
The new fund will expand on the current Designer Residency Scheme of Snapchat, revealed at the Snap Partner Summit, enabling developers, designers and artists to apply for funding to create their lenses. The curriculum centred on the use of technology such as SnapML, while two other residency programmes were spent in fields such as games, education, and storytelling.
Snap says that sometime early next year it will provide more information on how developers will tap into the latest AR-focused $3.5 million investment.
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| Image Credits: Snap |
In addition to the news from the fund, Snap announced the Lens Studio update (ver. 3.3), which adds new creator resources and workflows.
This involves a feature called My Lenses 2.0 with a new tool to help developers look for and handle their own lenses. This helps them to monitor their Lenses outside the Lens Studio app in web browsers, move between private and supported Lens accounts, display their Lens status, set visibility for Lens, as well as add identifiers, Search Triggers, and Preview Videos.
The tool also implements visual scripting that enables developers without code to create complicated logic for custom interactivity in their lenses. Other updates include enhancements to the compression of textures inside Lens Studio to make Lenses load quicker and use less RAM; an improved Logger that can now group, philtre and scan messages; and a new Building Blocks function that provides downloadable materials and help scripts to can prototype, develop and add functionality to their Lens experiences for developers.
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| Image Credits: Snap |
Plus, several different models are introduced to the new Lens Studio, including a facial morph template that transforms faces into 3D characters; a setup framework that uses UI widgets to make customised shopping and try-on lenses; and a Tween template for game building and immersive interactions.
For the next three days, the Lens Fest virtual experience will begin, with sessions focusing on different technology, such as AR, Machine Learning, and LiDAR, as well as those on making lenses effective, and other tips and tricks.
