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Overview

Your final Lens design submission and explanation of your creative process will all be weighed by a team of judges who are identifying prospective Scholars who have a deep desire to continue learning.  Lenses will be judged based on quality (40%), originality (30%) and creativity (30%).

Everyone who completes the Challenge will create a fully functional Snap lens that could be included as an impressive piece in their portfolios. As a bonus, we’ll also be offering select prizes to winners of the Final Project Showcase: 

• cash prizes, or
• a professional development opportunity to design a Lens for a client, or
• high consideration for the Snap Lens Academy, a nine-week educational learning experience for community college students (or recent transfers)
• high consideration for the Snap Lens Lab - three week, educational learning experience at Otis College of Art and Design (only open for high school students)

Create and Submit your Final Lens

Theme: Fall Festivities with Friends

Sweater weather, spooky nights, and good vibes with your crew—that’s what Fall is all about. As we welcome Fall, we also embrace a wide range of celebratory gatherings and festive events that enrich our lives and deepen our relationship with others. From hitting up the homecoming football game to throwing down at a Friendsgiving, this season is all about celebrating together. Snapchat provides a perfect opportunity to harness the power of Augmented Reality to bring our friends together, both near and far, to memorialize these special seasonal traditions.

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The Challenge: Design a Snap Lens that amplifies the joy of celebrating Fall festivities with friends, fostering meaningful connections through playful and immersive AR elements. Create an AR experience that ignites excitement and makes your friends feel like they're right there with you, sharing every moment, or one that encourages real-time interaction, making it effortless for Snapchatters to celebrate and connect.

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Things to Consider for Lens Creation

As you design your Snap Lens for this year’s AR Lens Challenge, think about:

• What images would you design? 
• What special effects would you include? 
• What movements would trigger those special effects?
• How might you design for both the front-facing and world-facing cameras?
• Might you create a lens that can get multiple people involved?

Check out these resources to help you unite Snapchatters through Fall Festivities: 

• Snap AR Learn
• Snap AR Youtube Tutorials
• Snap AR Documentation (How to use Lens Studio Templates)
• Snap AR Discord Channel (Connect with other AR Creators and seek advice)

Here are some Lens Studio templates that might help you get started:

• Popular Lens Formats
• ‍Baseball Cap Template
• ‍Chain Physics (Earings) Template
• ‍Makeup Template
• ‍Sunglasses Template
• Portrait Particles Template
• 3D Objects Template
• ‍3D Asset Creation or Selection
• ‍Understanding External Body Mesh
• ‍Understanding Occluders
• ‍Background Removal (Body Inpainting)

• Garment or accessory selection
• 3D Asset Creation or Selection
• Understanding External Body Mesh
• Understanding Occluders
• Background Removal (Body Inpainting)

We’re excited to see how you create an AR experience that celebrates all of Fall's amazing moments. What you all come up with and through our collective creations, we will be able to connect friends, no matter the distance.

Tips: 

• You can use the existing templates in Lens studio to start building your Lens
• You can design assets through Illustrator, Photoshop, or any other design software (i.e., Canva, Figma) that you can import into Lens Studio
• You can use existing images from the web that you can import into Lens Studio (just make sure you avoid using brand logos or unapproved third party assets)
• You can incorporate movement and sound to make your Lens fun and interactive
• Try and see if you can use more than one design asset (ex: 2D, 3D, multiple Snap lenses) used throughout the Challenge to showcase your skills! 
• 🔥 HOT TIP🔥: - the use of 3 or more Snap lens templates increases your overall final score!

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After you have completed the tutorials under the “Level up” section of the website,  and have attended the Lens Lab and/ or Office Hours, you’ll be ready to show off your latest festive Fall lens to all your friends. 

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Submission

👻 When you are finished, submit your Lens to be officially published on Snap.

For details on how to submit your Lens, click here. Here are some extra tips:

• Make sure you are not using any copyrighted material.
• Keep the overall size of your Lens under 8 MB.
• Download a 10-second preview video of your Lens.
• Click the yellow “Publish Lens” button on the top left corner of Lens Studio to begin the process.

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Once the Lens has been accepted and published, download its Snapcode (when scanned, the Snapcode will link to your Lens). Here’s an example: 

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Then, submit your Snapcode and a 10-second preview video of your Lens to us and complete the exit survey HERE. If any questions come up throughout the submission process, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us at ARLensChallenge@nextshiftlearning.com. 

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Best of luck in designing and submitting your final Lens!