Chameleon Reasons Case Study

Project Challenge

Brief

We know that this world needs positive energy: love and light to get us through the hours, days, months, and years. This year, we want you to design a lens to send love and light to your Snapchat friends.

Solution

I created an AR Lens using illustration, animation, scripting, and templates. The lens attaches a chameleon friend to the user's head and has a flower display to them a reason why they're great.

Snap Lens Code

The Idea

I considered the challenge brief of sending love and light. For me sending love includes spreading positivity and bringing joy. I love a good pun, and nothing brings me more joy than a cute animal. After brainstorming animals and puns, the concept I came up with was randomized messages that the user can land on that show one of the (cha)million reasons why they are amazing.

I sketched out my design, focusing specifically on what the chameleon would look like and the placement of the leaves.

The Assets

Chameleon

The chameleon was designed in Illustrator and then imported into AfterEffects to animate the eye position and leg rotation.

Chameleon outline in Illustrator

Chameleon designed in Illustrator

Chameleon animated in AfterEffects

Leaves

The Reasons

To align with the tropical theme, I placed the reasons the user is amazing on hibiscus flowers. The messages cycle when the user taps the lens and stops after a delay.

Reasons Messages on a Flower

The Lens

I designed the user with chameleon-like features by giving them big glossy eyes, a wide mouth, and chameleon stripes.

What I used:‍

Head Binding
Face Liquify the eyes
Eyeball material
Blush makeup
Face inset the mouth
Face mask the cheek stripes
Behavior scripts to trigger face inset on smile
Behavior script to trigger a random flower on tap that stops with after a delay
Random Image script from template

Chameleon Reasons Final Lens

Try Lens

Reflection

What Worked?

I spent a larger portion of my time designing and animating the chameleon, and I'm pleased with it. The eye effect combination of the eyeball material and the face liquefy helped me achieve the glossy chameleon eye I envisioned for the user.

What didn't?

I attempted to trigger a face inset on a smile, but there isn't much difference compared to when the user is idle. I also think the leaf thickness could be thinner to match the style used for the chameleon.

What will I do next time?

I would have attempted to create a 3D chameleon to put in the back camera lens if I had more time. I would have also made more “reasons,” not a million but a few more, so there is more variety. Next time, I would choose a different trigger for the flower other than a tap. When I tested the lens, I pressed the flower to start the image array, which overexposed the image.

VIANEY GARCIA