Let’s talk about AR Makeup

The Beauty Industry within the Metaverse

We’re taking AR makeup to a new dimension by focusing on creating hyper realistic yet innovative AR makeup looks. Below are a few techniques we incorporate into our work.

Special FX AR Makeup

For this personal project, we aimed to create an “Avatar” look. To achieve this, we utilized skin segmentation to separate the persons skin color from the background. This filter contains face morphing, face texturing, multiple material settings for each face texture, eye occlusion, teeth occlusion, eyelashes, custom background with a special preset to alter tree tones, and textures that adapt well to lighting. The effect also utilizes render passes so the scene blurs into focus when it starts. The eyes were tracked smoothly and featured our pioneering dynamic pupil technology that adjusts its shape based on the user's expression. Additionally, we utilized a high dynamic range (HDR) texture to provide a glossy look to the eyes.

This was a more complex makeup look, yet all of these techniques can be applied to a more subtle look as well.

We’ve created this personal avatar filter across three social platforms, and it been seen over 1.2 billion times and has been shared over 8 million times worldwide (4M on snap and 4M on tiktok).

Coachella x Meta “Butterfly”

In collaboration with Coachella and Meta, we developed a customizable butterfly makeup filter. By tapping the screen, users can choose from three options - a natural, subtle, or avant-garde look for full coverage. We wanted to Carry a metamorphosis theme throughout the effect, since when you attend Coachella you feel like you transform. We opted to avoid face warping and instead focused on traditional makeup artistry techniques to achieve a realistic enhancing effect that can be replicated with real makeup. However, we infused futuristic elements to take it up a notch, such as dynamic eyeshadow metals that move on the face and animated eyeshadow.

To elevate the butterfly wings' appearance, we incorporated a blurred/delay animation effect that creates a fading in and out illusion as they move. To give users an ethereal vibe, we implemented a glow outline that elevates the overall effect.