Using SparkAR to create photography-inspired Instagram filters.

ROLE
AR Creation & Design

CATEGORY
Personal Work

SCOPE
Concept, design and creation of SparkAR Instagram filters

THE CHALLENGE

Spark AR Studio (later known as Meta Spark Studio) was an augmented reality (AR) development platform created by Meta. I was curious about using the platform to create a few filters, so challenged myself to make something interesting with the tool.

Unfortunately, Meta shut down Spark AR in 2025, but it was a really incredible tool for AR content creation and let me explore playing in that space.

I made a few different SparkAR filters over the years, and these are two of my favorites.

Auragraphy filter reveals a user’s aura (so they can post it to the ‘gram).

One of the first filters I made was inspired by the beauty of aura-capturing photography. The Auragraphy filter created a colorful array of auras surrounding the user, cycling through each one before landing on their specific aura for image or video capture.

Example of actual aura photography, by Radiant Human

I explored a lot of different possible colors and light patterns for the auras themselves. This is an early set of textures.

View of the SparkAR patch editor. Each aura in the filter was applied using a random selector which which kept each result feeling different and more personal.

Fractals was a prism lens built for the camera we all carry: our phones.

This digital prism filter automatically shifted and split the scene viewed through the camera — all without the need to carry anything extra, since it was readily available right in Instagram.

Example of the preview in the editor, with prism surfaces shifted.

A prism study exploring ways to repeat and shift content.