TikTok Debuts Effect House AR Development Platform
TikTok’s long-awaited augmented reality (AR) development platform has officially gone live in open beta having been in closed beta since the end of last year.
Effect House enables developers to build augmented reality effects for use on the social media platform, joining the likes of Snapchat’s Lens Studio or Spark AR for Meta’s suite of social media apps.
Aside from tools to build AR effects, Effect House also features live demos, tweakable templates as a starting point for creators, and tutorials to help creators make the most of the platform’s capabilities – such as motion tracking, segmentation and texture replacement.
As one of the most popular publishers of user-generated content, TikTok is no stranger to controversies such as the spreading of COVID-19 misinformation or potentially harmful viral challenges.
Perhaps seeking to head off similar issues arising from inappropriate filters, TikTok published a list of effect guidelines, mandating that it wouldn’t allow effects “that promote colorism or negative stereotypes against protected groups” as well as effects “that depict cosmetic surgery, such as lip fillers, or encourage scrutiny of someone’s appearance”. Consequently, all effects will be reviewed by the platform before being released to the wider community.
TikTok revealed that during the closed beta period, effects built by more than 450 creators using the platform have been used in 1.5bn videos, attracting a whopping 600 billion views around the world.
One such creator is Allan Gregorio, who said of the platform: “As a creator, I think AR effects help us to express ourselves and shareTikTok Debuts AR Development Platform Effect House stories with others. It is one of our most important creative tools available because they have the ability to reach many people very quickly.”
Aside from AR, TikTok has also displayed an interest in virtual reality, last year acquiring one of the world’s largest VR headset manufacturer’s in the form of Pico Interactive.
For a deeper dive into the capabilities and possibilities of TikTok’s new AR platform, keep an eye out on gmw3 in the coming weeks.
https://www.gmw3.com/2022/04/tiktok-debuts-effect-house-ar-development-platform/