Considering Leaving Lens Studio Forever
I really enjoyed making content to a certain extent for LS. However I have gotten extremely frustrated and am considering leaving Lens Studio for Spark AR infinitely.
I liked that Lens Studio was an easier program to learn and use versus Spark. That was a major contributor as to why I went with Lens Studio over Spark in the first place.
As time has gone on, I have made a few successful lenses. What really frustrates me is the lack of assistance on this forum and lack of community-based discussions. This forum has been practically of no help for me. I wanna get into more complicated lenses. However everytime I post something on This forum it goes either unanswered or answered with a completely unhelpful response.
There is practically no Facebook group. Spark AR has a VERY active presense not only on their forum but also online. So even though it may be more difficult to use, there are plenty of people to assist me.
I dont hate the LS platform. In fact, I really like it. However, why should I waste my time trying to develop content for it when I literally have to figure out what I want to do on my own with zero help?
Have anyone else on here felt this forum was of no help?
I understand your frustrations. I just wanted to say over on reddit.com/r/SnapLenses you are free to ask questions. As well, our discord has many great creators in it that can help with anything. Most of the top creators are in it. You may be able to get more help from the community there if you feel the forum isn't providing enough. Note: r/SnapLenses is not directly associated with Snapchat or the Lens Studio team, its ran by community creators.
Hey Dominique and really sorry that the forum hasn't been helpful to you. That's the exact opposite response we are looking for. So my hope is that we can do better for you in the future.
Regaurding Daz, unfortunately we just don't have anybody in the office that has ever used the tool. Because of this, it's not something we've been able to give an answer for from experience. That said, I have put an action item based on your previous posts to write a guide for Daz. Again, this requires us getting proficient in the tool enough to answer your question. Sorry I can't answer right now but know we are putting the time in to try and figure it out. Will keep you posted as we learn the tool and hopefully can provide an detailed guide for Daz usage.
Again, apologies and hopefully we'll have something for you soon!
I am not an unreasonable man. At least making attempt would be fantastic. In fact, I had planned on making some tutorial videos on Daz once I figured it out myself. I know how to bring in Daz content, I just don't know how to animate it.
K, good to know Dominique, we'll try to look at the animation side today and let you know. Again, we aren't proficient with the tool like we are with other 3D packages. But hopefully we can figure it out shortly. BTW, looks like a cool tool. Surprised I didn't know about it honestly.
Dunno why my creator profile is missing some of my content but here is my channel. Most of these assets were brought in from Daz.
https://lensstudio.snapchat.com/creator/9A-1QnCSYmgPTxmZaXKHug
Hey Dominique,
We just posted a guide for Daz3d export found here:
https://lensstudio.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/360042188791-Daz3D-Export-Guide
And yes, it was more complicated than our previous advice of an Autodesk FBX export. The missing step was that you also need to bake your animation prior to exporting. Once you've done this, how you've been exporting should work fine. Note, we did run into some issues with some Daz models that had textures over 2048x2048. Please make sure to reduce the texture size to below this if you're having trouble with texture import.
Hope that helps,
Travis
While I do appreciate you all taking the time to do this for future reference for those who do not know how to import Daz assets, I am afraid I already know how to do that. I can confirm that exporting in FBX 2012 Binary also works. I too had to learn that I could not use any assets with a resolution larger than 2048x2048.
It is the animated portion of the process that I do not understand. For example... I want to be able to do something like this...
https://www.facebook.com/groups/SparkARcommunity/permalink/594277074317672/
I want to bring in celebrity mask like this and have it animated with mouth and eye movements. For now, my face mask do not move. Once I figure this out it will be an entire head wraparound.
The guide shows how to export animations which requires you to bake them. In your mask use case, do you already have animations as part of your Daz project and they are not importing properly?
I learned last night that they need to be baked in. No I do not have the animations in Daz as of this moment. I did bake a mouth open animation. I guess what is confusing is, do each facial movement needs its own FBX file or can they all be baked into one?
Well, this whole experience has changed my perspective of this forum. I am amazed by how much attention you all have given me today.
I would really like to learn how to do this. I have a workflow where I can create the likeness of anyone. If I can get a wrap around head of my target character and have it animated, that would be amazing.
Would also LOVE to know how to do this as well...
https://www.groovejones.com/dallas_mavericks_luka_ar/
Let us try to get you an example regaurding tying animation to facial movements. Will keep you posted.
Re: the marker use case, checkout this template and tutorial video and let us know if you have any questions:
https://lensstudio.snapchat.com/templates/marker/marker/
Has there been any headway on this @Travis?
Yep! Amir created a guide for connecting Blendshapes to movements in the Face. Check it out here:
https://lensstudio.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/360042675692-BlendShape-Example
You'll need to create a blendshape, for example: mouth opened. Then use the above example to connect it to the mouth via script. Let Amir know if you have any questions on that post!
Also, re: marker tracking, we recently did a Twitch stream on the subject. Check it out!
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/388377138