Creating AR masks for Instagram.

Creating AR masks for Instagram – Anastasia Alekhina and Artur Minasyan (Malivar.io)

The concept of ‘bodily representations’ emerged together with the ‘body’, as did the constant urge to change it. This tradition is as old as human kind. Digital technologies, medical and cosmetic services, the beauty industry, and social trends offer every individual the opportunity to ‘work on’ their bodies, embodiments and bodily representations. Self-identification, i.e. the act of relating the ‘self’ to certain cultural codes, is an important aspect of one’s personality. 
Digital tools for constructing one’s image are emerging all the time, and networks like Instagram, Facebook and TikTok create a platform for exchanging the resulting content. Everyone is now free to express their opinion on what they consider to be interesting and relevant, or just pretty. For instance, using the Instagram AR mask. If other users of the social network can relate to the idea, they start actively using the mask. And that means you’ve managed ‘to capture the spirit of the times’.
AR masks are popular because people like to look at themselves and imagine themselves to be different. But it’s easy to take something already available and try in on. But what if you decide to create something yourself – do you know what it should be like? 

Technical requirements that must be met to ensure participants get the most out of the workshop:
– Laptop: PC/MAC.
– SPARK AR Studio (https://sparkar.facebook.com/ar-studio/).
– Smartphone that supports Spark AR player (+smartphone USB cable).
– Apps for creating additional content.
– Graphic editors (Adobe Photoshop, Corel Draw).
– Adobe After Effects.
– Software for creating 3D graphics and animation (Cinema 4d, blender, 3dsMax).
– Accounts:
Facebook (connected to SPARK AR)
Instagram
Sketchfab (optional for open access 3D models)

Requirements for the participants: 
– High skill level in Adobe Photoshop or other similar graphic editor.
– Familiarity with Adobe After Effects. 
– Basic modelling skills in any 3D graphics software (3D model animation, texturing).


Anastasia Alekhina
Interdisciplinary artist. Works in technological genres at the junction of different disciplines. She explores the aesthetic and existential aspects of modernity, the future of wearable devices and corporality. Anastasia experiments with sound using hand-made analogue instruments, computer algorithms, synthesis and ‘found sounds’.

Artur Minasyan
Co-Founder, 3D/CGI Artist and AR Creator from Malivar studio that creates and produces virtual bloggers and digital models. www.malivar.io