Problem & Approach.
Instagram Stories let creators apply face filters; Spark AR is the Meta SDK for building them. I wanted to ship a portfolio of stylized filters across multiple aesthetics — 3D directional effects (RDW 3D), neon (Neon Pizza), pixel art (RBLS Pixel, Blur), themed character looks (Ultimate Warrior, MGK Pink), color-keyed effects (Syd's Peach, SNNY Shades). Each filter is a Spark AR project assembling 3D models (Blender), textures (Photoshop), and AR shader nodes inside Spark AR Studio.
Outcome.
A dozen-plus filters published. MGK Pink alone passed 353K opens — a real distribution win for an indie filter without paid promo. The AR work was a forcing function for learning the 3D pipeline plus the Meta Spark AR runtime, both of which informed later AI-native tooling.