I create interactive experiences to help people express themselves on social media

Reaching 200+ Million people on Instagram

Analytics showing 57.8M opens, 16.8M captures, 2.6M saves, 4.8M shares, 987K video call uses, and 212.7M impressions

I create Augmented Reality (AR) experiences because I see it as compelling tool for self-expression on the internet, like a virtual form of fashion. I like to experiment with different styles and interactions, with effects ranging from applying on the face alone to the entire body. I like the versatility of AR; I can allow the viewer to exaggerate a certain emotion, try experimental or physically impossible makeup effects, or virtually cosplay the role of a fictional character. I love seeing people use my effects in unexpected ways. I see interactive media as a conversation between me and the viewer.

Inclusivity is important to me when creating AR effects. The key is providing options. Some people wear makeup and others prefer not to, so I aim to provide the option for any effect with many layered components. Multiple colorways for the makeup allows viewers to choose one that best suits their preference or skin color as well. I avoid incorporating face deformation effects that mimic plastic surgery, such as subtle alterations to the nose or cheekbones, because I don't subscribe to the idea of an ideal face shape.

Projects

Reciprocity Failure

The original inspiration for this piece stems from long-exposure film photography. Particularly the "law of reciprocity" between aperture and shutter speed. This law fails when using shutter speeds longer than a certain threshold. The threshold is unique to each film stock's chemical properties. This phenomenon is called Reciprocity Failure. The ghostly or blurred effects of capturing motion at slow shutter speeds inspire the trail effect shown in this Augmented Reality (AR) effect.

AR is an ideal medium to explore themes of embodiment and self-representation. In real relationships, "chemistry" does not always work in our favor. This piece aims to immerse the viewer in the emotion of experiencing unreciprocated feelings in a relationship, through the bleak color palette and the depiction of a fading essence from the human form. Simultaneously, it encourages a playful engagement from the viewer toward such sentiments by moving their bodies and engaging physically with the piece.

Award Winning

This piece was exhibited as an interactive installation at the Concordia Fusion 2024 Exhibition, where it earned the Rhona Richman Kenneally Award. Rhona Richman Kenneally is a Distinguished Professor Emerita and former Chair of the Department of Design and Computation Arts. The Rhona Richman Kenneally Prize is awarded annually to top students whose works reflect a commitment to, and advocate for, equality, diversity and inclusion — principles that Rhona prioritizes in her courses and graduate supervision.

Category

Augmented Reality, Interactive Installation, Instagram Filter

Tools

Meta Spark Studio, Blender, Photoshop

Reciprocity Failure installation at the Concordia Fusion 2024 Exhibition

No Tears

This piece is an investigation into post-digital beauty rituals. By reimagining makeup as temporal, animated, and linguistically embedded.

No Tears started out as an experiment in integrating Typography with face filters. It needed to be a vertically written language to mimic flowing tears. I got the help of a Japanese friend to finalize the type. The Japanese words roughly translate to "no tears" and "no sadness", repeated.

I noticed that AR beauty filters featuring crying or tear effects had become a genre of their own in terms of popularity. The romanticization of sadness and emotional vulnerability is already pervasive throughout media and pop culture. The piece highlights the tension between visual expression and implicit meaning, where tears flow as typography while the words themselves reject emotional display, questioning our pursuit of aestheticized vulnerability as a form of digital beauty enhancement.

Category

Augmented Reality, Instagram Filter

Tools

Meta Spark Studio, Photoshop

Texturing

The scrolling typography is rendered as a seamlessly tileable texture and an alpha mask above the eyes.

Make up effects are mostly an exercise of delicate texturing and layering.

The icon on the left features an edit of a screenshot from the 2006 anime Ergo Proxy. The protagonist's distinct aesthetic inspired the makeup elements surrounding the typography.

3D Visual Effects