May 26, 2020 – 8th Wall has today announced the launch of 8th Wall Face Effects, meaning the web development platform now offers tools to develop WebAR face filters. 8th Wall Face Effects gives developers and brands complete control to create face filters that are interactive, real-time and that can instantly live on any website.
Using 8th Wall’s new tools, developers can utilize the full power and freedom of the open web to create unique face filters that work everywhere. 8th Wall states that its Face Effects can leverage real-time APIs, support multiple users, and allow developers to choose asset types, file sizes and content. In this way, face filters created with 8th Wall could for example, use the live activity of sports data feeds to instantly change the design of a fan face paint, live stream a video as a texture to a face, connect multiple users together to create a shared shopping experience, and integrate with a developer’s preferred analytics, CRM and payment systems in a virtual try-on of products.
“8th Wall’s new Face Effects capabilities is an exciting innovation that will enable brands to entertain, engage and sell in new ways through the web without ever requiring an app download,” stated Jason Yim, CEO of Trigger – The Mixed Reality Agency. “After working with face AR in apps for 5 years, we are excited to tie directly from the user experience into commerce systems and convert engagement into transactions.”
8th Wall Face Effects can be experienced across all devices, including smartphones, tablets and desktops using a webcam. As with all 8th Wall WebAR experiences, users have instant access to an AR experience without having to download an app. Users can simply click a link to try a face filter on their device and easily share this link with their network, or record a video and share it with a friend. When combined with 8th Wall’s Inline AR capabilities, Face Effects can also be embedded directly inside existing web content.
“We’re thrilled to be able to provide developers and agencies the tools they need to bring face AR to the web,” said Erik Murphy-Chutorian, founder and CEO of 8th Wall. “With 8th Wall Face Effects, creativity and innovation is as limitless as the open web. We are excited to see what our developer community creates.”
With 8th Wall Face Effects, developers can anchor 3D objects to face attachment points, render face mesh with easy to use face components with textures and shaders, and design custom effects. Similar to 8th Wall’s existing World Effects and Image Target AR, Face Effects supports development with popular web frameworks such as A-Frame and Three.js.
Eric Ladd, founder and CEO of Ignite XR, commented: “8th Wall’s done it again, on the heels of their Cloud Editor and their volumetric capture templates, they’ve integrated a robust and reliable face effects module into their ever expanding toolkit”. Ladd added, “We found it easy to use yet powerful, similar to the way face effects work in the social media platforms, we were able to employ all the functions our clients love to utilize.”
8th Wall Face Effects is now available to the public from the company’s website as part of the 8th Wall platform. New users can sign up for a 14-day free trial of the 8th Wall platform, and existing developers can simply log in and get started using the Face Effects project templates.
Image credit: 8th Wall
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Sam is the Founder and Managing Editor of Auganix. With a background in research and report writing, he has been covering XR industry news for the past seven years.