Hackathon Winners Showcase AR Effects for Instagram Reels

Facebook recently concluded its third virtual hackathon and announced the winning submissions across several categories, including the top three picks in the augmented reality group. This latest event in the series invited Spark AR creators to build World AR experiences that were fun and tailored for use with Instagram Reels.

Over 180 submissions were received, from creators in Tokyo to Delhi. Our congrats to the three winners who took home a cash prize and a new Oculus VR headset. Here’s a little more information on each of the winning submissions.

Motion Effect Kit by Hayato Kuno & Adrian Steckeweh

Our congrats to co-creators @omega.c and @kuno.fell.asleep, who took home the first place prize with their project, Motion Effect Kit. Taking inspiration from dance movements and “micro machine motions,” they created a collection of four AR effects that augment and energize different body movements, like Rippled Lines, which amplifies your actions with visual ripples, and Kirakira Trail which creates particles that respond to your movements. WhenTheSunShines and Steam, are also part of the Motion Effect Kit, each incorporating water and steam effects in fun and playful ways.

One of the most impressive aspects of this submission was how the team used Patch Editor to develop their SegmentationDirection Tool, which governed all of the logic for each effect. With this new patch asset, they were able to build several complex segmentation effects, plus this tool opens up some exciting possibilities for new experiences too. We can’t wait to see what they make next and encourage all creators to try these new effects, especially in Reels.

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Geometry by Hsing Huang

Previous Spark AR Hackathon winner, @newyellow grabbed our second place spot with Geometry, an AR effect that lets you create and dance to different geometric patterns and shapes. There’s a lot to appreciate in the craft and build of this effect, from the use of a plane tracker, with segmentation and native UI picker, to help the user select and position different shapes in the scene, to render passes, to help add some playful lighting details. Check out Geometry and watch the project submission video to learn more about this fun effect.

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Mirror World by Kavin Kumar

Our third place submission, Mirror World plays with camera angles and reflections to create the illusion of multiple mirrors in the scene. Creator @rbkavin did most of the object modeling in Blender, and then used the combination of a plane tracker, with directional light and glass textures to create the playful reflections. Try it out now on Instagram.

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Congratulations again to all of these creators and a big thank you to everyone who participated. If you’re interested in creating AR effects for Instagram Reels, be sure to check out our new guide, which is full of product insights, creation tips and helpful examples for creators.

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