Filters you should try today

As we wait for yet another Spark AR update to finish downloading, let us take a dive around the inspiring portfolios of some chosen filter artists and try to sniff out the newest and coolest things.

One of my favorites, Denis Rossiev (also known as @enuriru), a social AR developer and artist, has not let the lockdown slow him down. While making viral filters for Instagram, he is also quietly pushing the boundaries of blending AR with R (R as in, you know, reality).

To highlight his work in the more familiar realm of Instagram, one of his most impressive filters is Vector Field, a filter that shows arrows at the edges of a moving object, indicating the direction and speed. “I've spent more than a month creating Vector Field, but definitely worth it. Pure maths [sic]” (Rossiev) he described the process of building his new work. It’s reminiscent of Arrows by kuno.fell.asleep, who won the official Spark AR hackathon in September 2020 with his partner Ωmega with their Motion Effect kit.

Everyone’s favorite professional filter makeup artist, wondermilk.me dropped another new filter on April 2nd. She says that as her old is still viral, she created a new more sad pair for it. WonderMilk’s filters are hypnotic and wildly popular, and a significant amount of detail and skill go into her work. The more subtle filters distort and enhance your face so slightly that a stranger can’t tell anything has changed. (Maybe she’s born with it, maybe it’s a filter!) They are an effortless way to greatly elevate content, for example, in short vlogs and natural selfies. The more expressive ones (pictured) are playful, fun and just as popular. Cover yourself in glitter, be a cute alien or a magical cow if that’s how you’re expressing yourself today. The popularity of her filters is a testament to the fact that filters are an art form, and creative solutions will trump the safe and boring choices.

A fun artist with a clever signature style is Argentinian Agus Fischer (@agusfich), who builds filters with a retro look as well as filters inspired by phone UX that bring a fresh meta take for the population that lives, breathes and shares on their phones. Her filter “FEED” feels like a commentary and a nod to the endless shots from a selfie session, where the subject struggles to capture the perfect selfie worthy of posting. Fischer’s playful but poignant insights on online behaviour show in her work. As a clever filter creator, she saw what worked and was popular, and created a series of sibling filters to provide more options to her significant audience.