Overview:
This is a self-initiated student concept project, not commissioned by or affiliated with Portland Cherry Bombs FC. I designed a three-lens Snapchat AR experience for a women's pre-professional soccer club's inaugural season, using three different AR tracking modalities to address three different fan contexts.
Role:
I built all three lenses solo in Lens Studio, from interaction logic through visual design. The project spans face tracking, body and hand tracking, and world/marker-based AR, as each lens is calibrated for a different use situation.
Challenge:
How do you use AR to make a new team feel worth following before they have a legacy? Each lens had to solve a different problem, such as shareability, presence, and information access without the three feeling disconnected.
Process:
Lens 01: Face/Head Tracking
The first lens overlays a Cherry Bombs-branded snapback and red paint-splatter background using face and head tracking. The design target was shareability, a lens fans could post on game day. I kept the output high-contrast so it reads at small sizes in a feed.
Team celebrate Snap code.
Lens 02: Body/Hand Tracking
The second lens places the Cherry Bombs snapback on a full-body figure, triggered by a palm-upward gesture. A 3D bomb appears on the user's hand, which then triggers a countdown. At the end of the countdown, explosive graphics appear, and the filter drops cherries from the top as it bounces off the user's head. I chose the palm trigger because it creates a moment of deliberate action rather than a passive overlay, as it's meant for in-person use, not solo selfies.
Exploded cherry bomb Snap code.
Lens 03: World / Marker Tracking
The third lens anchors a 3D football scene with animated fans to a physical surface via marker tracking, with a toggle that reveals the game schedule. I sourced the 3D models, sound effects, and ambiance music before importing them into Lens Studio. The goal was utility, as a fan should be able to point at a team poster and get schedule information without opening another app.
Cherry Bomb Schedule snap code
Results:
The three lenses cover different fan needs, such as social, in-person, and informational, through mechanics specific to each context. Each lens was built and tested in Lens Studio with Snapcode links for live access.
Reflection:
Working across three AR tracking modes in one project forced me to treat interaction as the primary design decision. Requiring each lens to work in a different context was what kept the work from defaulting to visual consistency over usefulness.