Face AR experiences are evolving from filters for entertainment purposes only to a core way for brands and retailers to connect with customers by offering a range of possibilities for virtual try-on experiences, in-line advertisement, immersive brand campaigns, and more.

We know that building compelling and converting face WebAR experiences requires high-fidelity and precise tools, which is why we're excited to announce a complete refresh of the Face Effects features available from Niantic’s 8th Wall platform. Developers can now build with precise face tracking, developer-friendly tools, and enhanced performance to create the compelling, seamless face WebAR experiences they dream of building.

With enhanced Face Effect tools, 8th Wall is now the all-in-one WebAR platform developers, brands, and agencies can trust to build compelling virtual try-on experiences and campaigns for retail, advertising, and more.  

 

 

Build realistic face WebAR experiences and virtual try-on demos with new iris tracking, extended forehead mesh, and real-time access to UV positioning 

With the all-new Face Effects, available starting in Release 22, developers can now build with precise tracking of all areas of the face. In particular, this release introduces new iris tracking features, new tools for estimating Inter-Pupillary Distance (IPD), improves the tracking and stability for existing face regions, and extends the forehead mesh to the hairline for a full face experience. 

We’ve also introduced pixel camera access for real-time access to UV positioning of the face points, allowing you to directly access the pixel data of the camera for precisely augmenting the face. 

No matter what face WebAR experiences developers build, these updates ensure they'll correctly map onto different face geometries - enabling the high-fidelity try-on and impressively realistic face WebAR examples audiences want. For those currently building with Face Effects, your experiences will automatically update to take advantage of improved tracking stability, ensuring you're offering the best experiences possible. 

Create transformative Face Effects with new face-morphing capabilities 

Face Effects also features all-new face morphing features, with over 20 different toggles for fine-tuning the face. These toggles include selections like shrinking and expanding eyes, cheeks, noses, and foreheads, as well as tools to express emotions with eyebrows, and to control lip movements. 

Whether developers want to create realistic virtual try-on experiences or prefer to offer more expressive options like transforming a face into an animal or mascot, these new tools let developers quickly create a wide range of face WebAR experiences for both entertainment and brand engagement. 

Easily add realistic reactions to movement with real-time access to face events through new API

Face Effects now includes a new developer-friendly API which provides easy access to pre-built logic for face events to help make it faster to build experiences that react to movements in real time. Quickly create experiences that automatically react to eye, mouth, and eyebrow movements like winking, closing your mouth, raising eyebrow in surprise, and more. Tracking runs at 60 fps or above on the latest generation of mobile devices, meaning developers can be confident that their experience will be seamless and uninterrupted. 

Build more social and engaging experiences with new multi-face support 

To help you create all new types of interactive and inclusive face WebAR experiences, we’ve also added multi-face support for our Face Effects tools that support up to three faces at once. This feature unlocks a whole new set of use cases for brands, retailers, and beauty by creating a more social experience and allowing virtual try-on or face augmentation together. Take the experience one step further by combining the social experience of multi-face with 8th Wall’s MediaRecorder and you’ll give audiences the tools to create compelling material that they can share on social media or to invite friends to the experience. 

Start designing realistic experiences that drive conversion wherever customers are  

With the new Face Effects features, developers, brands, and agencies can create realistic, immersive face WebAR experiences that engage with customers from brand campaigns to product try-on to check out, all within one platform. Face Effects work in any desktop, mobile front-facing camera, or magic mirror meaning developers can build experiences that are universally accessible for all audiences. And because it’s  built for the browser, these experiences can provide high-fidelity virtual try-on experiences no matter where a user is, whether it’s at home, in-store, or on the go. 

To get started with the enhanced Face Effects tools, clone the Face Effects Makeup and Face Morph sample projects from our Project Library available or read the full release notes in our documentation. 

If you're new to 8th Wall, sign up for a 14-day free trial to use the all-new Face Effects in your next project.