Puzzle Piece AR
A TikTok filter exploring social interaction and emotional feedback loops.
Role
AR Creator
Timeline
2 Weeks
Tools
Effect House
Context
Social Asset
The Logic
The Concept
Extending the emotional narrative of the "Puzzle Piece" project into a shared social experience. This TikTok AR filter uses facial tracking to detect when a user smiles, triggering the appearance of the "missing piece" to complete the visual.
Interactive Logic
The effect relies on a custom interaction patch that monitors the mouth curvature. When the "smile" value crosses a threshold (0.7), the opacity of the puzzle graphic interpolates from 0% to 100%, giving instant positive feedback.
"Using a smile as the key to unlock the complete picture."
Asset Preparation
Preparing the puzzle piece assets in Adobe Illustrator. The graphics needed to be transparent and perfectly aligned to overlay naturally on a user's face without feeling intrusive.
Face Tracker Setup
Setting up the face tracker in Effect House. This involved mapping the 2D assets to 3D anchor points on the face mesh to ensure they moved realistically with the user's head turn.
Visual Scripting
Using the Patch Editor to create the logic. I connected the "Mouth Smile" detection node to the "Opacity" property of the image, adding a smoothing node to make the transition feel organic rather than jarring.
The Final Effect
Reflection
Created under the guidance of Professor Steven. His mentorship on navigating Effect House's technical documentation was instrumental in bridging the gap between design concept and functional AR logic.
Project Credits
Design & Scripting: Michelle Miyata
Audio: Young and Beautiful — Lana Del Rey