I make funny animal TikTok filters that have been used over 1 billion times – I haven’t made a dime but it’s been great for my brand
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I’m a 30 year old graphic designer and AR artist making filters for TikTok.
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My effects have over a billion views, but I’m not getting paid.
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Effect House is an AR tool used by TikTokers who want to create filters for the video sharing app.
As said, this essay is based on a conversation with 30-year-old Ilias Pistopoulos, a graphic designer in Greece who creates viral filters for various social media platforms. The following has been edited for length and clarity.
I’m a graphic designer with an engineering degree and have been creating augmented reality effects – aka filters – for Facebook, Instagram and most recently TikTok for the past four years.
For me, AR is the strongest technological evolution. Last year I had the opportunity to participate in a private beta effects test for Effect House, an AR tool to easily create effects for TikTok, so I’ve been with the platform since the beginning.
It has helped me create viral animal filters like “Maxwell The Cat”, “Maxwell In The Sky” and a “Capybara” filter based on the popular sound on TikTok. The filters are free to upload to the app once approved, but I don’t make any money from them.
I mostly get inspiration from trends on my TikTok “For You Page” and research different mediums to find the best ideas for filters. After I have my concept it takes a lot of software to create the design and it requires some 3D models to know what it will look like in the real world.
I have a 9-to-5 job at a marketing company, but I spend time after work scrolling TikTok and working on effects. Three months ago I worked for hours on Maxwell The Cat before it was finished to review at Effect House. I found the cat that’s out of a video game and a sound and I thought, “Yeah, that definitely has to be an effect.”
My effects have now been viewed over a billion times on TikTok and the whole world is enjoying my creations. I may not get paid for it, but the benefits are exposure and a chance to grow my audience. Thanks to these effects, I was able to increase my TikTok followers from 200 to 27,000 in just a few months.
My viral effects have helped me grow my AR business FAM because major brands have looked to collaborate with me and part of Effect House comes with a community of developers learning and sharing information.
I know most of the time I don’t get tagged by a TikToker when they use my filters, and I’ve seen places like Clancy’s Auto Body Shop make goods with my effect, but I don’t care.
I think it’s really cool to see how others can be creative with this, and I can use these analytics to show how well my effects are working. Branding is everything, so I try to keep that in mind when sharing my effects with the world.
Read the original article on Business Insider
