Spark AR Creator Stories: Meet Chris Higa

We’re constantly inspired by the diversity of experience within the Spark AR creator community. So far, we’ve we’ve featured a digital advertising specialist and a graphic design student for our creator stories, and now a professional video editor and director.

Chris Higa (@chriseditingofficial) has worked full time in editing and directing for around three years. But outside of work, creating AR effects in Spark AR Studio is Chris’s passion. And for someone who only creates in his spare time, Chris is prolific: at the time of writing, he has published over 30 AR effects. Among his popular effects are Fire, Blue Hearts and Gold Illusion.

Keeping a Finger on the Pulse

Interestingly, video editing also started out as a hobby for Chris. Given how much skill and passion he brings to his hobbies, it’s no surprise he quickly ended up being offered a full-time job. But once his hobby turned into a job, Chris decided he needed to find a new hobby. Exploring social media and creating AR effects seemed like the perfect choice.

To create his many effects, Chris likes to draw inspiration from current trends in popular culture. For example, when the story about storming Area 51 was going viral, Chris made an effect of a 3D dancing alien.

One rich vein of inspiration for Chris is the Spark AR Creator Community. He says that the people there are all really supportive of his creations, and the feedback and requests he gets shape his work:

“My goal now is to stay with the trends, and [continue] building something for those trends.”

Chris primarily uses Spark AR Studio features like rectangles and particle systems to create his effects. He experiments with other features like segmentation and post-effects, and he likes to explore the capabilities possible with the tool.

For example, with his Gold Illusion, he imported a photo of real gold foil, then just experimented, duplicating it over and over until it came together as the gold illusion that you see in the finished effect.

Growing a Following with Spark AR

For Chris, the success of his effects is a really important part of being a creator. He uses the Insights feature within Spark AR Hub to accurately track his engagement. By monitoring how often people tag or mention him, as well as how frequently he’s messaged on Instagram, he can softly measure how well an effect is resonating with his audience.

Spark AR has enabled Chris to share creative and fun experiences with a global audience of AR enthusiasts. Today, his Instagram account has more than 427K followers, and he’s growing at a rate of 1K followers per day. But more importantly, Chris is enjoying engaging with all the people who experience his work. Chris particularly enjoys seeing his effects come across his feed in other’s posts or being used in profile photos.

A Big Impact with Augmented Reality

In the future, Chris sees a huge opportunity for AR at large events, particularly for brands looking to stand out. With this in mind, Chris hopes to devote more time professionally to creating effects, empowering companies to engage their audiences in a new way. “My goal is to work with companies to give them an advantage to allow their users to engage with their products,” he says, “I want to work with companies at events to provide those unique experiences.”

Our thanks to Chris for being such an inspirational creator, you can follow and try some of his Spark AR effects on Instagram @chriseditingofficial. And you can find more profile stories about AR creators here on the Spark AR blog.

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