TikTok Creative Effects

Effects that lower the barrier to creative expression.

A selection of TikTok creative effects from my IC chapter: concept, 2D production, and in many cases motion and AR implementation as well. The brief underneath all of them is the same: enable user storytelling, ideate concepts, and experiment with emerging AR tech.

Daily Effects

The steady cadence. Effects that ship as part of TikTok's everyday creator experience. Variety, accessibility, and the kind of low-friction novelty that turns a passing user into a creator for the first time.

Love Meter — Solo End-to-End

A wedding gift for a teammate, built solo. An AR game effect with expression detection. 2D design, 3D, motion, and the AR implementation, all in one pair of hands.

5G AR Installation — ByteDance, 2019–2020

A live AR installation for the Qualcomm Snapdragon Tech Summit, 2019. The experience triggered when the camera scanned a real wooden world map on the table, placing TikTok's short-form content on a 3D interactive map and streaming viral feeds from different regions in real time. Built to show what 5G-enabled AR could look like in a physical, brand-facing context.

Emerging Tech — 2019–2020

Early experiments with new AR capabilities as they came online: landmark detection, 3D pose, body tracking, and other tech the team was probing for product use. The job was to find the visual idea that made each new capability worth shipping.

Credits

Concept · 2D · Motion · AR: DingDing Chung
3D: Yilong Mu (Moon Face), Candie Quach (Emoji Wall), Henry Cheng (Highlights, 5G, Landmark, AR Brush, SXSW), Nikolaus Evangelista (UFO, 3D Pose)
Motion: Suru Liu (Emoji Wall), Johnny Chiu (Highlights, 3D Pose), David Lewandowski (AR Music Game), Blake Fawley (NBA)
Additional 2D: Yixin Zhao (UFO, NBA) · Cat Design: Michelle Catalanotto (AR Music Game)