Over three invitations to Snap’s Spotlight Lens Residency, we participated across cohorts in 2022, 2023, and 2024. We kept production fully in-house: concepting, visual design, Blender modeling and animation, sound, interaction design, and final Lens Studio build and publishing. Each residency ran about three months, with two Lenses shipped per month, supported by biweekly check-ins and workshops with Snap’s Spotlight team to guide, test, and refine work. The brief stayed consistent across cohorts: create AR that’s simple for creators to use, repeatable, and compelling to watch on Spotlight.

We set out to explore multiple areas of Lenses designed for content creation on Spotlight. That included two fast-paced, voice-activated games using Lens Studio’s VoiceML for spoken answers (underused at the time), a customizable “endless tunnel” where your worst nightmares can hunt you (great for expressive reactions), an audio-forward soundboard Lens that “augments reality” with layered SFX, plus a mix of memes, transitions, and expressive looks. We combined proven Spotlight formats with new ideas. And, in every case, the Lens had to feel polished and ready to record on mobile.

Our build rhythm stayed steady and hands-on: sketch the idea, block in Blender, tune materials/shaders, wire interactions in Lens Studio, then QA the pacing, and capture flow before publishing. Below are six standout Lenses with short descriptions, a preview loop, and Snapcodes with direct links. The full set lives on our public Snapchat profile. Huge thanks to the Snap team we worked with across cohorts - Jenny, Jordan, Jess, Erica, Amanda, Kristle, Jason, and Sophia - and to fellow creators Ines, Ben, and Danny.