Shaders goals to challenge industry heavyweights like Snap's AR development platform Lens Studio and TikTok's Effect House with its no-code AR creation tool that generates custom effects, 2D masks and lenses in minutes – moderately than spending hours Creating a single AR filter requires engineering and design skills. The startup built its platform on the open-source “Stable Diffusion” model and allowed users to enter text-based prompts to generate their creations.
The company was founded by Darya Sesitskaya, a former Snap design lead who oversaw the design of Snapchat's AR camera, Lens Studio, Lens Cloud, and more. She also worked at Want (formerly Wannaby), an AR technology company known for its virtual try-on of sneakers, clothing and watches. The Shader team consists of former engineers from Snap AR and Blizzard.
The company's flagship product – launched in beta iOS Devices in December 2023 – is a real-time AI camera app where users take a photograph of themselves to have the app scan their faces and supply a prompt to the AI to create a customized AR effect. Users can then record a video of themselves wearing the mask or filter.
Photo credit: Shaders
During our testing, we found that the outcomes were moderately easy, but there have been no errors or glitches. Despite its simplicity, there may be potential for the app to develop into greater than only a fun tool to mess around with and show your pals. Shader plans to launch a premium subscription option that can provide access to higher quality features, Sesitskaya tells TechCrunch.
The app's cross-platform functionality allows users to share their creations on Instagram, TikTok and Snapchat, and provides creators the chance to showcase the exclusive filters they design. Shader will eventually launch an in-app social feed where users can post their templates so other creators can like, comment, and check out out the consequences.
Following within the footsteps of other AI editing apps, users also can upload photos from their camera to customize using prompts, or pick from Shader's pre-built templates, including a fox mask, a Yoda-inspired mask, and a spread of filters.
Since launching its beta version, Shader has garnered around 3,000 downloads. An Android version is coming soon.
Photo credit: Shaders
Most recently, the corporate launched one Web version that scans faces with an integrated webcam. There can be a text field where creators can enter prompts. However, it doesn't seem like there are any pre-built templates.
Shader can be optimizing its iOS app for the newly released Vision Pro, which takes advantage of Apple digital person Technology (see image above). Additionally, Shader provides an API and plugin for corporations to implement the technology into their very own products.
In funding, Shader raised $580,000 from Betaworks, Greycroft, Differential Ventures, Mozilla Ventures and On Deck. Although it's a modest round, the investment suggests there's still a necessity for AR creation tools. The capital will give attention to developing latest features, equivalent to the flexibility to create prompts using speech-to-text and integration with the Twitch, Discord and Zoom platforms, allowing users to use AR filters live carry. It will even help grow the marketing team.
“Our mission is to make AR/AI effects accessible to everyone and enable users to simply create personalized content. Shader expands to numerous social face filters including background, clothing and hair, emphasizing user-friendly design principles to empower the 400 million creators on social media. In the near future, we also plan so as to add the flexibility to create voice-to-AR effects and 3D background replacements,” says Sesitskaya.
The company divided a brief demo of the speech-to-text technology on his YouTube channel.
