Is the Era of Beautifying Instagram Filters Over?
December 13, 2021 at 07:11PM It may be time for the Butterfly Pretty Instagram filter to move aside. The most interesting thing happening in augmented reality (AR) right now isn’t beautifying filters that purport to make us “prettier” by removing skin texture and flaws, changing our features or making us look like Kardashians. Instead, the new wave of futuristic Instagram filters are approaching aesthetics in an entirely different way. Take French creator Jade Roche, who taught herself to make filters three years ago after Instagram launched Spark AR Studio, a software platform that allows anyone to design and distribute them. Her most popular creation by far, with five billion views, is New Me, which scrunches users’ faces in the middle so their noses are tiny and their foreheads and chins are exaggerated, giving a vaguely Conehead vibe. Her second most popular filter, Les…