Conversations in AR: Roman Jaquez
To inspire a new generation of AR enthusiasts, we are profiling Snapchat’s Official Lens Creators in our ongoing series “Conversations in AR.”
Official Lens Creator Roman Jaquez is a software engineer based in Andover, Massachusetts. By combining his coding skills with his artistic ability, Roman’s innovative Lenses have been viewed over 8 million times by the Snapchat community!
How did you get started started making Lenses?
I started playing with Unity and AR games. Then, I found that Lens Studio would give me the platform that I needed to create the tools to make creations and, at the same time, take only a short amount of time for me to polish those ideas.
Of course, I am also a Snapchat user, so when I found out about Lens Studio I thought, “Wow, this is something really good.”
Describe your Lens style.
The types of Lenses that I go for, they tell a story. They’re more realistic-looking with effects. I can create Lenses that are abstract, that don’t have to deal with real objects, but the Lenses that I focus more on are the ones that I can make look like real objects that are around you. Lenses that can tell a story.
I like to focus on Lenses that can show off the software engineering and coding skills that I have and are very interactive, like requiring a user response or reaction.
What’s your favorite Lens that you have created?
One of my favorite Lenses is one that I created recently for Día de Los Muertos using the 1.7 version of Lens Studio. Check it out here!
It’s hard to pinpoint a favorite one, each one is like your baby. There have been good experiences in all of them, and each one of them has taught me something. They’re all different in their own sense.
Best performing?
I took some feedback from some of the users, fans, and other people who use my Lenses. One that I created for a specific demographic is a bunny. When you open the mouth, stars come out.
I create a lot of complicated Lenses with a lot of coding in them, but this Lens was very simple and very straightforward. It just had one thing that it would do. People loved it. After a couple of days, it had a million views right away.
Have you earned any revenue making Lenses?
I’ve dealt with a couple clients who I’ve made specific Lenses for, but the rest have been to showcase my artistic side and the coding skills that I have. Right now, it’s been just me manifesting my ideas and using Lenses as a channel to showcase a lot of the cool stuff I can do.
What is your all-time favorite Lens?
Dragon by Clara Bacou.
What is your first memory with technology?
I’m originally from the Dominican Republic. I came to the United States, back in 1997, for the first time. I was 17 years old, and I had never touched a computer. I didn’t have access to that.
So my first experience with a computer, or interacting with technology, was back when I was in high school. A neighbor of mine had a computer, and when I saw it for the first time, I was mesmerized by it. I thought that it was something that I might do for a living.
What is your first memory with AR?
A couple of years ago when I saw a game for the iPhone. Someone showed me its capabilities to superimpose digital objects onto the real world through the camera. That was probably 7 or 8 years ago. It was the first generation of the iPhone, and the game was an Uno card game. It was a very rudimentary version of AR, but someone told me that it was the future.
What does the OLC community mean to you?
The learning and the sharing of experiences. Also, the camaraderie that has come out of the group and the closeness.
Again, I go back to sharing, because learning from the other OLCs, and them learning from me, all of us polling ideas, has been one of the main benefits of being an OLC. I’ve found a new group of friends. The skills that they have complement my skills. We’ve made great friendships and even opportunities to work on future Lenses.
What do you do when you’re not creating Lenses?
I like to help other people learn computer science. In my community, I created a meet-up where I teach people about computer science and the benefits of learning those kinds of things every month. I’ve even taught people how to use Lens Studio, so they can start off on that path.
Stuff like that: helping the community, bringing them together, using technology. That’s the kind of stuff I love to do.
This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.
