Tag: a&r
Take Your Ultrawide Monitors Everywhere With an AR Laptop
TikTok opens a $6 million fund to pay creators of popular AR effects
TikTok creators who whip up popular effects will soon be rewarded as the platform has set up a new fund for them. Through the Effect Creator Rewards fund, the platform will pay those who create widely-used augmented reality effects using TikTok’s Effect House tool.
At the outset, the fund will only be available in a few countries. TikTok confirmed to TechCrunch that the eligible territories are the US, UK, France, Germany, Italy and Spain.
Payouts from the $6 million fund are based on engagement, but at the outset effects will need to meet quite a high threshold before creators are eligible to make money from them. For the time being, creators will earn $700 for each effect that’s used in 500,000 unique videos within 90 days of being published. For every 100,000 videos posted with the effect within the same period, the creator will earn $140. That’s a high bar to meet for a relatively small payment.
Although TikTok has other programs designed to reward creators, such as the $1 billion creator fund, those who are making content for the platform have complained about low payouts. Early last year, Hank Green estimated that he was making around 2.5 cents for every 1,000 views on TikTok. Other prominent creators, including YouTube megastar Mr. Beast, posted evidence of their paltry TikTok earnings.
Seemingly to address those complaints, TikTok recently overhauled the creator fund with an initiative called the Creativity Program. The aim, TikTok said, is to offer creators “higher average gross revenue for qualified video views.” The program is available in the US, France and Brazil for now.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/tiktok-opens-a-6-million-fund-to-pay-creators-of-popular-ar-effects-163005838.html?src=rss
Tributes paid to A&R executive Malcolm Dunbar
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Monster Hunter Now Brings Capcom’s RPG To Niantic’s AR World
Pokemon Go developer Niantic has announced its next major mobile game: Monster Hunter Now. The collaboration with Capcom will bring Rathalos to your neighborhood via augmented reality in September 2023.
Monster Hunter Now will let players hunt monsters in the real world, with regions around the world assigned specific ecological areas that spawn specific monsters. Fighting monsters will use tap and swipe controls depending on the equipped weapon, and weapons and armor can be forged and upgraded using materials earned from defeated monsters. Notably, each fight against an encountered monster will only last a maximum of 75 seconds, which is a major shift from the usual 10-20 minute battles found throughout the franchise.
Players can also team up against larger monsters, as the game’s multiplayer features will automatically link players together who are pursuing a certain monster on the map. A new “paintball” feature will also allow you to “mark” a monster you encounter in your travels, and then “summon” it at home in order to challenge it with friends and family.
From battlefield to homefront: AR is bigger than the metaverse
Microsoft Teams adds Snapchat AR Lenses to video chats
Microsoft and Snap have teamed up to bring Snapchat Lenses to Teams. The next time you hop onto a call with colleagues or friends, you’ll be able to pick from one of 26 popular Lenses to add some visual flair to your video chats. You’ll be able to turn yourself into a cartoon character, add virtual snow and slap a variety of backgrounds onto your webcam feed. That said, it’s probably best to make sure you don’t accidentally leave a Lens on during more serious conversations.
Snap and Microsoft say the library of Lenses will rotate to keep things fresh. You can switch on a Lens in Teams by selecting the Video Effects option, then Snapchat. The Lenses will slowly roll out to everyone starting today. Most users should have access to them in Teams in the coming days.
The companies tapped into Snap’s Camera Kit (a software development kit) to bring the latter’s augmented reality tech to Teams. Microsoft previously used Camera Kit to add Snap’s AR features to its video learning platform, Flip, where educators try to kickstart video discussions among students by providing them with prompts. According to Snap, since Microsoft added the integration to Flip, teachers and students have been 60 percent more likely to post videos to the platform.
Snap used to have its own desktop app that enabled folks to use Lenses on third-party video calling services. However, the company shut down the app, Snap Camera, earlier this year.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/microsoft-teams-adds-snapchat-ar-lenses-to-video-chats-163057951.html?src=rss