Panels

Lens Studio is made up of a series of modular panels. The following guide walks through each panel's function in Lens Studio and the associated interface elements.

Scene

The Scene panel is where you can interact with the 3D objects in your scene. In the Scene panel, you'll be able to visually move, rotate and scale objects. The Scene panel's toolbar gives you access to various controls for the camera.

Scene Screen Mode

The View 2D Scene and View 3D Scene buttons toggle between the 3D scene and the 2D scene of your Lens project. The 2D scene mode is primarily used for visualizing and editing 2D objects like Screen Image, Post Effect and Face Effects. By default, selecting an object in the Objects panel will automatically select the best scene mode for that object. This can be disabled in the Lens Studio preferences by unchecking Auto Switch 2D / 3D Scene Panel.

Scene Object Selection

Objects in the 3D Scene can be selected by clicking the object in the Scene Panel. Similarly, in the 2D Scene, all 2D elements are rendered in the scene and can be selected by clicking them in the Scene panel. For information on manipulating objects, refer to the Toolbar and Shortcuts guide.

Scene Camera Orientation

Clicking on a face of the camera orientation cube allows you to set the scene camera to a specified orientation. The available orientations are Front, Left, Right, Back, Top and Bottom. Clicking the Home button will return you to the default camera orientation. Clicking on the Setting button will give you more options for visualizations.

Objects

The Objects panel shows you the hierarchy of all objects in your scene. Objects can be parented and un-parented in the objects panel by dragging them up and down the hierarchy while holding the Left Mouse button down. For 2D effects like Screen Image and Post Effect, the Objects panel also controls the render order. The bottommost objects are rendered last making them appear in front of the topmost objects.

Note
An object's Render Order setting in the Inspector panel must be set to Auto for them to respect the Object panel's order for rendering. Objects default to Auto enabled. If Auto is disabled, the object's render order must be configured manually.

Note
By default, 3D objects respect depth in relation to other 3D objects to determine render order. However, in relation to 2D objects, a 3D object's render order is determined by its order in the Objects panel.

Add New Object

The + button allows you to add new objects to your scene. The Empty Object selection adds an empty object while the Empty Child Object adds an empty object as a child of the currently selected object. Additionally, with the Add New Object button, you're able to add objects that come with preset components including the Camera, Light, Image, Liquify, Mesh Visuals, Screen Image and Post Effect objects.

Search

Clicking this icon will prompt for a search keyword. The Objects panel hierarchy will then be filtered by the inputted keyword.

Enabled / Disabled Objects

Objects can be enabled and disabled by clicking the checkbox icon to the right of the object name. Disabled objects will not be visible and will not execute script.

Display Mode

You can change the display mode of the objects panel to sort by Layers or Render Order.

Inspector

The Inspector panel allows you to add and edit components on the selected object. Components are the building blocks of objects. They define what an object does and how an object is visualized. In addition to adding components, the Inspector panel allows you to edit parameters of existing components. Note, all objects are required to have a Transform component. The Transform component gives you the ability to tune the object's Position, Rotation and Scale.

Render Order

The Render Order option becomes active for any object that has a visualization (e.g. MeshVisual). By default, all visual objects begin with Auto enabled. For 3D objects, Auto means that the objects are rendered by depth. For 2D objects, Auto means that the render order is determined by their order within the Objects panel. For more information on how object ordering within the Objects panel works, please see the above Object panel section. If Auto is disabled, render order must be manually configured via the Render Order text field. When manually configuring render order, low numbers are rendered first (below) while high numbers are rendered last (on top).

Note
For the most part, you can ignore Render Order and keep Auto enabled. Only when you are having render ordering problems that can't be solved by ordering objects in the Objects panel will you have to manually configure the Render Order text field.

Render Layers

The Layers box allows you to configure which render layer the object should be part of. Each Camera object in your scene allows you to configure which render layers the camera can see.

Note
For the most part, you can ignore Layers and keep it set to the Default Layer. You only need to worry about Layers when working with multiple cameras in the scene.

Collapse Component

Clicking the component name will collapse the component for a cleaner Inspector panel.

Enable / Disable Component

Clicking the check box will toggle the component to be enabled or disabled.

Remove Component

Clicking this icon will allow you to remove or disable the component.

Add Component

The Add Component button allows you to add desired components to the selected object. Clicking Add Component will give you a list of all available components that can be added. Selecting from the list will then add it to the object.

Resources

The Resources panel lists out all resources currently available in the project. Resources include Meshes, Materials, Textures, Scripts, Sounds and more. Resources can be added to the project by dragging and dropping a valid resource into the Resources panel. For more information about managing resources, follow the Importing and Updating Resources guide.

Add New Resources

The Add New button allows you to add new resources to your Lens Studio project. Once selected, select the Import Files option to add in your own custom resources. Some resource types, like Mesh and Material, have built-in resources that you can add to your project. The Mesh resource type will allow you to add some basic primitive meshes. The Material resource type will allow you to add some basic materials like Unlit, Diffuse, PBR and more. On top of that, the Add New button allows you to create folders to keep your resources organized.

Filter Resources

Use this drop down to filter the Resources panel by type of resource.

Search Resources

The Resources panel can be filtered by keywords by clicking the search icon and typing in the search box.

Resources View Mode

Resources Panel

The view mode of the Resources panel can be toggled between a list view and a grid-based icon view.

Preview

The Preview panel allows you to see what your Lens would look like within Snapchat without having to open your device. The Preview panel updates in real time as you make changes to your scene. For more information on the Preview panel and its features, see the Previewing Your Lens guide.

Scene Config

The Scene Config panel allows you to set the Live Target, the Capture Target and quickly rearrange the camera render order. For more information on the Scene Config panel and its features, see the Camera and Layers guide.

Pair To Snapchat

The Pair Your Device button allows you to pair Lens Studio with your Snapchat application. When paired, changes made in Lens Studio will be automatically synced to your device for testing. For more information on pairing, see the Pairing to Snapchat guide.

Logger

The Logger panel allows you to see debug messages outputted by your Lens experience alongside any warning or error messages. To output text to the logger, call the following in script:

print( "This message is displayed in the Logger panel")

For more information about debugging Lenses, refer to the Debugging guide.

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