Getting Started

Lens Studio is a real-time tool for creating Snapchat Lenses. It allows you to create both Face Lenses (front camera experiences) and World Lenses (rear camera experiences). The tool allows creators, from 3D professionals to Photoshop hobbyists, to create their own customized Lens experiences. 

Lens Studio includes a number of Templates to help you get started making Snapchat Lenses. For building Face Lenses, make sure to check out the wide variety of Face Templates that Lens Studio offers. For building World Lenses, make sure to check out the wide variety of World Templates that Lens Studio offers. 

If you're new to working in Lens Studio, please watch the following overview video. 

Lens Studio Intro Tutorial

When you downloaded a Lens Studio for the first time you will see a "Take an Interactive tour" prompt. 


Press a Get Started button to start your first project with step-by-step tutorial. During the short tour you will be guided through making your first Lens:

You can exit a tour at any time by pressing a CMD + W on Mac or CTRL + W on Windows and returning to the Home Screen. 

The tutorial can be found again at any time by selecting Start Tutorial option in a Help section of the top menu. 


Lens Studio Panels


Lens Studio is made up of a group of modular panels. Any panel can be moved and scaled to better suit your needs. Below is a brief summary of each panel:

  • Scene: Visualize your Lens scene in 3D space. The Scene is where you're able to manipulate the position, scale and rotation of 3D objects. The Scene panel will automatically transitions to the 2D Scene mode when working with Face Effects, Screen Image and Post Effect.
  • Objects: Lists all objects that make up your current scene. Objects can be parented to one another through a simple drag and drop. Note that 2D objects (e.g. Screen Image) are rendered in the order they are arranged in the Objects panel (i.e. the bottommost objects are rendered in front of topmost objects)
  • Inspector: Edit any parameters on any selected object. Additionally, you're able to add components to the selected object. Components are functional building blocks for the objects you create
  • Resources: Import new assets into your project and manage existing assets. For more information on managing resources, follow the Importing and Updating Resources guide
  • Logger: Shows debug messages outputted by script via the print( message ) function alongside any warning or error messages
  • Preview: Presents your Lens experiences running in real-time. Lens Studio comes with a series of preview videos which include tracking data. With these videos, you'll be able to preview what your Lenses would look like in the world or applied to a face
  • Scene Config: Controls live and capture render target settings

Additionally, at any time, pressing the Pair Your Device button allows you to pair your Snapchat application to Lens Studio. When paired, you're able to see your Lenses in real-time from within Snapchat. Please refer to the Pairing to Snapchat guide for more information

For more details on each of Lens Studio's panels, please refer to the Panels guide. For details on the tools available in Lens Studio's toolbar, please refer to the Toolbar and Shortcuts guide.

Lens Studio Documentation

The Lens Studio documentation will help you make the most of Lens Studio. Below is a summary of each documentation section:

  • Guides: Detailed walkthroughs of each Lens Studio feature. The guides are broken out into general, 2D, 3D, scripting and submission sections
  • Face Effects Overview: A high level overview of each Face Effect Lens Studio offers
  • Material Editor: Learn how shaders work within Lens Studio
  • SnapML: Learn how machine learning can be used within Lens Studio
  • Templates: Instructions for each template included in Lens Studio. The templates are great starting points for building your own Lenses. Each template guide has a tutorial video to help you get started
    • Face Templates: These templates are designed for building Face Lenses (front camera experiences)
    • World Templates: These templates are designed for building World Lenses (rear camera experiences)
  • Scripting API: A complete reference for Lens Studio's Javascript API
  • Support: If you have any additional questions that the documentation can't solve, go to our support page where you can see previously answered questions or ask something new

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