Hello! My name is Eddy Adams and I make augmented reality effects for a living. I come from a background of 10+ years as a 3D motion designer. Since then, I have shifted into the world of AR and am now verified on TikTok and part of the Meta Spark Partner Network and Snap Lens Network. I’m the creator of the Spark AR Masterclass. I have worked with the Oscars, Apple, Netflix, Balenciaga, Coachella, BMW, Griz, Willie Nelson, Lil Dicky, The Game Awards, Dr. Seuss, Samsung, Paramount Pictures, Square Enix, Naughty Dog, and more.
Lately, I have seen a lot of discussion in the community about how to get started as an augmented reality designer. Or how to gain clients. Some creators even wonder if this is a viable career at all! I am here to tell you that it is! So long as you’re ready to work for it. You can’t just buy something off Gumroad and repackage it to call yourself a creator. You need a deep foundation of skills.
This post includes a thorough list of skills and prerequisites to set you up for massive success. Just keep in mind that this won’t happen overnight. Your first clients will be terrible. You may sell your soul for pennies on the dollar. But, over time, you will grow, and your clients and budgets will follow suit.
Let’s get started.
Let’s assume you have no previous design experience, but you can use a computer, navigate the internet, and move files around in folders. Here’s how you should begin.
The Effect House team has done a brilliant job covering the basics. These official tutorials are how I first learned how to get around in the program. When you finish, you’ll have a solid understanding of the program and its limitations. One limitation, for instance, is that you can’t create assets within Effect House, which brings us to the next steps.
Most creatives use Photoshop, but I much prefer Affinity Photo. It has nearly all the same functionality but has a cleaner interface, feels better, and runs smoother. It’s currently $70 and often goes on sale. Unlike Adobe, which charges a monthly subscription, Affinity products only require a single purchase.
Here are some critical 2D design concepts you should understand before moving on.
Proficiency in 2D design is essential for making high-quality effects. Spend the time to get comfortable here. Memorize the shortcut keys. Make some cool 2D designs that don’t have anything to do with effects.
Once you complete all the Effect House tutorials and get up to speed on an image editor, you are ready for the next phase.
If you took your time in Phase One, you might be ready to find your first client. At this point, you don’t have much to offer, so your expectations should remain quite humble. Your effects may now include 2D designs, particles, basic sounds, and a few intermediate concepts covered in the tutorials. However, you won’t have the skills or confidence to take on any random idea a client may throw at you. You need to open with, “Hey, I’m new to this, but I can make something neat at an attractive price.” Here are a few things that will help clients trust you.
After working with a few clients, you’ll likely encounter many opportunities that require some element of 3D design. Maybe 3D sunglasses. Or a football helmet. Or a 3D environment! But without 3D experience, you can’t follow through with any of those requests. So better get to learning!
Coming from a 3D motion design background, I used to use Cinema 4D to create, modify, and animate assets. Since transitioning into the AR industry, though, I have switched to using Blender. It’s free, runs well, and has a greater userbase (perfect for when I create tutorials!). Here’s how you should approach learning 3D.
Step two possibly looks like something you might be able to tackle in a few weeks. This is incorrect. Learning enough 3D to become proficient takes years. Don’t let this discourage you, though. Knowing 3D will set you apart and open doors in the AR and VR worlds. You’re not going to see many 2D artists becoming great effect creators without a fair amount of 3D fundamentals. Here are some key concepts related to asset creation you should understand in your first months as a 3D creator.
Each of these points will take weeks to wrap your head around. Be patient. Take baby steps. Don’t give up. It will pay off!
Now things are getting fun. You’re fluent in a 2D design program. You can build several types of assets in 3D. You’re well on your way to those top-tier clients! But the road is still not yet paved with gold. You have a long way to go in order to tackle every challenge.
At this point, you should have several projects on your TikTok account and website. You may have a few clients who have returned to you for a second effect. Maybe a few new clients have found you by word of mouth. It’s time to step up your game even more.
TikTok Effect House is a simple program on the surface and a deep program once you get acquainted. You’ll face many problems that may or may not have a relevant tutorial for you to follow. So you’ll need to understand more concepts. Here are a few topics you should look into when building more complex experiences.
Over time, these ideas will become second nature.
So far, Affinity Photo has pulled its weight when you need 2D assets and textures made, but there’s a better way to build textures for 3D models. Meet Substance Painter. It’s like Affinity Photo in 3D. It allows you to import a 3D object and paint directly on it. Or you can pull pre-built materials from Substance Source. Unfortunately, Adobe has acquired Allegorithmic, the creator of Substance Painter, so we’ll see if they continue to innovate. Adobe has a reputation for acquiring tools and letting them slowly die. Here are a few things you should learn in Substance Painter or any equivalent program.
Learning a texture painting program like Substance Painter will give you more flexibility and freedom when creating or modifying 3D assets. It’s incredible how much extra detail one normal map can add!
This is an exciting point in your effect career where you may consider branching out from just making effects. Maybe you want to build a full campaign strategy or templated social media posts for your client. This is a viable addition to your offering, but something I haven’t dipped into. When working with larger clients, they often have their own social branding down to a science. It would take a ton of time to get up to speed on their branding and voice to pitch social media posts on their behalf. Because of this, I don’t bother. Nor have any clients requested this. The larger the client, the less likely they’ll need it. Unless you start an effect business and have a team to work with. At that point, you’re probably working much more in-depth with each client while handling campaign strategy and all that.
While this post is more about an Effect House career and less about building a business, I do want to explain my strategy on the topic. This may be more specific to the US regarding financial structure, so please skim through this paragraph if it doesn’t interest you. When I started freelancing several years ago (after 10+ years at an agency), I immediately formed an LLC (limited liability company). All an LLC really does is protect your personal assets if someone came to sue your company. So your personal assets aren’t liable. It also looks good to have an LLC when working with clients. You can also use an EIN instead of your social security number to protect yourself further. At a certain point, though, it becomes beneficial to exist as an LLC, but file your taxes as an S-Corporation. This is a wildly complex process, but it can save you a lot in taxes once in place. When filing as an S-Corp, you will set up a “reasonable salary” to pay yourself. This includes the FICA taxes (social security and medicare). But any money you earn beyond that reasonable salary is considered the business’s money, which can be distributed as dividends to the shareholders, or in my case, just myself. That money is still taxed some, it just doesn’t have to go through FICA. Please consult a professional before attempting to go the S-Corp route. It’s a doozy!
If you do create an LLC, consider the name you choose carefully. Because my company is called Eddy Adams, LLC, it was easy for me to switch from being a 3D motion designer to an augmented reality designer. If my company had been named Eddy Does Motion Design, LLC, it would have been a harder sell when working in AR.
Along the way, you’ll come across tons of little apps and plugins that will help you create and optimize your effect projects. Here are a few I swear by.
At this point, you should be able to tackle most effect projects that come your way. You’ve done some work for larger clients and have maybe worked with a few agencies or studios around town.
When your work reaches a certain level of quality and creativity, you’ll start appearing on publications like Lenslist. They’re my favorite resource for keeping up with the world of effects. Check out my interview with them!
With the inertia you now have, it should be exciting to keep adding more software to your arsenal. Here are three more categories of apps that will take you to the highest level of creators.
You may have developed a personal style at this point. Maybe you like putting random objects on your head. Or you just make random stuff like me. But if you want to earn money making artistic effects, you’ll have to target your work precisely. I would recommend reaching out to clients that align with your style. The more you can sync up with your client, the more creative freedom you will have. That is, if you have a chill client. Most clients have a stringent, narrow range of ideas they’re willing to explore.
You’ve made it! You’re in the upper echelon of effect creators. Now what?
Hopefully, you have been participating in the community. You are sharing knowledge, answering questions, and giving out free assets here and there. But why not take it further?
A great outlet to earn some extra cheddar is by selling assets. This could be anything from simple textures to full-blown project templates. Be cautious, though; theft is a problem on Gumroad. Users will rehost others’ assets at lower prices while reviewing the original with one star to decrease their rating. Watch out for that!
At the end of the day, though, making custom effects for the top dogs will earn you the most consistent paycheck. The best animation production companies in the world like Buck, Psyop, The Mill, and We Are Royale are all in the effect game. They have incredible teams of artists and designers, but may not necessarily have seasoned effect creators among their ranks. That could be you! Either as a full-time employee or as a freelancer.
How do you reach these larger clients yourself? First, you should have done everything in this guide up to this point. You should have a killer website, TikTok presence, pitch deck, etc. But here are a few additional ways to get noticed.
If you want to work for the absolute biggest brands in the world like Apple, Google, Nike, Tesla, and so on, you’ll probably need to partner with a studio that already has an established relationship with those brands. It takes years to establish trust on such a high level. This is the caliber of jobs where the stakes are as high as the budgets.
Thanks for reading this massive post! It was a lot of work, so I appreciate any sort of engagement in the form of social shares. Help me spread the word! I wish I had all this information when I was starting my career.
