How to do the Tim Burton challenge on TikTok

Georgina Smith
TikTok users including Bella Poarch make their faces look like Tim Burton characters

There’s a new trend sweeping the TikTok world just in time for Halloween. People are turning themselves into Tim Burton-style characters by using one particular filter that allows you to freeze your face gradually. Here’s how to do it.

Viral video-sharing app TikTok has brought with it plenty of interesting trends, spreading through people’s For You Pages like wildfire and getting people to participate in bizarre challenges.

Recently, an anime filter surged in popularity on the app, allowing users to see what they would look like in the popular cartoon style. While the filter originated on Snapchat, TikTok users gave it a new lease on life, and it became a huge trend.

The most recent filter that’s rising in popularity is the blue line filter. As the blue line moves across or down your screen, it freezes everything in its path, allowing people to manipulate their faces to make certain aspects bigger and smaller, including huge stars like Bella Poarch.

But people’s creativity with the filter went even further than trying out a new forehead. Users managed to figure out that by manipulating their eyes and cheeks as the blue line goes by, they could mold themselves into a Tim Burton-style character.

Tim Burton is known for his spooky stop motion-animations, such as the likes of ‘ The Corpse Bride’ and ‘The Nightmare Before Christmas.’ Most notably, the art style features huge eyes and a gaunt face to reflect the films’ chilling tone.

How to do the Tim Burton challenge

In order to see what you’d look like as a Tim Burton character, you’ll first want to open up your camera on TikTok, and click the effects button (a winking smiley face in the bottom left corner).

After this, scroll through until you find an icon of a face with one side distorted, and a blue line right down the center – this is, of course, the blue line filter.

Once you have the filter up and running, tap the screen to change the direction of the line to ensure that it is moving vertically down your screen, as opposed to horizontally across.

As the line moves down, gently pull beneath your eyes so that they appear rounder and bigger. Just as the line moves beyond your eyes and freezes them in place, drag your thumbs down each cheek just ahead of the moving line to give the appearance of gaunt cheeks.

Many have also been pairing the video with the song “Ice Dance” from Burton’s Edward Scissorhands, which you can add by clicking the ‘sounds’ button at the top of your screen before filming, and searching the song’s title.

It may take you a couple of tries to get it looking clean, but once you do, the results are fascinating and will have you joining the ranks of the many TikTok users who have become Tim Burton characters ahead of Halloween.

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About The Author

Georgina was formerly an entertainment writer for Dexerto. She covered all aspects of influencer culture on TikTok and more, including creators such as Charli D’Amelio and Addison Rae. She also wrote about hit reality shows such as Love Island and Below Deck.