NFT

Challenge

To create and mint your own NFT. Get familiar with the concept and practice so you can join other creators already profiting from NFTs.

Pitch

To start off this piece I’m pitching two directions both with a different style. Both will focus on modeling as the core.

Morphing Moments

This direction is a love letter to my home, Hawaii.
The direction will be looking at the attention to form in three models and showing these models as scenes or memories being recalled.
Between models there are points of abstract forms to show the beauty of transformation.

There will be moments of abstract compositions formed from the morphing

Perspective Play

This direction is experimenting with the perspective of a setting getting cut off visually to create depth.
The setting is a pool table in a bar with two people playing the game.
Lighting will be a big part of this piece and the texture of models.

As the camera rotates around the scene we see a much deeper room and more in the environment

Development

Moving forward I chose Morphing Moments and collected feedback on how to improve the concept. I will be using OpenSea a large NFT marketplace to mint and sell the piece.

Research

Reference model of a tradition Hawaiian Sail boat

I first collect photos of reference I will be using when modeling. I look mainly for smaller replica models of my objects made by craftsmen because they will usually have photos around the whole object from many different views, so this one reference can now act as a collection of photos.

I’m also creating my digital wallet. There are many crypto wallet sites out there like Metamask or Coinbase. All work the same so read into it and pick what fits your need. When you download a crypto wallet, you take control of two 42-character keys; a public key, known as your wallet address, and a private key. You can think of your public key as your shareable bank account info, so copy and paste it in when people ask for your address. Your private key works like a password and should remain private.

You will need to verify email and submit a photo of your ID like a driver’s license for identity verification. You now have a crypto wallet. Now you can create what you want, minting the piece will be at the end.

Creating a crypto wallet with the documentation in OpenSea’s help center

First Pass

The first step in the process is to get started with creating the assets. I went into Cinema4D to start modeling. Starting with simple box modeling techniques and switching to sculpting if the model required more detail.

Moving forward my Art Director and I decided to use particles to encompass the shapes of the model and to create the sense of sands of time or a flow of one’s thoughts as they remember something. This is the point where the piece became a love letter to my home of Hawaii, and I am excited to begin.

This first portion is really about figuring out all of the technical hurdles early so I can get past them as soon as possible. I have never done anything with particles before and want to explore that for this piece.

Above is the first pass of animation

Quickly modeling a boat and mapping out the particles to the surface along the model

After meeting with my Art Director we made a list of notes to push the piece forward

Second Pass

Adding in Depth of field to control the point of focus and add depth through blurs

Creating the glow effects in post in After Effects

Moving on we decided to make a switch from the render being a landscape to portrait orientation. This is to make the piece fill the frame and expand the piece to feel more dynamic and unique.

Going with the particles I want to create a spectacle. So I explored doing post compositing to create a neon look. I’m happy with how the particles look, it’s eye-catching and the added depth in the camera lens really creates a level of visual complexity to it.

Sadly, the movement is far too fast and the particles are moving too mechanical. I need to go in and add more points of creation and randomize the position of the particles as they transform.

After speaking with my Art Director, we realized that recalling memories can be more than just one object and more of a scene. I then went to look at the imagery on my phone, looking at photos of old experiences. Then I went back to cinema4D and created more models to layout for the next iteration.

Above is the second pass of animation

Final Pass

Finally, I have finished the animation and can mint the piece on OpenSea. If lost at any point, OpenSea has a help center that has documentation of everything from creating an account to ending transactions and converting digital currency back to normal currency.

When minting the piece I can determine if there is a collection that I have made of previous NFTs to add to or I can make it on its own. Putting an item on OpenSea and having it listed is free but once sold you will have to pay gas fees and OpenSea gets %2.5 of whatever the final sale price is.

I can decide whether I want a fixed price like normal products or a timed auction where the highest bidder gets the NFT. I decided to do an auction for the month of December, giving a month is a lot of time for people to find the auction and they can come back anytime to check the current highest bid.