RNDR NFT Fall 2021 Update
Recapping the biggest news and updates from the last half-year in RNDR
With NFT.NYC around the corner, where Founder Jules Urbach will be presenting on the next generation of holographic NFTs, we wanted to give an update to what has happened on RNDR over the past few months as well as a preview of upcoming milestones. It has been a remarkable year so far with nearly a quarter a million jobs processed on RNDR in 2021, and artists within the RNDR ecosystem generating over half a billion dollars in sales from NFTs.
Below are some highlights from the past few months.
RNDR Migrates to Layer 2
During Q2, RNDR fully migrated its payments and NFT minting to Polygon (Matic), the leading Layer 2 scaling solution built on top of Ethereum. With Layer 2, the network can speed up confirmation times and lower costs. For an in-depth look at the benefits of Layer 2, as well as important information about migrating funds back and forth between Layer 1 and Layer 2, please see the Layer 2 section of the RNDR Knowledge Base.
Layer 2 scaling solutions are an important piece of the RNDR roadmap and we will continue to evaluate emerging blockchain scaling solutions to provide more robust tools for our community of artists and developers. For example, along with speeding up and reducing the Ethereum costs associated with RNDR, transitioning over to Polygon (Matic) opens the door for RNDR to become a leader in next generation NFT creation. With costs greatly reduced, artists can experiment more with their NFT projects processed on RNDR — opening up new gaming applications as well as the ability to create granular tokenization for an artwork. Layer 2 enables RNDR to tokenize everything from final renders to individual frames, as well as the models, textures and other assets that go into a render — bringing more scene level metadata on-chain. Having more data on-chain enables deeper levels of verification and opens up new applications for collaboration, generative art, and more dynamic interactive NFT experiences. For this reason, Layer 2 is used for the development of the RNDR Archives we previewed this spring and summer.
RNDR Archives Released Featuring Alex Ross, Beeple, and The Roddenberry Archive
Throughout the Spring and Summer, RNDR released its first series of RNDR Archives, introducing NFT minting and tokenization tools on RNDR in collaboration with some of the most iconic creative talents of the past, present and future — Alex Ross, Beeple and Gene Roddenberry. The RNDR Archives introduce a new way of leveraging NFTs and blockchain to create a comprehensive archive of an artist’s lifetime of works on-chain.
The Alex Ross Archive
At this past GTC, OTOY announced the release of the Alex Ross Archive on RNDR — building a comprehensive collection of the legendary Marvel and DC comic book artists’ lifetime of work on chain. The RNDR Alex Ross archive will begin with a new work, ‘Shooting up the Mainstream’: originally created in 2000, it is the first Alex Ross painting to portray the artist’s own completely new and original Superhero Universe, which he has been developing for years as a follow up to his Marvel and DC work. For Star Trek Day, we also previewed ‘Earth-366’ — linking together the Alex Ross and The Roddenberry archives together on the blockchain. The Alex Ross Archives will also include scans of original paintings, models, and a deep history of the iconic artist’s notes about each work, including annotations, drafts, notebook sketches, and associated media.
The Beeple Archive
In May, OTOY announced that renowned digital artist Beeple will be joining the RNDR and OTOY Advisory Boards to help develop the next generation of NFTs. Beeple has used OctaneRender for many of his ‘Everyday’ series renders created over the last decade, which were auctioned in The First 5000 Days work at Christie’s and featured on the cover of Time Magazine this past spring.
As part of the RNDR Advisory Board, Beeple will be bringing his lifetime of work to RNDR, as well as helping us develop the first holographic NFTs, in close collaboration with holographic display pioneer Light Field Lab and the world’s leading talent agency, Endeavor.
The Roddenberry Archive
This past August, as part of the celebrations of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry’s Centennial, OTOY previewed The Roddenberry Archive, a collaboration between OTOY, The Roddenberry Estate, and iconic Star Trek artists to document and capture Gene Roddenbery’s legacy on the blockchain for future generations. The Roddenberry Archive will focus on cataloguing key texts and documents from Gene Roddenberry’s life and career, as well as canonically capturing, recreating and referencing 3D models of the Starship Enterprise using OTOY’s LightStage scanning service and RNDR.
Previews and more details about the Roddenberry Archive can be found here, and RNDR is also collaborating with the Roddenberry Foundation and CBS on the Boldly Go initiative to capture submissions from the public about their Star Trek inspired hopes for the next 100 years. The submissions will be collected into an NFT that is auctioned for charity, and eventually sent into space, memorializing our collective hope for humanity’s future in a first-of-its-kind space-based art installation.
Other Key Milestones
Octane X Released
For the first time, Octane X makes RNDR available for MacOS users, bringing the first advanced GPU path-tracing and distributed GPU cloud rendering to millions of Apple creative professionals. Users of MacBook Pro, iMac Pro and Mac Pro can now access to a full year of Octane X Enterprise, including RNDR, for free, while all other Macs users of models powered by the Apple M1 chip, and the latest AMD and Intel integrated graphics on macOS Big Sur 11.1 and later, will have 1 year access to Octane X Prime, which includes access to RNDR.
This month RNDR and The Roddenberry Archive were featured during Apple’s unveiling of their new M1 Pro and M1 Max chips for tens of millions of viewers around the world. During the event, CEO and Founder Jules Urbach discussed how the new chips will change 3D production and presented a life sized, historically accurate recreation of the Starship Enterprise that was rendered by thousands of decentralized GPUs on RNDR.
RNDR Client Upgrades
The RNDR Team delivered multiple RNDR client upgrades up to OctaneRender 2020.2.5 over the last few months, with key features including RTX hardware acceleration with RTX ON as the default for OctaneRender 2020.2.X render jobs. New features included:
- Improved job allocation to include minimum VRAM settings for artists to set VRAM threshold when submitting renders that require large amounts of VRAM. This helps optimize job allocation, reduces failures, and can lead to a more efficient rendering process.
- Multiple Version support for OctaneRender. Artists from multiple versions of OctaneRender can now run jobs on RNDR, with support for key OctaneRender 2020.2+ features like improved color space options now available.
- Optimizations like improved asset caching and improved job allocation, allowing the network to run faster and more efficiently.
RNDR Launches NFT Backend for The Frieze Art Festival
In July, RNDR and Frieze collaborated to release the NFT minting and purchasing for the Frieze Viewing Room Los Angeles edition, where the renowned arts festival released its first set of NFTs. NFTs were tokenized using RNDR, and deployed using the latest RNDR Layer 2 minting technologies. You can watch a preview of the Viewing Room here.
RNDR Added to Huobi and Gate.io Exchanges
Providing improved liquidity tools for users to access RNDR and use the network. Please see the following links for more information about using Huobi and Gate.io.
Key Talks and Articles
RNDR 2020 Roadmap Presented at GTC
At NVIDIA’s annual GPU Technology Conference (GTC), CEO Jules Urbach presented the roadmap for OctaneRender 2021 and RNDR with discussion of RNDR Phase IV including the RNDR Multi-Render Initiative, RNDR SDK Roadmap, RNDR X.IO Roadmap, NFT Roadmap, and the development of RNDR Archives.
RNDR Founder Jules Urbach Discussing the Future of NFTs on CNBC
On a Closing Bell segment on NFTs, Founder and CEO Jules Urbach discusses the future of NFTs and the next generation technologies RNDR is developing for AR and holographic displays.
RNDR and Beeple on CoindeskTV on the Future of NFTs
On First Mover from CoindeskTV, Beeple and Jules discuss their decade-long collaboration, as well as new efforts to develop the next generation of holographic NFTs using Beeple’s lifetime of works captured in the Beeple RNDR Archive.
RNDR Featured in FastCompany Feature on NFTs and Hollywood
Alongside leaders in the NFT industry, Jules Urbach discusses the intersection of NFTs and Hollywood in a FastCompany feature where he discussed emerging technologies RNDR is developing and how studios can navigate areas like IP protection and revenue sharing using NFTs.
Additional Press and Podcasts on RNDR Archives
- Decrypt Daily Podcast: A Chat with Beeple and RNDR
- Brave New Coin: Star Trekking — Jules Urbach is the Elon Musk of Rendering
- Variety — ‘Star Trek’ Creator Gene Roddenberry’s Estate Brokers Sweeping Digital Archive Deal With OTOY
- The Hollywood Reporter Alex Ross’ Comic Superheroes Headed to Crypto Art World
Best of the Metaverse
The Spring and Summer of 2021 saw remarkable growth for NFTs, especially within the RNDR community — with RNDR artists generating over a half a billion dollars in NFT sales during this period. What is even more exciting is the innovation that has been taking place in the background of NFT Summer. Some amazing new projects were released by OctaneRender and RNDR users that push the boundaries of cryptoart towards more immersive 3D experiences that are realizing new possibilities of a decentralized NFT driven metaverse.
- RNDR Artists FVCKRENDER released FVCKCRYSTALS, one of the first generative 3D collections, as part of his expanding FVCKRENDERVERSE — an immersive and interactive gaming experience that combines NFTs with virtual worlds in a revolutionary new way.
- Artist Refik Anadol released Machine Hallucinations — Space: Metaverse — one of the first fully immersive NFTs, leveraging OctaneRender and a stack of machine learning toolsets to synthesize over two million raw images captured and recorded by the International Space Station, the Hubble and MRO telescopes into a revolutionary work of immersive location based art.
- Renowned digital artist Pak released BURN.ART — a new token for engaging with and collecting the anonymous artists’ expanding set of works — many of which are created on RNDR. Recently, Pak launched Lost Poets, an NFT collectible and strategy game that combines NFT collecting, generative art, and open world gaming into a singular work.
- Gryun Kim and RNDR preview dynamic real time NFTs using RNDR, Unreal Engine, and RNDR’s X.IO service — showing the next generation of ultra-high resolution interactive NFTs and game streams using RNDR’s full stack of technologies.
- Cornelius Dämmrich (aka Zomax) creator of the OctaneRender 3 splash screen — which sold as an NFT for over 100 ETH in March — collaborated on a 16th month- long ultra high resolution render — 2003 — using RNDR to push the boundary of ultra high resolution, high detail, immersive NFTs to new levels.
- Over the past month, the leading technology platforms have unveiled plans to support NFTs and cryptocurrencies — paving the way for wider adoption of metaverse native assets. Coinbase announced it is building out an NFT platform, VISA and Stripe announced supporting crypto payments, Shopify showcased NFT storefront tools, Twitter announced NFT-based profile verification, and Adobe unveiled authentication services from Photoshop.
Coming Soon:
- OctaneRender 2022 with massive new features including the release of RNDR’s Multi-Render, bringing Autodesk’s Arnold Render to the RNDR Network.
- Updated Whitepaper and Tokenomics Roadmap in the next month we are excited to share an updated token roadmap for RNDR.
- RNDR Black Friday discounts and promotions will be unveiled later in November and are excited to share an expanded toolset for RNDR creators as part of our annual Black Friday discounted release.
We are extremely excited for the end of 2021 and are looking forward to sharing future updates as well as highlighting the RNDR community in the months ahead.
Join us in the Rendering Revolution at:
Website: https://render.x.io
Twitter: https://twitter.com/rendernetwork
Knowledge Base: https://know.rendernetwork.com/
Discord: https://discord.gg/rendernetwork
Render Network Foundation: https://renderfoundation.com/
