Feb 10
VP Guides | How to Design an NFT-derived Immersive Installation: Part 1
If you’ve already read our Whitepaper Mini, you know that the VanPoure treasury is used to fund the construction of holder-designed installations that win the community vote. If you’re interested in executing a treasury-funded installation to unlock quarterly airdrop dividends, but you’re unsure where to start, please read on, my friend!
In this multi-part guide, VanPoure breaks down designing and executing an installation into its component parts, culminating with a process film.
Let’s begin!
The NFT
The collection of Tiger’s Eye NFTs is made up of two distinct color tones. Some have more brassy tones while the others have a brighter coppery finish to them, just as there are variations across the natural gemstones. If you want to choose a Tiger’s Eye piece based on this criteria, you can find which tone it contains within the NFT’s description.
The copper version was chosen to give more of a visual ‘pop’ — these tones will produce more of a high-contrast look than their brassy counterparts when printed on black. The additional materials sourced to complement the Tiger’s Eye NFT installation will be… beautiful shiny, bright copper! We plan to work with 3D printed models made of copper, aluminum and other alloys to create a kind of galactic garden from digital florals.
We first need to set up our NFT layout so that we have our basic blueprint from which we can make decisions about placement and proportion. Materials sourcing — including printing the 3D models and figuring out attachments — will be covered in Part 2 of this guide.
Working with Templates
First, we download an installation template to experiment with orientation and play with proportion. As outlined in How to Submit a Proposal, it is best practice to save the original .png file, make a copy that is rotated 180 degrees, and name it “Filename 2.png” so that as we fill in the frame selections in the template, there is no need to do any extra rotations within Photoshop.
The space is still TBD, so the blueprint template may have to be adjusted to a different number of panels when this critical variable is set in stone, but we do know that ChromaLuxe aluminum will be used for the HD sublimation of the NFTs. To get started experimenting with a visual pattern, we chose to work within a 10 x 10 vertical template.
VanPoure placed the ruler guides to fit the NFT’s unlockable .png files perfectly, and anyone can download a template to practice.
The Layout
Using the frame tool to start pairing panels together will give us a visual starting point to decide on the orientation of each and to figure out where we will leave negative space. If you don’t know how to use the frame tool, this short tutorial walks you through its functionality.
At the beginning of working with NFTs, it is a good idea to start by making clusters paired with their same side, and then their opposite sides together to get an idea of the visual effects before finalizing the blueprint.
So far, we have created horizontal clusters attached to vertical clusters in a descending-staircase style arrangement. Since this rope-like pattern could be a suitable foundation for attachment points of the 3D models, the decision was made to continue the pattern down to the bottom edge.
Artistic Options
At this point, we are at a crossroads. We might opt for perfect symmetry and add more twisted pinstripes in the same direction across the entire layout. Alternatively, we might add visual interest by introducing a novel pattern surrounding this one. The final layout decision will depend on the desired style and personal design preferences.
Since we want to achieve a more organic and natural feeling — almost as though the aluminum and copper flora are naturally occurring extensions of the digital galaxy — we are opting to introduce a novel pattern to make it less structured and repetitive. We want to achieve a more free-flowing form and create something that is not perfectly symmetrical.
To achieve this, we added another copper-toned Tiger’s Eye piece called “Stunner” which has the same kind of curved silhouette as “Minor Key.” It is this shape that allows a continuation of the twisted rope pattern while adding in some variation in the detail work.
Additionally, the decision was made halfway through the process to switch to a horizontal style template to give the rope pattern more room to breathe and expand after deciding on the insertion of a second NFT.
Here is what the final arrangement layout looks like:
The negative space where it looks like the staircase pattern should ‘connect’ will be filled with oversized floral clusters made from 3D printed copper, aluminum and alloys. Later, we will create an illustration showing how these embellishments are arranged.
For now, we can set the background to black to get a better sense of the true color representation of the installation:
Next Steps: Embellishment Materials
The final look will appear even more organic when the 3D printed materials are applied as extensions of the digital galaxies. In Part 2 of this guide, we will cover the sourcing materials and provide illustrations of their attachment techniques, which we can use to determine how much of each component material to order.
Here’s a sneak peak at one of the ‘space flower’ 3D models we’re planning to bring to into the physical plane:
What do you think of the digital space flower model? If you want to get notified when we publish Part 2 of this post, subscribe to this publication. In the meantime, feel free to explore our guided walk-through regarding how to submit a proposal to win community funding that covers the costs of their dream installation.
The submission proposal period opens on August 1, 2022.
With enthusiasm and love, we look forward to publishing submissions for our very first round of funding. We wish our community a very happy spring season of designing and dreaming!
