Our Woodies Origin Journey
Almost half a million views later, we still can’t believe the success of the Woodies Origin short film. Or at least, I still can’t. This project was a particular journey in many ways: It was the first NFT-related 3D short film at Woodblock and a complex project in terms of scope. A challenge, indeed. And for me, as a new hire who just move from Ecuador to an unknown European work environment, it was like a dream come true.
During the Woodies Origin production, our team was a well-oiled machine that made the sailing enjoyable and smooth as we approached the unknown: the production. Don't take me wrong, we knew what we were doing (or at least, they did). But we all were well aware of everything that could go wrong: team synergy, miscommunication, and client’s constant changes. A single misstep can be manageable, but several of them can cause frustration among the team and the customer, and weeks of work will be undone. Fortunately, this wasn’t the case.
All the artists were extraordinary, our creative side aligned perfectly with the UltraDAO and the team of Production & Lead complemented each other. The team not only managed to tell a heartwarming and emotional origin story based on the fan’s beloved lore, but we pushed the overall quality to a Buzz Lightyear level. It was and still is a beautiful project and we are overjoyed every time we read the comments from the fans.
I wanted to know what my colleagues thought about the project, not only about their experience but also about the future of decentralized IP creation, something that I as a future showrunner was particularly excited about. Tom Weber, creative director, Helen Choi, Co-creative director and Lead Artist, and our senior producer Alicia Kowol joined me for this conversation.
How was your general experience working on Woodies?
Tom: It was a very enjoyable process for me. The collaboration with the amazing team and the client were terrific from beginning to end. A welcome change from doing product-oriented commercials to full-on animated storytelling.
Helen: I had a blast working on the Woodies project. From the Woodblock side, I was assigned as a project lead along with my colleague Thorsten Löffler and eventually, I also helped Tom Weber with Creative decision-making. It’s a great combo for an enjoyable project when you have a good team, an intriguing project, and supportive clients.
Alicia: Working on Woodies was a real joy. I fell in love with all the characters from the beginning, and it was amazing to see them come to life.
Woodies have a big fanbase in the NFT space. What aspects of storytelling needed to be considered regarding the fans?
Alicia: The most challenging aspect was bringing the story of the Woodies from something that had previously just existed in the NFT world and on paper to life in animation, converting a 2D world into a 3D world, and creating a short film that was compelling, impactful, and emotional.
Helen: Whether it’s NFT fans or not, the fanbase absolutely influenced certain storytelling decisions. We often switched our perspective as an audience to simulate what it would be like to be viewing the short film for the first time. We thought about how we could set up more teaser elements for future episodes. There are a couple of shots where Arden’s spirit appears inside the tree. It was a conscious decision to include other Woodies’ characters in several trees so we can return to this moment in a future episode.
Tom: The Woodies NFT project came to life quite a while before the production of this animation and from the start has been built on a strong backstory with well-fleshed-out lore the fans already knew and cherished the parts that make up this origin story. So naturally, we stuck closely to the main structure and made a big emphasis on introducing many of the characters to broaden the scope and lay a true foundation for future episodes by hinting at the bigger picture. In addition to this, a successful project like the Woodies with a strong, artistic-oriented audience creates a lot of fan art which gave us some great pointers on how the community envisions the world of their beloved NFT characters.
Some clients can be difficult to work with. How was the relationship between Woodblock x Woodies/UltraDao?
Tom: I would say both sides were very much driven by great passion and it was a delightful cooperative spirit throughout the whole development and production time. The Woodies founders already made their 10k avatar project unique by providing a rich world-building as a base for their IP universe and that commitment to depth and quality is also what drives great animation art, so we were very aligned in our goals. Compared to a lot of client work in the animation field, especially in traditional advertising contexts, this was a relationship of mutual respect and hence did not come with the usual pitfalls and difficulties that often arise in other client work.
Alicia: Honestly, one of the best client-production company relationships I have ever experienced. From the very beginning, we entered into a very open, fruitful, creative relationship, growing Woodies’ world together. There was also a lot of trust from UltraDao, which was amazing: They trusted us to create the world of the Woodies in 3D and animation and allowed us a lot of creative freedom. And they were always so in love with the things we presented them.
Helen: It was a harmonious and respectful relationship. Woodies/UltraDao clients cheered us on from beginning to end. I just realized it feels odd to call them our clients because it never felt like we were on different wavelengths. We saw eye to eye. Most importantly, Woodies’ clients fully trusted us, giving us the space to do what we do best. Thanks to that, we could fully focus on making beautiful imagery and not waste energy trying our way through different opinions.
In your opinion, what were the key factors that made the short film a successful experience?
Helen: In terms of having a successful short filmmaking experience, my priority would be sharing meaningful time with the team. Another would be if some obstacles or challenges taught us something substantial and if we can grow from it in the future. Considering those criteria, it was a fruitful experience.
Tom: The amazing collaboration with the Woodies team and the joy that came from that. It infused our team at Woodblock throughout the project and everybody involved was delighted to see this universe come to life in the process of production time.
Alicia: Trust, creativity, and the joy of working together on something amazing. All the fantastic animation artists working at Woodblock were a key factor as well.
And we managed to get a fantastic composer on board for this project: Gareth Coker, who had previously created the wonderful soundtrack of the Ori games. He convinced us to record the soundtrack with a full symphonic orchestra and his music made the whole film even better and even more emotional.
One watches the film differently when you were part of the team vs. the projects you weren’t involved in. If you were to watch the Woodies’ short film imagining you weren’t at all part of the production process, what would you point to as the most challenging aspect of the production?
Alicia: I think what people don’t really see is the many many hours of detailed work our artists pour into a project of this size. From carefully modeling the characters, to painstakingly rigging them so they can move perfectly in all directions, from painting them with all the details to working on shading, lighting, etc.
It also took weeks of work by some incredibly talented artists to create the fantastic and beautiful environments you now see in the film.
And then, of course, animating everything, lighting it, creating the effects… there are so many hours of work by so many talented people and it is really hard to understand the full extent of love and effort we all have put into Woodies.
Helen: If I were to watch the Woodies project pretending I was not part of the production, I would wonder how Woodblock approached world-building. What kind of pipeline would it have been, how many people worked on it, etc.
Also, I would be curious about the workflow, and the initial story. How was the original Lore translated into storyboards, and then into the 3D process. Each step along the way, there’s always a curious turn, and I would wonder what decisions along the way resulted in the short film we currently see. Those are definitely challenging choices to make.
Tom: From the perspective of an animation director not involved in the process I think I would be most interested in the pre-production aspects. Mainly how the original story was adapted into a script/storyboard, how was the character development from 2D to 3D handled, etc. Generally a making-of and look-behind-the-scenes.
How do you think projects like Woodies will change the IP industry? Is decentralized IP creation the future?
Alicia: I hope it is because I would love to see more interesting content that has not been created by one of the big studios or streaming services. There are so many stories that want to be told and they come from so many diverse angles… It is just great to have more diverse stories, even for niche audiences.
Tom: That has to be seen. I would love to see more animation work being developed about strong & upcoming IPs.
That also has to be seen. Decentralized creation is a quite new approach and comes with many challenges. I think there are multiple ways to create impactful IPs but I would like to see more projects using the decentralized approach so the whole community can learn from this.
Helen: I don’t know. I think my point might be that no one knows. If they think they know, they don’t.
What do you think the fans will expect from future Woodies’ projects?
Tom: Looking at the response from the community I can definitely say everybody was stoked to see their IP being expanded through animated storytelling and it seems they are hungry for more. And this was conceived as an origin story, the beginning of a much larger storyline and so it is an ‘Episode1’ hinting at more to come.
Since we created everything in 3D the community is already asking for NFTs that go beyond the 2D images usually being made in the platform. Which is something we at Woodblock also would love to see. As I mentioned, there is a lot of fan art coming out of the community, and fueling this creative drive with usable 3D assets will hopefully spark so much creativity and create an outlet for the passion of the fans in being a part of shaping the Woodies’ universe.
Helen: I would think the fans would be in for more animated episodes! Arden’s origin is only the beginning, and more story awaits! I certainly hope that Woodblock gets to make more episodes!
Alicia: I think so! I really hope one day we will be able to create a whole Woodies series and I would be honored to produce it!
As with all journeys, this has come to a near end. But the fun part is that Woodblocks’ and mine own have just gotten started.
In the meantime, go watch Woodies Origin, if you haven’t yet.
