Interview with IC3DNF: At the Crossroads of Art and Tech

IC3D NFT is a father and son team that has future NFT collections, games, and Metaverse experiences as part of its roadmap. They believe that the Internet Computer will be one of the most valuable NFT ecosystems due to the low gas fees and eventual use of the blockchain by non-technical people.

1. How would you describe your artistic style?‌‌

The artist for IC3D NFTs is my son Josh Galler. Josh is a junior in high school and is just starting his graphic arts career, and his interests are primarily in 3D modeling. Josh had been creating 3D objects using Blender for about a year prior to us starting the ICGhost NFT project. ‌‌

2. What drew you to NFT creation rather than traditional canvas-based art?‌‌

Given that Josh’s primary artistic interests are digital 3D modeling, it just made sense to sell his art as NFTs. I have over 30 years of experience in software development, and Josh and I thought this would be a cool way to bring our talents together to do something fun. We like to say that we work at the crossroads of art and technology.‌‌

3. Are there any artists who have inspired you? What do you like about their work?‌‌

Josh is mainly inspired by the online 3D games that he plays. LOL!‌‌

4. What made you create NFTs?‌‌

Like I said above, NFTs just seemed to make the most sense for a 3D modeling graphics designer. I was very involved in the IC community as an ICPMN Ambassador prior to starting IC3D NFTs. So, I love the Internet Computer and NFT tech, while Josh loves to create 3D things. Launching an NFT project has been a good combination of our skills. ‌‌

5. Can you tell us about your project?‌‌

IC3D NFT is creating things for your virtual world. Our first project is the Halloween-themed ICGhost interactive 3D NFT scenes. Our public sale started on October 29th and ends on November 8th. Each scene comprises of six 3D NFTs, and the entire scene can be rotated, zoomed, and panned.

Additionally, each of the six 3D NFTs can be traded individually. They are treated like wearables. So they can be swapped out for different 3D NFTs. So, if you would like to get a different hat for your ICGhost, you can swap it out.‌‌‌‌‌‌

In a future version of the 3D renderer/editor, NFT owners will be able to move, rotate, and resize each 3D NFT in their scenes. Additionally, more items will be able to be added to their scenes. Even 3D NFTs from other creators follow the same standard. We also plan to allow owners to download the 3D models of their NFTs and get creative with them.‌‌

6. How many NFTs will be minted? Can you talk us through the process of how you create the art?‌‌‌‌

A total of 10k ICGhost 3D NFT scenes were minted, and 3,000 were reserved for marketing, airdrops, and collaborations. The remaining 7,000 were listed on the Entrepot Marketplace as part of the public sale.‌‌‌‌The 3D models are created in a 3D modeling tool called Blender. Once they are completed, then they are exported to .glb files. These files are a part of the 3D web rendering standard called glTF. The NFTs are viewed through a 3D web renderer that was created specifically for the ICGhost NFT release. ‌‌

7. Will Your NFT be able to breed, stake, or ever be in a game?‌‌

We will be creating a game, but the game may use one of our future 3D NFT collections. Our next collection is a collaboration with Visions to create 3D ICMojis, and we think 3D ICMojis would be fun in a game.‌‌

8. What benefits do you think the Internet Computer has over other L1 blockchains when it comes to creating NFTs?‌‌

Low gas fees.‌‌

9. What other art have you seen that excites you in the Internet Computer NFT ecosystem?‌‌

We are friends with a number of other project teams in the IC NFT ecosystem. Some of our favorite projects are ICGallery, PokedStudio bots, Wild and West, Meme Cake, and ICApes. All of these not only have cool art, but they have big plans for future NFT utility.‌‌

10. What excites you most about your launch? ‌‌

We were the first interactive 3D model NFTs with wearables to launch in the Internet Computer NFT marketplace. Our NFTs are interactive, so owners can experience them differently than they can with 2D NFTs. We have pushed the boundaries of what 3D NFTs are doing, and we intend to keep doing so. The ICGhost 3D NFTs are just the beginning of our quest into the IC Metaverse. ‌‌

11. What advice would you give to anyone trying to enter into the world of NFTs?‌‌

It is not easy to be an NFT creator. Some may think that creating and selling an NFT is as easy as uploading their digital art to a marketplace, and that part is simple. However, it takes a lot of work to create a successful NFT project and do it respectably. If you want to release your NFT collection, just be prepared for a lot of work. I have a day job, so prior to the ICGhost NFT release, I put in 18 hour days for two months straight to make the project successful. ‌‌

12. Do you have further plans to work with ICP Squad in the future after this initial sale?‌‌

Yes, we have future NFT collections, games, and Metaverse experiences as part of our roadmap. We want to keep the ICP Squad community updated about these milestones as we go and maybe even do some special ICP Squad branding in the future.‌‌

13. Can you envisage a future where the most valuable NFT space is on the Internet Computer?‌‌‌‌

If not the most valuable, certainly one of the most valuable due to the low gas fees and eventual use of the blockchain by non-technical people.‌‌

14. Why do you think NFTs have become so valuable in such a short space of time?‌‌

The speed is probably due primarily to how new the technology is. While NFT technology has some fascinating use cases and I think will always be a part of our future, there is a lot of hype right now that will wear off after some time. I guess at some time, the focus on visual art as the primary NFT use case will fade a bit as other use cases get more attention.‌‌

15. Tell us about your team?‌‌

The founders are my son Josh and I. As a software development program manager, my passion is building teams. Because of this, I built the rest of the team through various partnerships, collaborations, and community building.‌‌

In addition to our various partners and collaborators, an essential part of our team is our Discord Core Team and Country Moderators. They have put in a lot of hard work building our community and were crucial to our success, and I can’t thank them enough.‌‌

16. What advantages do you believe you have over other competitors?‌‌

I think creating 3D NFTs in advance of the full development of the IC Metaverse is an advantage. We are paving the path for many others to come behind us. However, we are currently at the leading edge of 3D NFTs on the IC, and we will continue to bring innovations to the 3D NFT space. We believe that our niche will be in the creation of things for a virtual world. People will want many things to bring into the Metaverse with them, and we are working on creating them. ‌‌

17. Tell us about your partners?‌‌

We built our project on partnerships and collaborations, so the list is long.

First, we have to recognize Dfinity since none of our accomplishments would be possible without their development of the IC. We had an AMA with Liz Yang on the Dfinity Community Conversations Show, which was a lot of fun. It is probably the best way to get to know us and our visions for the future. https://youtu.be/kz4DoIiptAg‌‌

Liz also picked our art to be one of the Dfinity ICONIC NFT Gallery displays at NFTNYC.‌‌

ToniqLabs has been an instrumental partner and has done a lot of work to get the brand new concept of 3D NFTs launched on their Entrepot Marketplace and supported by their Stoic wallet.‌‌
The Meme Cake team developed a 3D model renderer prototype that was the basis for the renderer integration into Entrepot and Stoic.‌‌
Visions did our website, our logos, and all of our promotional materials for ICGhost‌‌.
As an ICPMN Ambassador, we received a ton of support and advice from The ICPMaxamilist and all the other ICPMN Ambassadors.‌‌
The Wild and West team helped us with our kick-off deck, social media marketing, and Discord moderation.‌‌
We have been collaborating with the Drip. Land team on some future projects.‌‌
The Fleek Plug team helped us test support for ICGhost in the Plug wallet.‌‌
We collaborated with the DSCVR team to execute some of our contests on DSCVR to reduce the influence of bots and alt accounts.‌‌‌‌

18. Tell us about the challenge you face while building your project?‌‌

The biggest challenge was educating the NFT community on how our NFTs were different. I don’t think many people understood what we meant by interactive 3D NFTs until they got them in their wallets. Many people had only experienced 2D art as NFTs, so they did not know what to expect. Once they were able to play around with their 3D NFTs, they started to understand what we are doing.‌‌

19. What are your short and long-term achievements and targets? ‌‌

Our short-term targets are to launch a number of 3D NFTs to demonstrate 3D NFT interoperability and advancements. Our NFTs are built on a standard that will be brought into games and Metaverse experiences.‌‌

Our long-term targets are to be instrumental in creating things for the Metaverse and the development of Metaverse experiences. ‌‌

20. Give us details about your roadmap.‌‌

Our following 3D NFT collection will be a series of 3 releases for the 3D ICMoji collection. We are also planning a New Year-themed 3D NFT that will make some further advancements in the experience of 3D NFTs. In 2022 we will tackle a game as well as start some Metaverse experiences.‌‌

Thank you for taking the time to answer our questions 😊

Connect with IC3D NFT:

Discord | Twitter | Website: ic3dnft.art

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