Proud to see Big Digital bring home the prize from the Digital Signage Awards Yesterday for The Genesis Experience project at Pearson International Airport . As the Lead Projection Mapping Tech I designed and installed this system and maintain it to this day. Consulting with the creative and construction teams to have a complete experience within 30 seconds all framed around a highly detailed automotive projection mapping concept. The creative motion design fits perfectly into the experience and the brand identity as it reveals the car sparking it to life in front of your eyes. The visual content rendered from multiple perspectives has been wrapped around the car and the panoramic background using 6 projector. The clients wanted this level of detail so that when viewers pass by on the moving sidewalk they have a continuous viewing experience of the effect from all visible angles. Working closely with Thinkingbox , Big Digital and Juice works Exhibits I think we met all those goals and the many challenges on the way and delivered a world class installation for our Toronto International Airport.
Launched in 2018 at the Terminal 1 Parking Garage Entrance and operating 24/4 daily since then its almost timeless design and robust execution make for a long lasting activation only needing updates for future car model releases. I achieved a highly detailed projection mapping layout using Resolume Arena Advanced mapping system and what I’ll call the poly mesh technique. Running on a custom built projection mapping media server the system has 7 outputs with 6 going to the 8,000 lumens WUXGA laser projectors. With an always online server I have remote viewing and settings adjustment capabilities from my home office but I also make a monthly visit to the site to make sure things are running and looking good.
I am grateful to have had this experience working with all the teams involved and I am looking forward to the next big idea we put together. Congratulations to all the winners at the Digital Signage Awards and the honored mentions. It was great to see all the ambitious digital visual experiences people are creating around the world.
No Fungen Time ..is what I probably thought when I first heard of selling art and digital content on the blockchain based transaction platform known as NFTs (Non Fungible Tokens) and DeFi (Decentralized Financial) markets. Its been almost 2 years since I met digital artist Mike “Beeple” Winkleman at FITC Toronto in 2019 and I know he got into the NFT market shortly after that. I also attended (and projection bombed) Beeple’s first gallery show ever and got 2 signed prints for $10 each. In a very short time Mike’s work resold thousands of times and gained value exponentially across the NFT market until he absolutely blew the roof off any expectations selling out his editions for millions and selling one NFT, a collage of his many pieces for $65,000,000 making him the most expensive living artist in the world! So congratulations to Mike Beeple and thanks for taking the time to chat over a beer at the FITC fest after party. Mike calls his art Beeple Crap on Instagram where he has 2.1m followers and he has a hilarious self deprecating and cynical humor. I’ve watched his work making everyday images for years and marveled in how fast he cranks them out. Some of it is beautiful and some of it grotesque , well a lot is gross actually and provocative too but never in a sexy way… With the amount and variety of images he’s made you can’t like it all but there are so many to love. If you go to the Beeple Website you’ll find a boatload of free content like video loops and 3D asset files for creators to remix his stuff and that Is why I think I and so many love his work and highly respect his contribution to the scene of live video artists out there. The 65m reward is well deserved!
Wonder how much these signed Beeple prints I have from his first gallery show could be worth now ?
This massive value was almost unbelievable but little did I know while Bitcions were pinging off all the news channel finance segments, Ethereum had outpaced it and increased its value gaining over %1100 this year!
Ethereum Skyrockets in the past year sending the value of early NFT adopters work into orbit
Ethereum is the crypto currency and popular blockchain algorithm that NFTs are based on. NFT tokens can be used to sell pretty much anything from unique animated .gifs to real world objects. The system ensures automatic proof of ownership and chain of transactions with direct royalty payouts to the creator/copywrite holder of any Token (NTF/Item/digital collectable). As blockchain tech becomes more advanced and understood people are developing apps backed by the de-centralized automatic system.
If there is a barrier in getting going with crypto currency/NFT trading, it is likely the endless wave of apps and services claiming to offer you the best and most secure experience. There are a few I have found to be safe and well managed and there are many that are not, then to compound that issue, the good ones are swamped by a huge increase in interest causing delays in customer service. Buyer beware if you are shopping around the various markets and money apps needed to enter the market. Make sure you are not being fished for info on a fake site or depositing money to a unknown entity. The last and most significant barrier is the cost. Like most sales platforms there are fees involved and the “GAS’ fees you will have to pay to list and sell items can add up. It cost me about $40 to list a multi edition item on Rarible and each item you list there charges gas based on various settings I think. OpeanSea lets you create items for free but the charge is taken off when a sale happens and the first time you auction something you get dinged about $90 for a onetime wallet verification or so it says.
So if you’re still reading, let me share a few tips and links to get you heading in the right direction. If you’re already holding or trading crypto you should be good to go but from my experience as a artist with little block-chain/NFT knowledge I had to find out what works to begin selling my own NFT creations .
First you are going to need a wallet. It’s what you use as ID to sign in to blockchain sites and make transactions. You can get a wallet and access the NFT market sites and even publish content without any currency balance .
I explored a couple and settled on MetaMask – https://metamask.io/ You need to get the Meta Mask Extension app for your browser and then sign up for your wallet account.
With your Crypto Currency Wallet you can make profiles on blockchain sites and will have a set address anyone can send ETH or BTC into. This is known as a hot storage wallet ( HOT = software based, Cold storage is a offline hardware device)
Next you will need a way to load your wallet with crypto currency. Enter Shake Pay ! Shake Pay is an amazingly easy way to buy crypto if you have a Canadian Bank account.
This is where I had the most trouble spending days attempting to use bank account connections or linked credit cards sharing my personal info more that I’d like to admit. In Canada and many other countries the big banks are blocking crypto type transactions for various reasons so you may be forced to use a 3rd party money sending/crypto market app. I can only recommend Shake Pay for my fellow Canadians, especially those having trouble finding other ways to buy crypto coins.
Now after verification you can load your shake pay account with CAD via E-mail Money Transfer. Follow the simple steps in the app to the letter and this works fast and easy!
Finally you can buy some Crypto currency with your Dollar balance… Go get that ETH!
Trade enough dollars for at least .1 ETH . ( TIP – purchase at least .1 ETH because that is the minimum you can send out to a wallet address.)
Remember .1 ETH Minimum transfer amount = about $260 CAD at the time of publishing)
Once you have the Ethereum in your Pay App or other exchange of your choice you can then send it into your ETH (metamask) wallet address for use across the range of blockchain websites and apps.
Visit NFT Marketplace sites like Rarible and OpenSea.ioThere are many more like the high profile NiftyGateway but these type are more closed and for established artists requiring portfolio approval and partnership to schedule your drops. Artists that do sell on these more curated sites can sell for very high price from the high profile visibility.
Please do use the links I provided in this post to reward yourself and me too by getting a referral credit from my account
Use my Shake Pay Link and we both get $30 when you buy your first $100 in crypto! FREE Money you’ll need for “gas” fees to get started anyway. Any referral bonuses I receive will be put towards minting new art tokens or buying from other creators!
Use my OpenSea refferal link and get started on a profile so you can buy/trade or make your own NFTs
So now, if you did the above, I hope you are ready to explore the world of NFT arts and trading in crypto coins. You should quickly see the power and potential in this exciting new technology the more you use it . Make a profile on OpeanSea with your wallet for free and you can favourite cool pieces and follow the creators you like. Now I am holding some Ethereum and I have minted my first NFT art editions as well as purchased a collectable from another interesting creator. Lets hope it all continues to grow in value and popularity and that some folks in the blockchain arts community like what we share and support the drops from VJ Guy – Livevideoart .
