Creadore Studios, a hub for NFT communities
Premise
The Creadore Studios building is a structure that serves as a center for a community and as an information point for interested new users.
Mission
Our mission is to create a building that accurately represents the brand, incorporating the most essential elements in a modern style with a Sci-Fi touch. The environment should be visually clean, with a focus on highlighting the NFT art as a key point of interest in the scene.
Project creation - Art
First layouts y building distribution
The idea for this building aimed to incorporate the Creadore Studios logo and its distinctive colors inspired by its social networks and website.
The building contains five floors,with the top floor serving as a chill-out rooftop featuring sponsorship from another of its brands. The layout of the building includes:
- Lobby: showcasing the most important NFTs and providing information about the collections.
- Seconf floor: hosting a Decentraland wearables store and a streaming zone.
- Third floor: dedicated to an NFT display.
- Fourth floor: initially planned as a play area but transformed into an exhibition space for the Start Dust project.
- Rooftop chill out: the final floor for relaxation.
Several initial blocking proposals proposed were considered for the project, as putlined before.
However, none of them succesfully achieved the desired integration of the brand.
The completed building incorporates multiple hexagons to form its structure, with a central hexagon taking a crucial role in one of the primary rooms — the third floor. This central hexagon features large orange-tinted crystals, and the brand name shines prominently in the middle. Surrounding this central and significant element of the building, the rest of the rooms and structures were built with a focus on maintaining equal cutting angles or following a specific pattern.
The completed building features a larger access door to create the desired sense of spaciousness.
Here are the proposals for the door replacement:
The final result of the building layout is this:
Color and style
The design of this building aimed for a Sci-Fi style with wide spaces to induce a clean and sleek atmosphere for the user. The primary color scheme rotates around orange and white, representing the brand, while darker colors were strategically employed to provide contrast and complex details.
The textures and materials used in this building adhere to the PBR (Physically Based Rendering) standard, ensuring a realistic and visually appealing aesthetic.
Animation and integration of 3D models for NFT collections in the lobby
The integration of 3D models from NFT collections into the lobby (in Decentraland) raised certain challenges due to the platform’s limitations on scene size and characteristics (such as the number of triangles, textures and height). The initial 3D models provided were high-resolution and optimized for rendering, not for the specific use in Decentraland. The first step involved a significant reduction of their complexity, bringing them down from millions of triangles to either 5K or 3K each. To achieve this, a retopology process was employed using Maya, and in some cases, Zbrush was used before further refining in Maya.This approach helped streamline and optimize the heavy models efficiently.
Another challenge was raised by the textures, which were initially too resource-intensive. To maintain quality despite reducing resolution, Substance Painter was used. The process involved using the original, downsized texture, baking details from the high-poly geometry to the low-poly version, and manually refining the textures. The final textures were kept at 512x512 resolution, preserving much of the original quality. The client’s preference for a stone-style texture led to a color adjustment to turn aside from the original tones.
To make the presentation of these models more dynamic, a lobby stand with several information points was created. The models appear and disappear by means of a simple looping transition animation. This approach not only adds a layer of interactivity to the presentation but also ensures that the models are introduced to the audience in an engaging and visually appealing manner.
Wearables
On the second floor, there is a wearables store for Decentraland. By making a purchase, users can wear a skin than transforms them into one of the 3D models from Creadore Studios’ NFT collections. This immersive experience adds a layer of customization and engagement for visitors who can represent the unique characters from the Studios’ NFT universe.
Creadore Studios 2D/UI and language options
The UI design follows the same basic elements as the building aesthetics, incorporating the two key brand elements — oragne and white. Black is strategically used to highlight letters and important details, maintaining a clean and pure style. This cohesive approach secures a seamless transition from the virtual environment’s architecture to its user interface, providing visitors with a visually uniformed and immersive experience.
Creadore Studios’ diverse community with both Spanish and English speakers, the entire building seamlessly incorporates multiple language options. This ensures that when accessing information, users can choose their preferred language for a customized experience.
The commitment to inclusivity and accessibility is reflected not only in the design and structure but also in the consideration of diverse linguistic preferences, fostering a more welcoming and user-friendly virtual environment.
Evolution of floor 4: from game room to 'Start Dust' showcase
Originally designed as a dynamic game room offering a gamified experience for the public, the purpose of floor 4 underwent a strategic shift. The decision was made to transform it into a dedicated showcase for the 'Start Dust' project and a hub for event-related news.
Complementary animations
To infuse vitality into the building, different animations were implemented, including interactions with the UI language buttons, energy pulses on all floors and proximity interaction with the elevator.
The elevator incorporates multiple animation states, dynamically responding to proximity. When users approach, the elevator activates, revealing the buttons for interaction. In return, when not in close proximity, it deactivates, providing a realistic and responsive experience within the virtual space.
Code
The development journey of Creadore Studios was an amazing experience, involving the creation of a captivating butterfly avatar that accompanies users throughout the entire building.
Responding to our client’s unique request, we implemented “private zones” accessible only to individuals who owned specific NFTs, obtainable through purchasing their merchandise. We seamlessly integrated these private rooms into the building, restricting access to certain floors based on NFT ownership.
Furthermore, for users who had already purchased merchandise, a special code was provided. This code could be entered into a designated console within the scene, activating a wearable dispenser. This dispenser facilitated the claiming of brand avatars as NFT skins in Decentraland, offering an interactive and customized experience for users who engaged with the brand.
Conclusion
This project allows us to explore the possibilities of interaction and UI by integrating several languages of the user's choice. On a structural level, the correct integration of the logo was a challenge, but it was resolved by concluding that a central piece was the best solution.
