On March 6, 22:00 CET, Somnium Space and KnownOrigin will have a joint product launch: The first ever 360° NFT ecosystem, featuring 360° art pioneer Natural Warp.
In this article we will let Natural Warp explain the road to this remarkable milestone.
On harassing developers and Somnium Space
Soon after I arrived in the crypto scene, somewhere March 2020, I began to harass some developers and many platform crew members with my ongoing request: To start integrating 360° artworks in the market. Very soon however, it felt as if I was the only one pushing for this to happen, so I practiced patience and let the idea “there is no market for this (yet)” slowly sink in.
But not so long after that, the first successful opening happened in Somnium Space VR, a blockchain based, persistent virtual world, when its visionary CEO Artur Sychov and his team made it possible for users to upload both 360° images and 360° video, which could be viewed and even teleported into in VR. This feature was a very enabling tool for me at the time since I always envisioned a widespread use of the 360° sphere both for artistic and commercial purposes, but hadn't seen much integration happening on social platforms beyond FB (even until this day).
On the 360 workflow, experimentation, squeezing and stitching
I started working on my 360° workflow more or less 5 years ago and after some experimentations on the spherical canvas I soon bumped on the first issues. The top and bottom, where the image squeezes together and the left and right sides where the flat plane of the jpg is stitched together when wrapped into a ball. All who know the 360° photo sphere image is basically an equirectangular jpg map with a 2:1 ratio might also be aware this is back and forth convertible to a cube map with the ratio 3:4 (also known as a skybox among developers, gamers and 3D artists).
After I started mixing my somewhat experimental and whimsical freehand painting on this EQ map with the possibilities of adding perspective and depth using the cubical map I soon realized I needed more knowledge about the relation of the sphere to the cube and beyond.
On Paul Bourke
So I started digging and bumped into the work of Paul Bourke who had provided true in-depth information on how basic / sacred geometry was mapped onto the equirectangular map and thus connecting our regular cube with the sphere and all platonic solids in between. Definitely a must for all who wish to understand. http://paulbourke.net/geometry/
So as soon as I started out with the unwrapping of a tennis and a soccer ball construction in my mind I discovered a world of wonder and became interested in geodesic structures and further unraveling down the road eventually towards my sweet spot.
Perfecting the work, experimentation and launch of 360° NFT artworks
After more than a year trying to perfect both my workflow in 360° art and 360° video the true artistic experimentation could finally begin. On May 1st, 2019 I published “True Anomaly” to show off my knowledge of the integration of the cube and geodesic design in a 360° sphere.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1729196449
And now, on Saturday March 6th, 2021 I will officially release the first ever 360° NFT artworks on the blockchain in collaboration with Somnium Space and KnownOrigin.
https://somniumspace.com/
https://knownorigin.io/
The event will happen both in SomniumSpace VR (for which you can download the software from their website) and the browser based WEB client.
You can visit the venue through this direct link: https://somniumspace.com/parcel/752?elv=2.2
See you there !!!
Further ramblings on what happened in my mind while working on these pieces you will find in the descriptions of the 360° NFT artworks in my KnownOrigin portfolio:
https://knownorigin.io/natural-warp
(I will start accepting offers only after the event).
What’s more, you might even find a hidden airdrop of $WARP during the launch event (in both VR and WEB).
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