DoRac Metaverse: Walla Walla Studio’s Contribution to an Exceptional Visual Experience

NFTs & 3D Art: From Concept to 7K+ Unique NFT Skins

The world of NFT blockchain games is rapidly evolving, and the emergence of the DoRac Metaverse has added an exciting new dimension to this space. And this is where the story of our contribution and a great partnership begins.

Who is the client? Meet the DoRac Metaverse

DoRac is conceived as a crypto-based play-and-earn game with RPG elements and NFT player profile picture skins. 

The DoRac world created by brothers Gatis Parols and Arins Parols and their team of professionals immerses you into a post-apocalyptic atmosphere. Here dog race competitions are the key business for earning money and reputation points for the players. 

Our workflow started right after DoRac’s founders contacted us on ArtStation with a request for a 3D main character modeling according to a concept. And after that, we proved to be helpful in creating much more art for the DoRac project and became a part of it.

What was our total input to the DoRac metaverse project?

• A 3D model of the main character;

• 200 unique semi-realism-styled 3D assets for the main character’s appearance (done in 1.5 months!);

• Using different combinations of these 200 assets, the main character can be modified for up to 7000+ unique variations of NFT skins;

• 3D models of 3 racing dogs (which can also become NFT collectibles). The dogs were designed using 13 national patterns to bring an authentic vibe to the game;

• A video trailer showcasing the DoRac project’s idea.

In this story, we’re going to focus on 3D modeling and rendering challenges for creating an NFT collection. And here’s a tip from the start.

EXPERT TIP: Why develop art for NFT collections with a professional art studio?

Giving us a request our client already had experience cooperating with freelance artists, and it didn’t work for them for this project. Here are the reasons why:

1. Style consistency

NFT collections are counted by hundreds or thousands of various unique assets. The mechanics of creating an NFT collection is that any combination of these assets should result in an NFT variation with a consistent style. And all the assets must be of the same high quality and have that distinctly recognizable style. 

2. Communication

Imagine you have 20 – 30 freelance artists working on a project to deliver by the deadline. Who’s going to set aside time to communicate with all these people to control the style unity?

3. Deadlines

Mostly the terms of delivering for NFT projects are clearly-set and too short to afford any experiments.

That’s why only a high-end art development studio can deal with creating NFT collections. With a producer responsible for the perfect result of the project, an art director in charge of art style consistency and quality, and a project manager masterfully communicating and approving all stages of the process with 20+ people.

Pipeline

Stage #1: Creating a trial 3D main character with a set of 12 elements

There was an understanding of the character’s concept but the style and quality were not defined making the final look unclear. 

What will the character’s skin look like? Should it be detailed to the veins? What about the guy’s hair quality? Should it shine? What will be the clothing fabric textures for the assets? Is his leather jacket glossy or mate? 

These and other questions were to decide at this stage to finalize a 3D model of the main DoRac character.

“The clients coming with a raw concept often do not know about the challenges which may appear at the stage of rendering as the concept is not technically thought out. That’s why we advise our clients: feel free to come to us at the stage of conception! We understand all the issues of subsequent rendering, so together we’ll create a concept working smoothly for all stages of development”, – Igor, the producer of the project, shares a piece of advice.

Stage #2 – 3D modeling of the whole construct

It means creating all the 200 unique assets for the main character. So here we have a real art squad engaged:

• 18 people – 3D modeling artists,
• Art director,
• 2 art leads,
• Project manager,
• Producer.

How we delivered 200 unique 3D assets in 1.5 months?

• In the Walla Walla team, there are experienced artists of various specializations: professionals in hard surface design, clothes and accessories assets design, human anatomy artists, etc. Each type of asset has its performer, and that allows us to offer high-end quality results in short terms;

• A talented project manager is on board! Our PM Alina shows in this project how a project manager can creatively keep the balance of the process. 

“If you think that something’s impossible, I won’t agree. There’s a solution for every kind of task. Ways to achieve any goal do exist. And it’s a complete myth that some elements of the process need to suffer while others are given attention. I’m balancing the PM triangle of “goals-budget-timeline” with benefits for every stage.” – commented Alina, the project manager working on “DoRac” tasks.

Stage #3 – Rendering (and here comes the main challenge)

As for rendering and layout, we need to say that this stage often needs additional research. 3D modeling of separate assets is quite clear, but how are these assets going to interact with each other in the layout? 

How do the clothes fit the different parts of the body? How are the accessories layering? And the most crucial – how to naturally show the shadows on the assets layering one on top of the other in various asset combinations?

What were the toughest challenges?

Challenge #1 – Overlap

The layout showed several moments of assets overlapping: the clothing sleeve doesn’t match the character’s cyber arm, the elbow and the shoulder stick out of the clothes or the accessories are not layering properly. And it’s quite a deal when you’re going to make over 7K combinations with these assets.

How did we solve the problem?

• The rendering was done with masks;
• Where the masks couldn’t be used, we pulled the asset out on the post and painted it over;
• The blocks were made for assets so that they were seen only within the allowed borders.

Challenge #2 – Shadows / light display on each asset in the layout

DoRac’s characters really have a lot of various types of assets which they can be diversified by. Numerous types of clothes, hairstyles, beards, cyber arms, tattoos, trinkets, and other cosmetic traits. 

For example, when a character wears a particular hoodie completed with a golden chain as a bijou, the shadows on the hoodie and the bijou should not conflict, not overlap each other, and look maximum natural ​​corresponding to a semi-realism style.

How did we solve the problem?

• The shadows of the element were included in the layer with this element, so they overlapped correctly.

EXPERT TIP: How pre-production helps to predict overlap issues?

If the client comes with an NFT creation request at the pre-production stage, you should think of and cover the issues of assets overlapping right at this stage, before 3D modeling has begun.

If the client comes with a ready-made concept, it’s harder to find fast and easy solutions to manage overlapping at the rendering stage. Be ready that it will take additional time and resources.

“But overall, the overlap is not a pain that can be cured right away. Every time it’s a new challenge that can’t be dealt with in one particular way. Each project makes us find specially-dedicated solutions”, – our producer, Igor, shares his experience.

Stage #4 – The results delivered!

After 4 months of creative work, we were happy to present the results. Now it’s time for our client’s words which will speak louder than ours:

“Our project has been working with Walla Walla Studio for the past few months. The guys put in a lot of effort to explain how things work and what might be the best approach to the specific task at hand. Professional and friendly team, easy to communicate with. Whenever there is a misunderstanding or things to be fixed or adjusted they are here to do it with no questions asked. A real pleasure to work with.” 

Gatis Parols, CEO, DoRac

https://vimeo.com/801934579

DoRac NFT skins development would be impossible without

• an art direction consistency and instant communication;
• a big experienced professional team;
• our client’s result-oriented approach, trust, and openness to experiments.

And with our future clients, we would like to share a short guide below, which will help to organize our cooperation on NFT design effectively.

Art development for NFT collections. What to consider?

1. Quality pre-production guarantees your success. 

You can come to us just with your idea, without preparing any concepts yourself. When the studio helps you in the stage of the conception of your idea, the final results will impress you to the maximum.

2. Ask the studio for creativity! 

NFT is the niche where you can’t be ordinary or just normal. It’s not the case when you can overdo it with an extraordinary approach.

3. Always plan the time for unpredictable challenges. 

If it’s not enough time for art development then even the best marketing in the world won’t save a hastily made product.

4. Think of giving your NFT assets more color variations.

Instead of creating more absolutely unique assets, you may plan to vary colors of several existing assets to make more exclusive combinations. That can reduce your budget for design.

5. Give the art studio more info on your engine / allow us to test your engine.

If we have this info in the pre-production stage, we’ll adjust the concept to the maximum of your engine capability.

If you are interested in creating a unique and valuable digital art collection, Walla Walla’s art development service is just one click away. Let’s create something truly special together!