[DAO:8cda91d] Feeka Café - Wearable Asset Pipeline Tutorial Series

Governance
1

by 0x82d54417fc69681dc74a6c0c68c6dbad5a2857b9 (Malloy)

Should the following $10,000 grant in the Documentation category be approved?

Abstract

After 2 years providing outsourcing art services for real-time game engine metaverse assets, Feeka Café is pivoting from art outsource house to web3 game studio and would love to leave a catalogue of techniques for ambitious wearable artists and designers of all skill levels.

Grant size

10,000 USD in MANA

Project duration

1 month

Beneficiary address

0xCC7BC60bFcC029ecC8357A9c80b4CC51aF67798E

Email address

malloy@feekagames.com

Description

INTRODUCTION:

Hi y’all,

For those who don’t know me, I’m Malloy! I came to Decentraland in the beginning of 2021, at that time I co-ran an independent outsource art studio for 6 years and had worked with traditional game studios, creative agencies and large clients in web2.

HISTORY:

My first 3D professional job was at the age of 18 and it was for a digital marketing agency working for shopping television deadlines. After a hectic introduction to the 3D art world and working on product launches like Dre Beats back in 2009, I wanted to get back to my passions and went to university to study game art. During the 2nd year of studies I managed to secure a position as an art intern in a game studio working on launch titles for the Xbox One/PS4.

This isn’t a long way of saying I’m old (lol), but I’ve grown with the technical requirements of an artist over the years and it has left me with a great repetoire of techniques that I’ve used since making content for Decentraland in order to get, what my business partner and myself deem, the best results with DCL shaders and technical specifications for wearables and for our clients.

We have had the pleasure of creating assets for the following brands/clients in web3 over the last 2 years;

  • D-Cave
  • Diesel
  • Ben Bridge
  • Kraken
  • Verse Digital
  • Deadmau5
  • Australian Open
  • Bulova
  • BBC
  • Adidas
  • The Vogu Collective
  • ANIMO Industries
  • JustHype UK

PROPOSAL:

We are proposing to create a tutorial series unlike others before, this won’t be a ‘beginner’s tutorial series’ however it will be accessible to wearable artists at all skill levels and information will be easily digestible for every step of the process.

There will be 3 main categories of tutorial videos;

  • Concept to Completion

    • How to take a concept from a client, hired artist or even an AI generation and break it down technically to prepare for high resolution mesh production.
    • How to prepare a high resolution mesh with specific rules to follow that will help the aesthetic finish of your final asset.
    • How to retopologise a low poly mesh (ingame ready) with both deformation of animation and texture finish (Unwrapping) in mind.
    • How to unwrap the low poly mesh with specific requirements in mind.
    • How to bake high poly to low poly with clean results and the correct texture map outputs required for further texture finish.
    • How to use the generated maps to create a texture base that is applicable for DCL shaders (Unlit, toon shader).
    • How to use everything generated before in the process so that it can be applied to other metaverse platforms (Interopability).
    • How to use the assets previously generated to render a clean thumbnail for various marketplaces.

  • Source Asset to Completion

    • How to take a source asset from a client and make it DCL/Metaverse ready.
    • This will repeat the steps above but with client branding fidelity taken into account.

  • Special Case Techniques

    • A variety of videos showing off crazy and fun techniques (Fur, Deformation weighting fun etc…)

The purpose of this is to share the blueprint of our successful run and so that when a big brand comes knocking aspiring teams in this arena will have the confidence to follow through. It will also help independent community brands!

Examples of style:

Golden Snubnose Chungus

Ben Bridge Mascot

Roadmap and milestones

We still have two on-going contracts with clients but if the grant is approved we will be able to record the process of the different tutorial sections and delegate the video editing to our newly hired social media video editor Francis.

We’ll aim for the following;

  • Concept to Completion series - Aug 14th
  • Source Asset to Completion series - Aug 30th
  • Special Case Techniques - September 10th

However we’ll keep everyone updated as we go and will happily ask questions post milestone releases.

Vote on this proposal on the Decentraland DAO

View this proposal on Snapshot

2 Likes
2

Can’t vote rn because it’s stuck on a loading wheel but when I do it’s a big phat yes! Feeka Cake are my favourite creators especially with their Hype collab; that was some stuff of dreams.
I don’t know too much about the whole team but Malloy in particular has taught me so much in terms of 3D and his techniques are always huge brained ones! I think it’d be a huge loss if this was voted no.

1 Like
3

Thank you Doki! :face_holding_back_tears:

Absolutely stoked to have met you through DCL! :pray:

1 Like
4

Update; Martin Shibuya of Decentraland Foundation will add these resources to the official documentation for content creation so all will be able to find with ease :partying_face:

I also ran out of characters but it will be more than 3 deliverables, there will be many videos and accompanying documentation.

I am also going to ask a previous client if I can do an asset post mortem and document how we broke down the brief and executed upon it.

Cheers!

5

Love this proposal @Malloy

I think this will have a positive impact for new creators entering the space. I vote Yes.

1 Like
6

Appreciate you Sinful!

Let me know if there is anything specific you’d like me to cover!

1 Like
7

i support this initiative @Malloy ! Nice to have content for more advanced techniques in 3D creation pipeline that goes beyond the generic introduction level . GL !

Id love to see a few topics covered in your series if possible :

  1. The process of designing and optimizing an asset from high > low poly
  2. Baking textures pipeline ( including tips on adding volume and depth w/ normals and height information )
  3. Texturing ( Drawing, materials and layering )

bonus : having examples of texturing in toon shading mode :grinning:

Cheers
SC

1 Like
8

Hey @SugarClub,

These are the exact things we’ll be covering!

Also we’ll cover how to make an asset with DCL’s shader finish in mind but also how to make an interoperable version of that asset from the same pipeline that will be PBR ready for other engines and shader finishes.

:saluting_face: :metal:

1 Like
9

Hey there, just wanted to take a moment to show my full support and appreciation for your decision to create these tutorials. Having reached out to @Malloy countless times for guidance, I can confidently say that he is the perfect person for the job. His willingness to lend a helping hand and share his knowledge has had a big impact on my personal journey in 3D modeling.

I’m incredibly excited for what your team has in store with these tutorials.

1 Like
10

Cheers Yannakis! Appreciate it greatly but you know what they say, you can bring a horse to water… Your skills grow so fast because you constantly working and exploring! Can’t wait to see what you achieve in the near future! Let’s go!

1 Like
11

I very much support this initiative as well. @malloy:slight_smile: I totally agree with what SugarClub said above and excited to see more advanced resources available. Would also love to share these on the DCL DAO Youtube channel.

1 Like
12

Beings @Malloy is a top creator and having such raving reviews from other top creators, how could one possibly say no? I think it’s great you are passing on experienced knowledge and providing a, let’s say expert level of tutorials maybe. I know there’s plenty out there for the beginner and possibly average but not heard of an advanced course.

1 Like
13

Thank you Fractilians!

Yeah absolutely, we’ll make sure they’re YT ready :saluting_face:

Have a good week!

1 Like
14

Thank you kindly @Existential14, it’ll be an advanced process but we’ll make sure it’s clear and concise so that the steps don’t seem overwhelming for folks new to it/just starting on the path!

15

I also can’t vote right now but when I can it will be a big YES. All of the interactions I’ve had with Malloy have been positive and insightful - I think they’re a huge asset to DCL.

I also believe the work they will produce will not only be invaluable to the community but of a top standard judging from their previous projects.

10k for all of this knowledge and work is a very fair and modest price.

1 Like
16

Thank you Amanda! Hope you’re good!

17

The voted on requirements for this category do not allow for video content.

This does not appear to be a valid grant request.

I’m unclear when the doc.decentraland Category info was edited, but I do not believe category changes without a vote is in the spirit of the DAO.

3- Documentation
Creation of free educational content about how to contribute, build and play on Decentraland. The content should be published on official mediums to be found and preserved for posterity.

  • Requirements:
    • The topic shouldn’t be already well-covered in the official documentation.
    • Provide examples of documentation done in the past.
    • Describe the format of documentation to be produced.
    • To be published in official mediums.
  • Performance Metrics:
    • The number of contributions to Decentraland Documentation
    • The number of contributions to the Awesome Repository.
18

Hi jar0d,

Not familiar with the missing rule you’re mentioning however the videos will be accompanying extensive documentation.

I’ll also be collaborating with Shibu to implement the content into the official documentation for content creation to ensure clarity for each specific process. This agreement was made after I sent Shibu a link to the proposal for his feedback. I consider this insurance on accessibility and clarity so that we don’t have to redirect folks to a YT channel etc…

The processes in the asset production pipeline I have described in the above haven’t been well covered yet! So here is hoping to address that! :crossed_fingers:

As for documentation previously posted I’ll have to dig out an infograph we sent to Shibu previously arguing for combining wearable slots for additional tris (currently AFK).

Let me know if there is anything else I can answer, cheers!

19

If every video is coming with written documentation to go with it, it sounds like you have got more then enough to cover the category and I was making the all to common mistake of over simplifying what a grant is offering.

My apologies.

I do still want to talk to some squads and dao officials to figure out why there were changes made without community involvement, perhaps a squad had mentioned being able to update these tings in a grant request or something, but that is certainly a matter for another place.

While we have out differences, Anyone who has the support of all my favorite creators is someone I’m happy to see the dao pay to make content.

1 Like
20

Appreciate your candor. Hope you’re doing good!