popular NFTs crypto

 

An online game industry veteran in making the artwork behind popular NFTs

Welcome again to Chain Reaction, where we unpack and give an explanation for the ultra-modern in crypto news, drama, and tendencies, breaking things down block by way of partnership for the crypto curious.

For our Tuesday incident this week, we talked to James Zhang, a 24-12 months veteran of the video game industry — primary as an artist, then as an originator and investor. Zhang, founder & CEO of NFT art consultancy Concept Art House, commenced his career as an idea artist at LucasArts, the studio behind the Star Wars video games.

Concept Art House threw 14 years ago with a mandate to offer art to online game organizations, and in that point, the business enterprise has helped deliver over 1,000 games, Zhang said. But in 2021, the organization honed its consciousness to exclusively serve customers by building web3 video games as Zhang kept figuring out possibilities at that intersection.

"Over the ultimate two years, we've had a total pivot into web3, and there's kind of no looking lower back,"

Concept Art House has worked with each creative manufacturer trying to construct a presence via web3 video gaming and crypto-local agencies that lack revel in gaming and art introduction, consistent with Zhang. The company has labored on tasks with NFT large Dapper Labs, the enterprise at the back of NBA Top Shot, and comic e-book creator Frank Miller, first-rate recognized for writing and illustrating "The Dark Knight Returns." Last October, it raised $25 million from traders, including Animoca Brands, and from angels, including Axie Infinity writer Jeff' Jiho' Zirlin.

But notwithstanding Concept's initial wins in web3, the crypto endure marketplace has hit NFTs especially hard in the past few months, making its paintings much more difficult. Zhang stated crypto winter had had three primary consequences on his business — first, those low token prices have brought about human beings to be more careful about what NFTs they purchase; second, that task funding has to close longer; and 0.33, those new token launches are now not a chief catalyst for growth within the NFT area.

One of Zhang's essential regions of attention nowadays is on supporting artists monetizing their abilities within web3.

"We want to create a without a doubt powerful artists' network that may credential and discover who an artist is and come again they've worked on in web2 and web3. So rather than creating one [piece of] IP, we need to create a platform that's, in reality, friendly for artists in web3," Zhang stated.

Compensation for the artists in the back of NFTs has been a controversial topic, with artists, together with Seneca, who illustrated the photographs inside the Bored Ape Yacht Club undertaking, talking up about not being compensated profitably.

Zhang sees each aspect of the problem, pronouncing artists in widespread are each "underpaid, and that they're paid what they're presently worth" based totally on market cost. He thinks artists have a few agencies to enhance how they're compensated and sees web3 as a tool that may assist them in that process.

"The artists are more financially savvy, who apprehend community, have extra electricity. They need much fewer sellers and fewer intermediaries. That's a type of the promise of blockchain," Zhang stated.

"I think in the future, you may see this fork for maximum expert artists — do you want to try and recognize budget extra, your role in it, your function inside the network, your position in era and make contributions as a pretty skilled artist? Or do you want to paint and draw truly well?"

You can pay attention to the whole episode to listen to more of Zhang's thoughts on how artists can function their talent sets in web3, as well as how he thinks about intellectual assets and ownership problems in the NFT global.