Meet the Artist ZomBaes

So I found this artist on Twitter who was having a free drop going because he had just been re-whitelisted because of an issue read on and he will explain so lets find out why and more about him ..............

Hi

Hey ready when you are

Brilliant how you today ?

Doing really well how are you

I am good day off you working today

Yes about to go in for a couple hours with some clients and then have the weekend off thankfully

Oh good what you work as ?

I'm a behavior analyst so I work with clients on the autism spectrum in a vareity of settings. Mostly work on problem behavior reduction and skill acquisition

Oh cool very hard and rewarding job I bet ?

Definitely has its hard moments at times, but is certainly rewarding at the end of the day

I bet it is so where you from?

Currently near NYC in northern New Jersey.

Been to NY never been to NJ .

What is your artist name ?

ZomBaes

So can I ask what made you come up with your name ?

Definitely! So I knew I wanted to get into the NFT space, but wanted to try and do something that I haven't seen much of yet. Didn't want to be the 1000th person doing a crypto punk knockoff lol. I was with a group of friends and we were joking around and it basically naturally came up. I was surprised to see that no one had been using the name ZomBaes for NFTs yet. It was at that point that I decided it was something I wanted to dive into and start making. There wasn't many artist doing zombie work at the time, especially on WAX. I felt like it was something unique that would be fun to work out and stand out at the same time

The funny thing is if you look up on YouTube there is a YouTube star called zombae but I love the name and your right there isn't enough zombies on wax

Can I ask why zombies ?

I did happen to see that as well after creating the first templates. I only looked around on opensea and wax at first to see if any other artist had it. As for why zombies, it was more of the art coming after the name was decided upon. I really liked the concept so I just rolled with it

So how did you discover NFT's ?

So I've been in crypto since December of 2017 and have been following it pretty closely ever since. I knew about wax and their platform for a couple years, but it obviously wasn't gaining as much traction back then. I started to see the eth NFT's gaining popularity and started looking into OpenSea. That's when the whole NFT world really became clear to me.

So you hold crypto then you discovered NFT's how come you choose WAX blockchain ?

So I actually originally started over on eth and there's some of the work still on opensea. I made the move over to wax because the tools for minting were so much better and the fees are obviously incomparable to eth. What I like most with wax is the ability to mint the templates and do drops compared to selling straight to market like on OpenSea. One of the things I didn't like about eth is that there was obviously groups propping up projects with fake volume through wash trading in order to generate sales. This made it extremely hard for any solo person like myself to enter the market. The wax network seems to be comprised of more people like myself who are doing things pretty much on their own when it comes to creation, marketing, and management. The community on wax is just a million times better. It's more of a fun process rather than trying to make a dollar every second of the day.

I haven't chatted to many Opensea artists but I really have to say the WAX community is very welcoming and there is always someone out that will be interested in your work .

That's honestly the coolest thing with wax. Everyone's trying to do their own thing and not fit into some preexisting category. Like on OpenSea how's there's at least 50 different types of "punks" now. Sure there's some copying on wax, but for the most part I feel like its a lot more original content.

Well I think Atomichub are good at controlling copyright NFT's so that's a good thing !!!!

Yes I feel like they do a decent job containing all of the knockoffs. I know there's been of lot of backlisting's recently though, mostly due to how their system works. False reporting still results in a blacklist since they don't have the time to research the claim prior to blacklisting. They basically have to blacklist first and then ask questions later.

I know I did here about your issue at least it was resolved thank god

That was such a mess. No warning at all prior to it happening. I finally was able to resolve it by emailing with Sven back and forth for 12 hours. It turned out some random Instagram account reported me for stolen work and their image looked nothing at all like anything I've been doing.

Proubly just jealousy . Have you always been artistic ?

Who knows lol. It sucks they have to blacklist prior to contacting the artist, but I understand it from a business perspective. I always like to create things since I was little. I used to write a ton and then shifted to music production for a while. That mostly consisted of using programs like Abelton, Reason, and FruityLoops. I've drawn here and there, but I definitely gravitate to computer programs when it comes to making anything. Those systems just tend to come naturally to me and are easy to pick up and use.

What programs are you using for creating your NFT's ?

So I start on artbreeder.com. It's a website with AI software that generates images by adjusting settings and combing images. I know using that can be viewed negatively, but I don't use it the same way most people do. I usually start with an original uploaded picture of literally anything in my environment. The first ZomBae was actually created from an upload of my cat lol. After the upload I tweak the 33 different settings they have until it shapes into one of the ZomBaes. I've use my cat, my dog, a frog, flowers, and other random things to get to the final image. I rarely use the combination feature on the site, but I only use my own images if I do go that route. I always want to make that everything is 100% unqiue and original. Artbreeder to me is like using music software back in the day. For instance, with music software you can start with a general sound wave and the tweak the settings to get something original that sounds good. It's pretty much the same with artbreeder. You start with a base image and then tweak for hours, sometimes days, to get a final result.

Basically you take pictures and change them around to suit your style ?

It varies. Sometimes I can do it within a couple hours and sometimes its a multiday process. It takes a lot of time to adjust the settings to go from a picture of a cat to a nearly photo realistic picture of a person (zombae).

Then the process on werble takes a while as well. That's where I'll add layers, mask images, and animate. I'd like to move off that program to a more professional one at some point for real animation.

So you would like to upscale it even more ?

100%. I think it would take it to the next level if I can get some more natural looking animation in. I'm also planning on doing pack drops soon now that neftyblocks pack system is up and running

And would you stick with the same kind of design or would change it up ?

Design would be similar for the most part. I’m thinking of doing trading card style NFTs at some point. Something to add rarity levels

Would you bring blending into your cards ?

Yes I actually have a whole plan for that. Basically ZomFamilies. Collect the Mom and Dad and blend for the kid.

That's brilliant idea . Do you collect NFT's or just create them ?

I’ve been collecting a ton actually. I do flip here and there like with the recent Rplanet packs, but for the most part I hold onto everything

What's your biggest collection and do you stake on rplanet ?

I’ve been staking on Rplanet but my hourly rate is pretty low. Didn’t get in early enough before the prices shot up. I have a mix of a lot new artist right now. I really want to get my hands on more of Robert Bohn’s boneheads444 collection

Who is your favorite NFT artists ?

Robert Bohn . Definitely him.

Which NFT you have designed are you most proud of ?

Great question! I think it would have to be the one I released after being re-whitelisted after that whole ordeal. “TheBestFans”

It’s has less animation and filtering than the others, but that ones special to me given the events surrounding it

Can we have a pic ?

Yep one sec. Power just went out so I’m pulling everything over my cell network

This is the still the template was made from. I can send the final edit once it downloads

One of the simpler ones animation wise but meant a lot to me because of the support on twitter following blacklisting and re whitelisting

Oh yea I actually grabbed that when you dropped it

Is that a random girl or is that someone you know ?

Completely random and generated from a frog and another ZomBae

Oh cool

What is your Twitter for people to keep up to date with you ?

https://twitter.com/baes_zom?s=20

What about a website ?

https://zombaeseries.onuniverse.com/

Do you have a Telegram Channel ?

I'm just always in the blockchain blunts TG or they DM on @PabloEscoBear

Where can people view what cards you have for sale ?

https://wax.atomichub.io/explorer/account/zombaes.gm

So how many sets /collections have brought out so far ?

1 collection and there’s about 15 templates

Have you started working on a second set yet ?

Planning on it this weekend for the packs. I have a lot of images I haven’t used yet so that help to cut down on the overall time

Busy weekend planned ?

Yep going to be a fun one! I have to head into work now but I can definitely answer any more questions afterwards if you have any. I really appreciate your time and the interest in the project. Thanks again!

So here is a question for you do think NFT's are a fade or the future of art as I working on an article about it and what's your feelings on Funko pop coming into the market ?

I think they're here to stay. There will obviously be a drop off in popularity at some point, especially whenever BTC decides to top out. That's going to create a lot of "bagholders" of NFT's since they can't market sale. I still think there will be a market for the top projects even during a bear market. I also think the utility NFT's like Rplanet and Alien Worlds will be safe since they have the passive income components. I'm really looking forward to Funko Pop. I think their physical asset redemption is going to be a game changer.

Total agree so you think someone like them would stabilizes the market and maybe push the value of wax up

Well I would imagine wax itself would sell off in a bear market. It's rare that an altcoin does well in USD during a BTC bear. This could be one of the first times we see that not happen though if the popularity of wax NFTs does create more buyers regardless of what BTC is doing price wise.

Well wax has still held its value I'm the last few months did nearly hit 30 cent but even during the last few's had a small pull back but holding its own major problem I think is lack of places to buy wax .......

That's certainly the biggest issue. Kucoin, Bittrex, and Huobi are all decent, but it's missing a major exchange listing. I feel bad for those that go through Simplex and Moonpay too. They don't realize they're getting destroyed in fees when purchasing. Simplex can be up to 30% at times.

Well maybe Atomichub should be chasing a big exchange to list it ?

Well Atomichub is actually a separate company than the wax protocol team, but they could certainly help them list elsewhere.

Is there anything in your opinion Atomichub can do to help artists and fans make experience easier or better ?

I feel that they're lacking a better search feature. OpenSea.io does really well with this and I'd like to see atomic do something similar. NFThive.io is starting to outperform atomic when it comes to their user interface in my opinion. The bulk tools, search tools, and staking functions have made NFThive.io so much better. The other thing with Atomic is they need to work on this blacklisting mess. I know so many people that have been blacklisted immediately after a false report has been made. They do get whitelisted again shortly after, but that downtime during blacklisting kills any momentum they had. I noticed that immediately with my collection.

Since you suffered it you should so has your sales recovered and what bout your confidence ?

Sales haven't been impacted all too much since then. Confidence actually has gone up throughout that whole process. The outpouring of support and quick resolution from Sven at Atomichub made me feel a lot better about the project.

That's brilliant so you motivated now to light up Atomichub with more NFT's ?

Yep! The new family system should have about 60-80 total new NFT's. I want to make it expansive enough so there's a greater variation in the packs. It drives me nuts when you buy a pack and there's only 5-10 NFTs in it total. I'd love to do separate ZomMom and ZomDad packs with 20-30 different possiblities in each. Then 20-30 ZomKids from the blending process

Wow its a big expansion and when would you like to drop it to the public ?

I feel like I could get it all together in a week or two. Especially since I have so many images ready to go. I just need to come up with the unified theme and what filters/borders/images will differentiate rarity levels.

So its all planned out

For the most part yes. I had the idea for a while, but didn't know how to implement the pack systems. Finally found neftyblocks.com and that has everything I need.

Oh for your pack I think a lot people still struggle how to open the packs me included lol

It's a little confusing at times, but nefty definitely makes it easier with their unpacking process

Would you ever think of doing a Collab with another artist ?

I actually just did one earlier in the week with cooolaidtest (daprankster)

Oh yeah I did see that daprankster is a friend lovely guy as well is there anyone who would be your dream Collab

Robert Bohn would be awesome, but our styles might be too different for it to happen lol. Not really sure who else at this point.

What about a zombie with a trippy back ground ?

Kinda have that right now with the latest release. That probably would be the best way to Collab. Have someone do a background

Yea like cryptoswatch

Yep he would be a cool one to work with.

I can say it to him

I’m always open! More the merrier

Any big plans for today ?

Just working on the base images for everything and trying to keep up with all of these drops that are stakeable on Rplanet

When your not working or creating NFT's what do you do for fun ?

I still trade a lot. Both traditional and crypto assets. Besides that it’s usually just work, NFTs, and going out to places with my girlfriend.

What crypto you holding at the moment?

So as of right now just wax and I bought moonshot super early for a quick trade. Only bought moonshot because of it's relation of safemoon, which is one of the dumbest coins I've seen that has pumped. I've also been running some Nyzo verifiers for about 2 years now. Besides that it's just random plays here and there. I never hodl, rather just trade. Hodling never ends well and I don't believe in it.

It working for me at the moment . Any chance of an free drop for the readers ?

Ya I could do something. Would that just me posting a drop link at the same time of publication?

No I normal let people drop there wax account for about 48 hours and then we give out the drop to the wax addresses .

Oh cool that's even easier. So I'd have about two days to throw something together

Haven't used this one yet

Yea that's perfect

Have you ever used read.cash ?

Yep I read some of your articles there I believe

Oh brilliant anything else you would like to add

Thank you! I really appreciate the opportunity and the time you've taken! Let me know the deadline for the drop and the article link when its ready. Thanks again

No thank you for your time and looking forward to the new set keep us updated and folks give him a follow on Twitter or check his website and don't forget to leave your Wax address in the comment and till next time ........