Meet the Team behind Neon Space NFTs

So a few months back I had the pleasure of chatting to three of the four members of Neon Space to find out all about there project and how it all started there work speaks for it self .

Hi guys how we all?

MrHerrDoktor Hey, good morning

Good evening so neon space is a three man team?

MrHerrDoktor It's actually a 4-man team. Paul is our 2D artist and also Max's husband. He just isn't as active on discord and streaming.

So Max is the silent partner lol

MrHerrDoktor The pipeline more or less works as follows. We all brainstorm an idea or concept. Paul designs the 2D sign artwork, then Max takes that and puts it into the 3D environment of Neon City (Glow and Neon rarities), Louis writes a song or sample to fit it (Neon rarities) and for myself I write the lore text for each sign to conceptualize what this "business" is in the context of our Neon City fictional universe. Operationally we all work together more or less to run the business on the backend as equal partners. With Max, Lou, and I doing more of the streaming. I really enjoy that each artwork we release has a piece of each of us creatively built into it.

How did you guys meet?

MrHerrDoktor We all grew up together in Issaquah, Washington (USA). I probably met Max in class in maybe 7th grade, so about 13 years old or so. Got to know him through playing Magic: The Gathering together. Met Paul around the same time. We all lived pretty close to one another in adjacent neighborhoods. I met Louis a few years later in maybe 9th grade through being friends with his brother. Throughout high school we became closer friends through skateboarding and playing video games in Max's basement all the time. Max, Paul and Louis all moved to Los Angeles together about 7 or 8 years ago to pursue their career goals down there. We stayed in touch a bit when they'd come back to visit family, but we definitely re-connected a lot more during summer 2020 during COVID lockdowns. We started playing games together online and talking shop about crypto and stock trading. We eventually started exploring NFTs through Alien Worlds and CryptoMonkeys and followed the NFT thread from there.

Why did you guys decide to create your own project?

MrHerrDoktor Paul, Max and Louis are all artists by trade. Paul being a comedian, graphic designer, and comedy writer. Max being a visual effects artist, and Louis as an audio engineer and musician. So as we spent more time in the NFT space, it was as simple as "We could do this too, right?". At least that's how I remember it. Put out some neon style promo artwork to see what people thought and we got good feedback. We really enjoyed our experience with the NFT space and the community around it, so it felt fitting to find a way that we could contribute and be a part of it in our own way. Max and Paul are big neon enthusiasts and like to collect pictures of neon signs they see during their travels around the world over the years. So conceptually it was a jumping off point to build an art brand around that interest. Then we kind of inserted our own brand of humor and style to make it our own. But honestly our initial goal was to just have fun with it and see where it took us. Where Neon Space is now, almost a year and a half later, is exciting to see and certainly exceeded our expectations.

So your project is all about neon signs the guys see all around the world?

MrHerrDoktor More so the idea of using neon signs in general as an art style is influenced by their travels. But the Neon Space signs themselves aren't specifically influenced by existing things they've seen. Most of our signs are silly jokes or parody on pop culture references.

You must of launched early February last year how did you guys feel before the launch?

MrHerrDoktor We first made our collection on AtomicHub on 4/20/2021 and our first pack sale was July 3rd. Our expectations were pretty minimal, collectibles on WAX are definitely a different animal and harder to pull off with most users focusing on P2E gaming. Especially at that time last year, Rplanet and Alien Worlds were taking off. Particularly at first, it really was just a fun experiment we were riding out to see if anyone was even interested. But as it turns out, the Genesis sale sold out in less than 10 minutes. So it was pretty validating to get that kind of response. That set the tone and really empowered us to feel that we could really make Neon Space into something for the long term and start to lean into growing this business.

Can you remember what was the first NFT you minted?

MrHerrDoktor We minted a set of three promo NFTs basically showing off the vaporwave style, the logo, and the video animation in different ways. Basically testing the waters on the art style. It's certainly evolved quite a bit since then.

How many have you think you have created since?

MrHerrDoktor At this point we have 330 templates. We've done quite a few collaborations with various other creators, marble trophies, naked neon (concept art) and two original releases.

So you have a few lol . How often do you try drop?

MrHerrDoktor Yeah that's templates, so that includes each rarity and pack assets. We generally try to stagger our paid pack drops pretty deliberately so we don't flood the market, once every six months at this rate. But we do try to consistently release new artwork to our collectors to keep people engaged. We do marble trophies once a quarter, we do "Burn Street" drops once or twice a month (paid for with blend tokens earned from burning NS assets), and concept art releases (also for blend tokens) every other week or so. We'll do collaboration artwork as well once every few months that are distributed through airdrops and giveaways. So the $NEON blend token economy is an important piece of Neon Space. It acts as a way for us to reward consistent collectors, and also to add burn pressure to the collection to reduce the total mints and promote scarcity. We do these blend token drops far more frequently than full paid drops, so collecting Neon Space assets allows you to burn duplicates and earn new artwork without having to pay WAX.

That's quite a schedule you guys keep so a blend token is your coin as such to reward the series collector . How long does it take from idea to NFT?

MrHerrDoktor Yes. So one $NEON token is equal to burning two dim rarities (common), one lit (uncommon), or one promo NFT. It creates arbitrage opportunities that one $NEON may be more or less than just buying any of the above ingredients and burning it yourself or buying as an FT through a DEX. It also provides an easy off-ramp to sell your NFTs, if you choose, without needing to find a buyer which can often take a while with NFTs, particularly collectibles. The other positive effect is that it keeps all our schemas relevant long term, as collectors search for arbitrage. So you can either sell your $NEON token for WAX or another FT token, spend it to get new artwork, or provide liquidity to the NEON/WAX pool on DeFiBox and get rewarded weekly with additional $NEON token we airdrop as an incentive. So it's a good bit of value, in my opinion, to get simply from your duplicate NFTs. For the workflow, we do all our own artwork, minting, and distribution. So from concept to a minted NFT I'd say it takes anywhere between a couple days to a week. RAM and CPU permitting.

What programs you guys use for creation?

MrHerrDoktor let me pull @max in on this one. He can speak to the specifics better than I can.

Max For the 2D Artwork Paul usually starts in Photoshop and Illustrator to create the 2D neon art work. The Neon is then animated in 2D in After Effects. once it is a video of the neon on black, like our Naked Neon NFTs, I take it into Fusion (Black Magic's Post Production composition software) to layout the Artworks in a 3D CGI environment that I put together from buildings I molded, collected from friends, or bought from vendors. When I build the models myself, I use LightWave (I know its dated but I own a commercial license) Once the CGI scene is layed out and lit, I animate a camera movement and render the final output. This is for the 2 highest rarity variants in the collection. once the 2D and 3D work is done, Louis composes an original piece of music to accompany the Neon rarity. I am not 100% sure what software @polishdog90 | NeonSpaceNFT Uses but it definitely depends on what he is doing for the song. sometimes he plays instruments and sings vocals for them too which involves a whole studio worth of gear lol. When the music and visual parts are all done, paul or I take it into Premear and combine it all into the final render formats. Videos are mp4 and stills are png, each image also needs a gif for blend covers and nefty blocks optics. Marc writes up some flavor text and lore and then I do the minting on WAX when all our efforts combine.

polishdog90 I use logic pro x for recording the music. I edit videos in Final Cut Pro for youtube/twitch

How do you come up with the music?

polishdog90 I try to write music inspired by the visual art. I don't really have a recipe for creation. Sometimes I start with a drum beat sample; sometimes I start writing on piano. Other times I'll come up with a guitar line and build around that. If I could figure out how to bottle inspiration I would but I just look for the spark and run with it wherever it comes

What has been your favorite NFT to create?

MrHerrDoktor Our most recent original release, Blockchain Blvd, I think is the set we've been most proud of to-date. It's conceptualized around the different themes and experiences we've had after a year being WAX creators and collectors. The complexity and detail of the artwork has evolved quite a bit since our first release. So I'd say we all agree that we had the most fun designing the Blockchain Blvd set. The jokes and themes we came up with on this one were a really fun way to encapsulate all the peaks and valleys of being in the crypto and NFT space.

Love it really sums up crypto sometimes. Have you guys collabed much?

MrHerrDoktor Yeah, quite a bit. The nature of neon signs lends itself really well to collab pieces. Our most recent collabs were one with CritterCraft and another with Cosmos11. Plus a handful of others: MetaForce, Ultra Rare, AtomiKings, Tales of the Crypto, CryptoMonkeys. It's a great way for us to introduce ourselves to other communities and vice versa.

Is there someone you guys would call your dream collab in wax?

MrHerrDoktor Honestly CryptoMonkeys and Ultra Rare were big for us. CryptoMonkeys was our first introduction to NFTs, and Ultra Rare was a major inspiration and guide on how to run a successful collectible brand. We have some things in the works to incorporate Neon Space into the Nova Rally universe that we're excited about. Maybe something with WAX Studios would be pretty cool and a big level of exposure for us as a brand. Or perhaps one day we'll have a Funko Pop designed in our image.

I love Soggyapplepie work . What has been the hardest part of doing your project?

MrHerrDoktor I think trying to balance being a profitable business while not compromising our values. It can be frustrating to see projects come through, smash together a crappy website, throw out some buzz words, and not deliver on half their promises, while somehow making insane amounts of money. We put in a lot of deliberate time and effort to make high quality art, a well designed collection, an engaging community, and to build credibility with our collectors. That doesn't always translate to sales. But that doesn't mean we should change our approach, because we really believe in what we're building. So a slow and steady approach to growing Neon Space and the brand around it will take time, but doing it the right way is important to us.

What has been the best part?

MrHerrDoktor Yeah, I'd say it's as simple as being able to have the experience of building something with my closest friends. It's such a unique opportunity for us all to be able to start this business and build it from the ground up together. We're creating something that is an expression of ourselves and our friendship together and I think that is a really amazing thing. I think that really shows through in what we put out there, whether through the artwork or our streaming. Also, it was pretty funny to have the official Papa Roach Twitter account reach out to us and say they liked our "Cut My Life Into Pizza" sign. Probably just their social media manager, but still pretty fun to say.

When will the next drop happen?

MrHerrDoktor Our Blockchain Blvd drop is still open, our second original release. https://neftyblocks.com/c/neonspacenft/drops/114581%2B114582 so if you want to support us, this drop is the best way to do it. We'll continue to put out collabs and Burn Street signs along the way each month. We're working on making some Neon Space themed cosmetics for Nova Rally.

What does the team like to do to unwind?

MrHerrDoktor We tend to play video games together, things like Fall Guys, Overwatch, CS:GO, even Stardew Valley sometimes. Louis is big into Blankos Block Party, a platformer with NFT cosmetics. Personally, I like to cook a lot. Paul and Max go to comedy shows quite often in the LA area.

How often do you guys do streams?

MrHerrDoktor We stream 5 days a week on Twitch. Tuesday through Saturday. https://www.twitch.tv/neonspacenft We'll do different focuses each day, but it's pretty loose format. We'll do tech talks on Tuesdays, going over things like chart reading, or general market analysis, explaining concepts like tokenomics models, or interesting DeFi projects, etc. Wednesdays we discuss more specifically what's going on with WAX these days, new projects, Thursdays we'll often do interviews with other creators, Fridays we just rant about literally anything and goof off with whatever comes to mind. Saturdays we play Fall Guys with folks live and do our blending events with blend tokens for artwork. Obviously giveaways and marble racing on all of those days.

Must play fall guys with you sometime . Any funny stories you can say about the team?

polishdog90 We have a lot of inside jokes between our community and our team. Marc joked that he was going to tell Max's dad about something he did when he was younger and now Marc's nickname from our community is Marc the Narc. We often use these inside jokes as inspiration for our artwork.

Another example is Phyzx accused us of being in the "Marble Mafia" because we stream giveaways through marbles on stream. We had no idea what that meant but our community thought it was funny so now people often bring up the Marble Mafia in chat so we made some artwork to reflect that

What's the long term plan for the project?

polishdog90 We plan on continuing to release new artwork as digital collectibles. We are hoping by maintaining consistent quality during the more bearish times we will become a staple on WAX when it grows to become more mainstream. We are working on turning Neon City (the fictional city our artwork lives in) into a unity asset so it can be added as a level in NFT games. We'd like Neon Space to become a staple in WAX games as well even though we are not developers ourselves or working on a game. Lastly we'd like to start moving into physical redeemables. The biggest collectible brands on WAX are Funko and Hotwheels and their collectors are looking for the chase of physical redeemables. We'd like to start doing that as well so we can appeal to what collectors on the chain are looking for already. We'd also like to start going to conventions to try and onboard more of the collector community to the WAXP blockchain. We will probably start small with stickers and pins at first but eventually we'd like to be able to send people full LED neon sign versions of our artwork for pulling chase cards in packs.

Flexibility is also important in our long term plan. We have ideas of where we'd like to take our project but the space moves so fast there might be new opportunities that present themselves that we can't currently anticipate. About a year ago we couldn't make preminted packs or preminted blends. When Nefty introduced those they totally changed how we operated our brand and engaged with our community. Now there are things like WAXDAO with NFT farming where you can stake a Neon Blend Token and earn WAX. We didn't know that would exist 6 months ago so it wasn't on our radar or a part of our plan. We are dedicated to continue making high quality artwork but are open minded to trying to adapt to the ever changing NFT space.

Where the best place to keep up with the project?

polishdog90 |The announcement channel in our discord: https://discord.gg/xYknyCXRUm has the most up to date information about our project. I do a weekly update every Sunday or Monday to keep our community up to date on what our team is working on each week. We know the NFT space gets cluttered with 100s of discords so I try to save @ everyone announcements for big updates. If you want a more in depth look at our project feel free to pop into one of our streams 5 days a week on twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/neonspacenft and ask us anything.

Any thing big coming up for the project this month?

polishdog90 We do super blends every other Saturday you can find on Neftyblocks. We also have a car wrap cosmetic collab coming out soon with Nova Rally but I'm not sure when the launch will be specifically because it depends on when they launch their 3D game.

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/867218775438786573/1015917655930187856/unknown.png

Where can we buy your NFTs?

polishdog90 We have a drop available at https://neftyblocks.com/c/neonspacenft/drops/114581%2B114582 but you can also find any of our NFTs on the aftermarkets on Neftyblocks, Atomichub, Chainchamps, NFTHive, etc

https://twitter.com/Crackers832/status/1613302393160044545?s=20&t=0QKfHh-3aNCCnGza77hcmw