In the early mid 1990’s I had uploaded a “ 3D concept rendering” of what the new Star Trek Voyager spaceship might look like based on early internet rumors. Back then the only few places to post .gifs or .jpgs were places like sci fi art forums on AOL, or Compuserve as well as the alt.binaries directories of UseNet. It was done as a lark, a fun few hours tossing some 3d model parts and textures I had already made into a shape and form that might suggest what was going on behind production doors at Viacom back then. Here’s that image.
The render was downloaded as far as I could tell thousands of time ( great for those days) and there’s a WTF story attached to it and a certain well known hip magazine who downloaded it for free and thought they could use it for a full page color illustration for an article about Virtual Reality and get away with it, but that story is for another post.;)
What also occurred from the posting of this rendering and a few like it online was a flood of emails from “Sci fi and Trek fans” who did early role playing online and who wanted me to design them their own starship ( and render it) for their gaming and community play. Obviously since I ran a professional design firm and my time was billable beyond the “fan dollar” I couldn’t do that. BUT I did come up with a way that COULD achieve that goal and possibly be the start of a whole new medium.
That led to StarbaseC3 : The Starship Construction Site launched online in 1995. Here’s an early article I believe from Macweek that tells a bit of the Story.
The idea of selling “virtual products” or “virtual collectables” or “virtual toys” with a creative sharing license and a commercial transmedia world was born. There’s a larger 25 year story about where and with whom Starbase C3 grew with, was stolen (copied) by, and what deals and such took place. As well as many online media firsts prototyped at the original website ( Taken down in about 2015) as well as so many stories of me trying to fund it or make a studio deal to be welcomed by the answers like “ Whats an MMO?” and “ Whos attached to the project to star in it” ;) BUT yesterday was an interesting day. They say when the universe talks, listen. So I am.
From early in the morning to late at night I had 3 different phone calls/ 3D online chats/ and Clubhouse invited meetings that all spoke NFT. All the chatter, all the excitement, all the hype due a tech meme with Gary Vee and others cashing in;) So the duck came down and that’s the “Magic Word for the Day”, as Groucho Marx used to say.
I’ve been told my work is CGI history and I’m an OG with a story to tell and that those stories and the images around them are what the NFT market is all about. So this weekend I’ll be spending gas money again. Not going on any road trips since COVID makes all that insane anyway, but on seeing if “The Revenge of the Artists” might become a great trilogy final act. Or if its just more Ewoks.:)
Update: 7/2/2022 : Well it’s been over a year and I can honestly say that the Web3 NFT “Technology” has been NOT just more Ewoks, but Grifting, Nazi Ewoks. Sigh.