Online tools for generative artists

[IMPACT] Please describe your proposed solution.

The Block Generation Team has already launched V1 of our website (blockgeneration.art), and NFT minting engine. In its current configuration, assisting other artists to produce collections of their art is a manual and time consuming task. 

The website will be redesigned with a creatives-first focus, and integrated with the minting engine/vending solution to form a platform that will be the easy choice for artists to create NFT collections, specifically built for Cardano.   

Our platform will supercharge frictionless creativity by integrating the following functionality:

• Online code editor and visualiser, allowing artists to write & refine their code and see the results in real time with just one click
• The ability to save and work on multiple projects within their personal workspace on blockgeneration.art 
• A custom framework to parameterise creations and create full collections based on distribution of values within those parameters.
• Provision of solutions for code minification, base64 encoding & metadata creation.
• Template code solutions that will ensure the artwork scales perfectly on any screen, works on any device and is inline with current NFT standards adopted by Cardano.
• Directly integrated with a robust minting solution
• Integrated with a website/online gallery, giving a unique sales platform to the artists so that once a collection is mint/sale ready it can be made available to collectors seamlessly.

Additionally, the platform will be educational for both artists and art collectors about the Cardano blockchain, NFT’s and generative art techniques.

[IMPACT] Please describe how your proposed solution will address the Challenge that you have submitted it in.

The challenge is to produce quality dApps, products or integrations to increase the utility & adoption of Cardano.

The platform we have designed will be purpose built for Cardano, and will become a drawcard for artists, particularly code artists such as those on dwitter.net (where artists are challenged to create ‘awesomeness’ in 140 characters of javascript). 

Done properly it will make Cardano a standout platform for creative coders to release art NFT’s, therefore increasing utility and adoption in the Cardano ecosystem.

[IMPACT] What are the main risks that could prevent you from delivering the project successfully and please explain how you will mitigate each risk?

The biggest challenge will not be delivering the platform as envisioned, but delivering it in a short time frame, so as to not lose potential users to competing blockchains. We are a small team, and funding will allow us to bring in additional resources to complete the project to a high standard in a shorter time frame (~4-5 months). 

Another challenge will be successful marketing to ensure the platform reaches the target audience, which includes artists not yet familiar with blockchain and NFT’s.

We will mitigate this by bringing resource into the team with marketing & outreach expertise to grow the brand and increase brand awareness

[FEASIBILITY] Please provide a detailed plan, including timeline and key milestones for delivering your proposal.

August

• Complete framework design
• Onboard additional resources

September

• Generative art Platform and website/online gallery build

October

• Platform ready for internal testing (end October)

November

• Bring external artist through testing as launch project
• Initiate marketing for launch

December

• Launch platform & incentivise adoption by creating a unique collaborative art project.
• We will be inviting people to contribute to the project by providing a template project so that people can familiarize themselves with our platform with as few barriers as possible

[FEASIBILITY] Please provide a detailed budget breakdown.

Target launch 1st December - 17 weeks of preparation

• Blockchain developer: $50 per hour, 20hr/pw - $50 20 17 = $17,000
• Web integration and backend Dev: $50 per hour, 40hr/pw - $50 40 17 = $34,000
• Artist framework and technical lead: $50 per hour, 40hr/pw - $50 40 17 = 34,000
• Project Management: $45 per hour, 10hr/pw - $45 10 17 = $7,650
• Marketing: $30 per hour, 10hr/pw (8 weeks) - $30 10 8 = $2400
• Hosting services and application subscriptions: $1000

Total = $96,050

[FEASIBILITY] Please provide details of the people who will work on the project.

Adam Gorman: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adgorman

Developer and QA specialist with an extensive career working on commercial scale software implementations. Co-founder of Blockgeneration.art, A generative art focused NFT platform and artist support initiative.

Co-creator of an NFT minting solution on Cardano that can accommodate both ipfs style and on-chain collections.

Solid experience with cardano-cli/node, API endpoint integration & NFT creation

Charles Machin: 

Technical artist and developer with an extensive career in game design, technical programming, 3D modeling, visual effects creation and VR simulation programming. 

5 years developing games and interactive virtual world features on the Playstation Home platform. Development lead on several of those games including SodiumOne, Sodium 2 project velocity and Tank Top 2.0.  

Core developer on the Oxford Medical Simulation VR platform used in many university hospitals for nurse, doctor and specialist training.

Co-founder of blockgeneration.art & co-creator of the above mentioned NFT minting solution.

Generative artist with 3 successful on-chain projects released on Cardano (Eternal Chaos, Prototype Cadence and Sol-Journey1)

Matt Hook: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matt-hook-13798078/

Experienced development manager, Full stack ERP developer, Cloud solutions, Web and Cardano developer.

Lead developer for the bitfins project, creator of the bitfins 3D aquarium environment.

Creator of a 3D art gallery for Cardano NFTs, fully integrated with blockchain data for dynamic population of projects and artwork.

Creator of an android and windows app for displaying NFTs as a desktop, available on the Google play store.

Generative artist and creator of the on-chain project Cardano Block Clocks

Duncan Lynch: 

Experienced project manager with a 20+ career in Business and IT projects for local government.

Community manager for blockgeneration.art

NFT collector and outright Cardano enthusiast

[FEASIBILITY] If you are funded, will you return to Catalyst in a later round for further funding? Please explain why / why not.

There are no current plans to request additional funding from catalyst for this project

[FEASIBILITY] Are you or any member of your team working on any other proposals in this Fund9?

[FEASIBILITY] Are you or your team working on any other proposals from previous Funds?

[AUDITABILITY] Please describe what you will measure to track your project's progress, and how will you measure these?

We will measure progress of development work against specific milestones, resource utilisation & budgeting.

We will manage these measures with the following:

• Project Manager will create and maintain the schedule of work and track resource utilisation across the team. He will also provide overall management and will arrange provision of additional resource where required
• Trello tool will be used to manage tasks, assignments and progress
• Git will be used for revision control of the code to ensure a robust design and release process
• A monthly community update will be published which will include progress metrics and insights into the challenges faced and successes for that period

[AUDITABILITY] What does success for this project look like?

Success can be clearly measured as the platform being fully functional, tested and producing artist collections. A successful first 12 months would see a minimum of 4 - 6 artists per month using the platform, with over 50% publishing live collections

[AUDITABILITY] Please provide information on whether this proposal is a continuation of a previously funded project in Catalyst or an entirely new one.

No, Block Generation and all team members have not made any previous Catalyst applications. This is our first submission.