About Terra Obscuraa
We are a team of ambitious creatives with a forward thinking attitude to the NFT space. We want to deliver beautiful art, innovative services and ultimate value to our community whilst making AI art and NFT creation available to all.
We believe there is more to this space than buzzwords and PFP's and will be creating the first dynamic NFT art creation community. We want our artists to feel like they really benefit from their work and will be directing secondary royalties back to them along with many other benefits along the way.
What makes us unique?
- 5k Super high res 1/1 beautiful landscapes that offer membership to our community
- Anyone can be an artist! All images are generated by short text descriptions within a few minutes.
- Full attribute set (8 categories, 80+ attributes)
- Holders of our Gen1 mint can use our AI to create their own NFT's. All secondary sales from these pieces go to their creators.
- Regular AI art comps with substantial prizes in ETH/USD/NFTs
- Long term view to create an artistic community with wide range of creative tools. Once community members develop their own style they can apply to launch on our IAO (Initial Artist Offering) launchpad.
3-5k unique 1/1 AI renders. SuperHD resolution (3500x3500 pixels)
Full rarity attribute set
There is a reason why this is the next most important aspect of our project. Whilst we believe we have some of the highest quality AI artwork around, we are nothing without our community.
We understand the importance of having a creative and supportive community. To encourage this we have a strict organic growth strategy within our social channels. No invite comps / no spammy leveling.
We have daily/weekly giveaways for active users. This includes the chance to work with the founder and the AI engine to create pieces which will be airdropped at main mint stage (these are custom and therefore will be some of the rarest in the collection). Our early adopters will almost certainly be whitelisted.
As we move forward in time the community will be encouraged to interact / support / collaborate and develop their own style. We want to reward the members of our community that push the boundaries of what we can achieve together and eventually we will be the driving force behind launching our artists collections out to the world.
GENERAL INFO
Founders are New Zealand based. 8 team members total.
Specific roles have been filled with members from various projects, all team members were scouted and vetted.
Genesis collection was launched on IMX in December. IMX is gasless and carbon neutral, and will be the future home to some big names in upcoming NFT collections. Gen2 will be launched in sync with availability of our engine and will likely be on Layer 1.
CORE TEAM
Terra
Terra graduated with a BA (Hons) Photography in 2004 and went on to travel the globe teaching photography before finding a home in New Zealand where he has become a master craftsman and community leader. Having always had a high standard of technical ability, he has fused this with his practical side to design and lead teams to build large scale artworks for the regional burning man scene. He has been actively trading in the crypto space since 2017 and has combined these skills and put two decades worth of experience into designing the worlds first dynamic NFT creation community.
aurialLoop
A senior engineer with over 15 years experience in the software industry. He holds a masters degree in human interface technology, a bachelor of science, a bachelor of arts (hons), and a graduate diploma in visual art. He has experience in and a passion for computer vision, artificial neural networks, interactive installation art, and develops virtual reality experiences with the Unity game engine. aurialLoop believes strongly in leveraging blockchain technologies to help artists realise their dreams.
Yaydawg
Environmental scientist with a passion for art and installation work. She has been a member
of the regional arts scene for many years and has taken part in multiple large scale builds.
With a natural talent for data entry and understanding data sets, she has been instrumental in
the production and development of the artwork for our initial drop.
She will likely go on to develop her own style and you may see a future airdrop from this
promising artist.
Mona
Growing up in Germany with a passion for creating art and environments, Mona arrived in New Zealand in 2012 after completing her Masters in Visual Communication in Sydney and Berlin. Joining the team at Weta Workshop, Mona worked over 8 years as an artist and supervisor on films like Avatar, Ghost in the Shell and the Hobbit. More recently She focuses on 3d art and environment creation in VR, producing immersive content for a multitude of VR and NFT projects and is part of the Terra Obscura team as creative advisor.
Community Background
The team all has one thing in common. A strong belief in the strength we can possess when we work together. We all come from arts based communities that exist within New Zealand and these all tend to come together once a year to celebrate our culture at the regional burning man festival - Kiwiburn.
For those who are unaware the burning man festival scene is built around a set of principals and operates differently to most commercial festivals. There is no main stage, no centrally organised acts or entertainment and no commercial vendors or food stalls. Everyone is expected to bring their own means of sustenance for the entire time and it is against policy to charge for any aspect of value you may bring. The entertainment is organised by each different camp. These can vary from huge sound camps to small popcorn stands and everything in between.
Why is this relevant? We have come from a background of a real world DAO that has been successfully running for almost 20 years. We understand the strengths and weaknesses of this model and how to best make it work (hint: give more than you take). We each work to the benefit of each other and it has created one of the most inspirational and supportive environments we know that exists.
We want to bring this same environment to an online platform and create a place where creatives can share ideas/experience and make the leap into this new and exciting frontier. We would love to continue the principal of decommodification but just as the festivals charge for tickets to enable the event to happen, we need to raise funds to develop our tech into something magnificent. This will however be used to make sure that if people dive deep into our world, they will be rewarded in kind.
To put it simply. We are not a pfp project searching for a use or reason to have a DAO / coin / utility, we are an established DAO with an existing use case looking to move into a new online world and we invite you all along to join us!
PHASE 1
We launched in December and this gave us the funds to develop all the API's and integrations we need.
The initial collection started to generate credits as soon as they were minted. Holder receive 10 credits per week, this is via staking (although we are keeping track for an airdrop until staking is released) and users will spend credits to create imagery. The artists will receive full secondary royalties for life on their art pieces. This is not a royalties issue as no income is guaranteed, it is merely a creation of art>NFT minting service being supplied.
PHASE 2
Once the AI engine is ready you will be able to spend to credits to create an 'art' piece (low cost) or one of the secondary collection. The minting of secondary pieces will act as a slow increase in membership of the community and once the minting engine is live we enter phase two. During this time any holders of the initial collection OR the user generated secondary collection will be eligible to unlimited use (with nominal fee) of the AI engine for experimental purposes (you will still need enough credits to mint). Our aim at this time is to create a value laden community of budding artists. We will be running art competitions where you will be able to pit your art against the community and be able to win substantial prizes (Collection 1/2 mints / ETH / Airdrops / Whitelist spots). During this time we will be adding features and looking at expanding into extra AI engines but our main focus will be preparing for phase 3.
PHASE 3
Once we are comfortably into 2022 and developing our artistic community we will begin possibly the most exciting part of our journey. The introduction of IAO's. Initial artist offerings will be the chance for any holder of either collections to apply to be launched on our artist launchpad. You can apply with any collection size and if voted for by the community will get the chance to release your own NFT art collection. We will take care of the entire technical side for you and despite a small royalty fee for the trouble, the lions share of the mint fees and royalties will be directed to our artists. Of course we will be looking after our members who will all get first dibs at the collections before being available to the public. I cannot emphasize enough that our sole intention is to create ultimate fun / experimentation and reward for our community.
THE FUTURE
This is way more than enough to keep us busy but just so you know we have high ambitions - We have already looked into the possibility of being able to partner with companies that supply physical products. We also know for sure that a metaverse integration of our software is very possible and although we don't want to be "that" project that adds all the buzzwords, we want to let you know it has crossed our minds. In the future we want users to be proud that while they are presenting their AMA's, in their own virtual environments. They will have their own custom Terra Obscura piece hanging on the wall, for all to see
USING THE MINTING ENGINE
1. So you made it onto the whitelist or through the public sale! Congrats!
When your purchase is complete, our snapshot engine will start running.
We will be using this time to develop the API's and integration to our website so that
you can start to use the engine. Whilst our devs beaver away we will continue to run
competitions and there may even be a surprise airdrop or two!
2. As long as your piece is not listed for sale, you will start to generate credits to use our AI.
These will be updated weekly and you must not have your NFT for sale in any of the snapshots to be eligible. This is to reward our dedicated community and discourage flipping.
3. Whenever you have collected enough credits, you'll be given a handful of free attempts with our engine (after which a small fee will apply).
You can make as many test pieces as you like and the engine will stay open for use with the only limitation being the need for credits to perform the mint.
4. When you are happy with your piece of art, you may then pay the minting fee and eternalise your piece on the blockchain. Congrats! Any future sales will grant you secondary royalties forever!
These pieces also act as membership to our community (more on that to come!)
