DOPE APES – TANIC project was designed by Min Zheng, Jhoselyn Pimentel, Kkrish Rathod, and Vanessa Wolek as part of PAACADEMY‘s “Meta-Fluid Studio 2.0” with Mariana Cabugueira.
The Meta-Fluid Studio investigates the quality and power of Fluid Design in the creation of virtual cities. At Meta-Fluid Studio, under the direction of Mariana Cabugueira, the team got together to design a clubhouse for the Metaverse, the team started by doing research about the clients given to them. They studied the company profiles. All the members of their team came up with their choice of client and finally after a discussion, we decided to go with Bored Ape Yacht Club. We did in-depth research about which sectors of web3 BAYC work in.
After all the research, they started putting their ideas on the Miro board. Their initial ideas on the Miro board about the theme, zones of the structure, look, and feel. With all the ideas put together on the board, they were ready to start the concept design.
Concept
Since they are on an island, they wanted the concept of a clubhouse to be musical waves rising in a beached yacht. They associated musical waves because it’s primarily a party place with cool music. When they talk about sound, lights, or water, they always talk about waves. So basically they want to show a DOPE party placed on a beached APE-TANIC.
The Outer shell with the elegant and futuristic declined windows merges into a flowing design to demonstrate both. And when you see the waves and the yacht with sail, you can also see a sailor captain with a lifeboat in the design. With this proud appearance, they not only wanted to create an awesome party place but also cover the theme of a ZEN wellness place where members can feel at peace and harmony. Since these themes are very opposite, they wanted to connect these places between these two buildings to merge the idea of Ying and Yang. Because there can be no ying without yang. And Yang can’t exist without Ying. The DOPE APES can balance their energy in these places, dance, or have a drink in the spa area.
According to the team, when you enter the building from the front, you come into the concert hall, which is laid out in a perfect spiral. The ramp that leads up through the Yang energy is connected to the wellness area, where you can rest and interact with other monkeys in peace.
Everyone is welcome in this place, including monkeys from other planets who can come here to slide down the roof and enter the second entrance to enjoy themselves. After sliding down, they have access to the NFT gallery where they can buy their membership in the clubhouse or just be inspired by the atmosphere in this gallery inspired by sea anemones that passed by the stranded yacht. First, there are the NFTs for famous people, then the Gold NFTs, then the military NFTs and once the normal ones. You get to the futuristic NFTS via a floating platform that goes out into space.
Design Process
The DOPE APE team started with some primitive shapes and kept playing with the vertices, edges, and faces. The goal was to achieve an abstract and fluid yet elegant outer shell that depicts a yacht. Once the desired form of the outer shell was achieved they carved out a few openings in the shell in order to create a balance between the indoor and outdoor spaces. Then they started defining the interior spaces by adding the required elements. They defined the concert space with a spiral ramp looking at the floating stage and the central hologram.
The wellness space was designed around a waterbody and the NFT space was designed to rethink how the art galleries of the metaverse would look like. The outer shell and all the interior spaces were accentuated by adding light strips. The lights were supported by complementary materials. The outer shell and the interiors were balanced by the calm landscape.
Software
As mentioned earlier, they worked with Maya. It’s a visualization and animation software that helps to create fluid designs in a short time. One idea follows another and it’s very easy to create a lot of models until you find the perfect shape for your project. It’s fun to explore the different shapes. If you’re new to Maya, it’s not easy to understand the curvatures and proportions and what you’re doing when modeling.
For the visualization, they used the Unreal Engine. It is the most powerful 3D creation tool for photorealistic visualizations and immersive experiences. It is perfect for the metaverse. There are many materials in this program and you can download assets from the marketplace that will be useful for your project. You can create scenes with moving platforms or animate and bring your scene to life with cool effects. Using location sound in your project means that you’ll take your project to the next level of the Web3 experience.
They all realized the potential of this software, even though we were all new to this field. To make their project more interesting and dynamic, we played with heights and wrote designs for moving platforms and holograms. The DOPE APE team also enhanced our project with particles and sound to relate to the action.
The experience that has been created with the fluidic form of the structure, the choice of materials, the sounds, and VFX is the key feature of this project. They have followed the concept of BAYC’s roadmap where a new experience unlocks at every different level. The creators of BAYC wanted to create something ridiculous and following the same thought we have taken up a ridiculous concept of having a concert space and a wellness center at the same place. So the concept and the experience are going to be the key features of this project.
Conclusion
According to the DOPE APE team’s members, it was a great learning experience with Mariana. This studio introduced them to the world of the metaverse. They added a lot of skills to our skillset. Right from learning the basics of Maya to making the walkthrough on Unreal Engine for our project, we learned a lot of new things. The project has come out really well. According to team, it was more than just an architectural project it’s going to be an experience Last but not least, this is the most awesome team ever. All apes are dope.
