Woodies
- Company
- UltraDAO Studios
- Role
- Product Lead, Designer, Executive Producer, Engineer, Artist
- Year
- 2021
In 2021, I co-founded a decentralized creative studio with the vision of pioneering innovative, community-driven entertainment IP. Our flagship project, Woodies, became a cornerstone of this mission - a groundbreaking Web3 entertainment brand built around a collection of 9,739 unique digital characters.
As Product Lead, I assembled and directed a world-class team of artists, storytellers, and engineers to create something truly innovative. We set out to build more than just digital collectibles - we wanted to create an entire universe that would resonate deeply with our community while pushing the boundaries of what was possible in Web3.
At the heart of the Woodies universe is Arden, a tree spirit brought to life by the magic of Merkle, the mother tree. We collaborated with Woodblock, a German animation studio, to bring this story to life through a captivating 3-minute animated short film. Working with Gareth Coker, renowned composer of the Ori video game series, we created an emotional score that perfectly captured the spirit of our world.
The film follows Arden's quest to save his decimated forest and rescue its kidnapped inhabitants. This narrative became the foundation of our universe, giving our community a reason to invest emotionally, not just financially. Our team designed and modeled all the 3D characters, including Arden's "forest friends" and our four core characters who made appearances throughout the story.
The project launched with our Woodies Generative Characters collection. We initially released 10,000 "Mint Passports" at 0.08eth each (~$260 at the time), generating nearly $2.6 million in primary sales. These passes could later be exchanged during our "adoption drive" for unique Woodies characters, each created in real-time from over 900 hand-crafted traits and minted on the Ethereum blockchain. The collection saw remarkable success on secondary markets, with combined trading volume of nearly $9 million between the passports and characters.
Woodies broke new ground by becoming the first NFT project to offer full 3D metaverse-ready avatars for every character. We partnered with platforms like Decentraland and Nifty Island to bring our entire collection into virtual worlds, allowing owners to truly embody their Woodies across the metaverse.
Woodies Core Characters
We released a small set of special one-of-a-kind digital collectibles from Woodies lore. All nine characters were revealed periodically over the course of 12 weeks and gifted at random to Woodies holders.
Woodies was also a technological first. In addition to the initial 10,000 generative 2D avatars, we released a 3D collection of metaverse-ready avatars—the first of its kind at the time. These 3D assets empowered owners to bring their Woodies to life in virtual environments, from gaming platforms to metaverse worlds, further expanding the project's reach and utility.
The first 3D release enabled all Woodies holders to play with their new avatars in Decentraland, a blockchain-powered metaverse where players can buy their own plots of land and build worlds together.
After that, we worked with Nifty Island to bring all 9,739 models into their metaverse platform, where players get an island and can build a variety of structures, program games, and visit other islands to earn in-game currency.
Soon following the release of the Woodies Generative Characters collection, we collaborated with nearly two dozen artists to create a series of digital trading cards called Legends of Wondermist. This collection included pieces from top artists including Mike Shinoda of Linkin Park, DesLucrece, Waxbones, Amrit Pal Singh, and Diela Maharanie.
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True to our environmental roots, we made one of Web3's largest charitable contributions to Trees for the Future, funding the planting of one million trees. This initiative connected our digital forest to real-world impact, demonstrating how Web3 projects can drive meaningful change.
Woodies represents a new model for entertainment IP - one that combines storytelling, technology, and community ownership to create something truly innovative. For me, this project stands as a career highlight, proving that we can build successful projects that not only entertain but also inspire and make a tangible difference in the world.
Explore the world of Woodies through our animated film, collections, and metaverse experiences using the links below:
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