coolSh*t E3: Context & Spline
Crypto social media and Figma for 3D
Welcome to coolSh*t E3
Hello everyone again,
We got five more people to sign up to the newsletter! Took a week off, but I’m back 😭. Writing something shorter to make reading it more fun and less stressful.
Let’s get into it.
1. Context
Twitter: https://twitter.com/context | Website: https://context.app/
Facebook for NFT’s
User experience is one of crypto’s weakest areas. Since most people won’t know how exactly blockchains work, providing easy-to-access visibility to blockchain activity will be valued greatly.
Context presents crypto in a way that most of social media is currently structured - it consists of a familiar infinite scroll NFT activity wall and profile page.
Why should you care about Context?
As of now with its simple features, Context seems more like an experiment than a full fledged app. However, the experiment and presentation is a big step forward in pushing the conversation for better crypto UX for the masses.
Others in the space, like Showtime, are also innovating in the space. But I really like Context for its simplicity and ease of use.
(optional) Try it out and follow me:
If you have NFT’s and a Chrome extension like Metamask, just connect your wallet and your profile will be created, populated with your NFT activity. Search for friends and Curate (like a retweet) to explore and share NFT’s you like on your page.
Follow me @samuel.
2. Spline
Twitter: https://twitter.com/splinetool | Website: https://spline.design/
Illustrator → Figma → Spline
Creative software (or maybe software in general) evolves. As we master and perfect one tool, the work habits and processes we build around that tool inevitably leads to a more effective next iteration - something more humanized.
I grew up using Illustrator, and was later blown away by Figma. It was fast and light - exactly what someone like me, who wasn’t a pro but still loved making graphics, wanted. For product designers at startups, it was a game changer, allowing for easy collaboration between product, engineering, and design1.
Recently, Spline has emerged as the next iteration - a 3rd generation creative tool for creators of the future and the architects of the Metaverse.
Entering the Metaverse
Half of the reason I started this newsletter was to share cool things. The other half was to publish bets and predictions I have about the future, and I believe 3D graphics are the future.
With Facebook’s rebranding and dive into VR, our journey towards a fully digital world or worlds is accelerating. This Metaverse will be populated with 3D assets.
Look at this amazing promo for Facebook Horizon, their first attempt at a Metaverse. Everything is 3D. And as this movement grows, Spline might become the place for creatives and studios to collaborate, prototype, and publish 3D assets for their worlds.
Why should you care about Spline?
I have checked Spline out a bit, and as someone with no background in 3D, it does seem a bit complicated. A big barrier will be the learning curve to 3D, and I am very interested to see what creative solutions (beyond video tutorials) the Spline team will use to onboard people2.
If you are a product designer or web developer, Spline might be a tool to soon add to your tool kit. If you are looking to explore a career in design or web dev - Spline might be a great place to start creating digital art3!
NFT of the Week
I am drawn to art that evokes feelings and I love art that imagines magical foreign worlds. Artist Clement Morin’s writes on his profiles that he is “Trying to Recreate a Half Remembered Dream” - I think that is beautiful.
Our cover feature today (which I would absolutely buy if I had the ETH) is The Azure Fields, a 1-1 NFT on SuperRare with a highest bid of ~12 ETH the time of publishing. He also has a collection on Opensea of unique worlds, check them out here.
That’s it for this week!
Next week we will check out an NFT appraisal tool & a hardware startup making crazy Airpods (unless I change my mind).
If you like this content, tell a friend, would make my day!
Follow me on Twitter @samuelc1231 and message me cool shit 😇
Idea is from Kevin Kwok’s great article here about Figma: https://kwokchain.com/2020/06/19/why-figma-wins/
Crypto projects actually have a similar problem of being harder to understand. Coinbase incentivizes people to learn about different projects by paying them in crypto to learn about it. Rabbithole.gg does something similar where their only goal is to educate and give you points for learning. A similar solution would be cool to see here!
A good accompanying course would be the Three.js course by Bruno Simon here:
https://threejs-journey.com/
Spline is dope! I played around for 20-30 min and it's definitely easier to use than Blender and some of the other free 3D software, but as of rn, not as powerful. Definitely will be checking back in on it in a few months.