koda

I picked devilxdetail for our merch partner because it was founded by a good friend aaron goppie. He’s been an early adopter of blockchain tech & subsequently art on chain. From the beginning we vibed. We love to chop it up from time to time about various web3 topics. It’s hard to find honest hard working people in any industry. I’m happy to say aaron is one of those people here in web3. Not to mention, his attention to detail is evident with this new venture. The merch will include a scannable chip that will link the physical good with the nft collection on chain.

The merch drop is exclusive and time sensitive. You’ll need an allow list spot to gain access to mint the wolf pack merch bundle. The time frame for minting the merch will be coinciding with the allow list portion for the nft mint.

I have curated from the koda & off the map collection’s. These will be featured on the merch!

If you mint the wolf pack bundle: you are guaranteed a koda hoodie, off the map t-shirt, and extra goodies 😎.

All products will be chip enabled connecting the physical good with the digital good.

The Vision

While I use AI for my most recent Art it isn’t simply a prompt that I’m showing as a final piece.

Let me explain.

First here is why I use AI.

At heart I’m a photographer. The beauty of a single image being frozen in time for forever is mind altering. Some moments are so special and I couldn’t imagine having them without the blessing of a camera. Among the limitations with photography are you can only shoot what you see. If you missed the shot it can never be replicated. AI has the ability to bring your wildest dreams to life. It can also enhance what the eye & camera cannot.

Here is my personal process using AI.

I view it as a tool so I always start with a photograph.

In the case of my new project ‘koda’ they’re based on photographs of my dogs. The project is literally named after my dog koda 🫶🏽.

First I talk to midjourney through prompts, describing what i would like to see.

Then I take the prompts and my photographs and blend the two together. The simulations for this part of the process can take days and even weeks, if you’re as particular as I am.

Once I have the outputs I like, it doesn’t stop there. The next step is taking each final output and cleaning it up in photoshop. Some need a lot of work to get to the desired final product.

The final step is Lightroom.

As a photographer I’ve created thousands of presets in Lightroom. When I was creating ‘off the map’, following a similar process, I created a lot of new presets. I took most of the ‘off the map’ presets and used them as a base layer of editing for ‘koda’. These collections connect and I wanted the visual vibe to help overlap that vision.

Once I’ve exhausted a particular theme, in this case dog photography, I move to curation.

This is my favorite part because it’s like I’m reliving every step previously all at the same time.

I hope this helps give you insight into what’s involved in my process. I love AI as a tool and I encourage everyone to explore this technology while staying true your own artistic vision!

The Story

The story behind koda began with picking up a puppy. Me and my wife were both big dog fans. We always grew up with them in our lives.

When we began our life together neither of us had a dog. It didn’t take long (literally days) for us to realize how weird it was not to have a dog around. We hopped online and began our search for a puppy.

We picked up koda at 6 weeks old in the state of Virginia back in the summer of 2017. He was an Australian Sheep Dog. He was so smart and lovable.

It made total sense, when I was thinking of the next chapter of “off the map”, to include my dog koda. He signifies so much in my life. My wedding anniversary coincides with getting koda. He’s the reason why we got another dog. His name is griffin. He’s koda’s half brother. On multiple levels Koda will always be apart of our life. I wanted to create something to always remember him by.

The blessing of having dogs is unlike any other. They truly are man’s best friend.

I hope on august 29th you can join along and memorialize koda on chain and off chain!

If your circumstances support, go get a dog! You will not regret it.