The Unboxing Experience
In OnChain Studio's core unboxing experience, players purchase digital collectibles as NFTs and unlock them through immersive, animated unboxing sequences. For each major drop, including Star Wars™ and Disney's Mickey and Friends™ collections, I handled the critical tasks of rendering, asset management, scene setup, and pipeline optimization to bring these beloved characters to life in Unity. Each unboxing sequence revealed the character from a blind box, allowing players to explore unique, animated personalities for each collectible.
My Role and Contributions
Rendering and Approvals
- Produced high-quality renders for client approvals at each development stage, covering all characters and virtual 'blisterpacks' to maintain Cryptoy’s creative vision.
- Designed real-time animated reveal scenes in Unity for each character’s unboxing sequence, highlighting their unique personality traits.
Scene and Asset Setup
- Set up unboxing environments in-engine, managing lighting, shaders, and scene details per client requirements.
- Developed visual effects (VFX) to heighten the unboxing suspense, including sprite sequences and particle effects, which could be easily adjusted and personalized.
Efficient Asset Management
- Created UnityLink, a Unity-based asset management tool fully integrated with the Ayon/OpenPype pipeline. This tool automatically detected and updated any changes in models, textures, animations, and rigs. UnityLink enabled consistent, efficient updates across over 400 characters, saving significant time and enhancing the review process.
- Enabled UnityLink for look development, turntables, animation review, client approvals, and game design, adapting to various stages of production and facilitating fast adjustments across departments.
Nested NFT Item Attachment System
- Created a system for managing nested items (e.g., accessories) for each character. This system streamlined the attachment process for animators and ensured smooth item integration with characters, adding flexibility and a unified standard for the entire pipeline.
Batch Cinematic Renders
- Designed scenes to be batch-rendered for cinematic sequences, exporting image sequences and videos for reviews and final content, all in Unity, enabling a high level of visual quality without extensive post-processing.
Pipeline and Quality Control
- Worked to establish and enforce a consistent pipeline, ensuring continuity in rigging, export naming conventions, and animation standards despite a rotating team. This helped us deliver reliably within tight timelines.
- Acted as a final quality checkpoint before delivery, stepping in to adjust animation, textures, or rigging when required to maintain a high standard of quality across all releases.