Iron Paw Gang
Monkey Business
In 2022, I partnered with the talented Adam Grabowski to create a collection of animated NFTs. After a round of beer-fueled brainstorming, we came up with the idea of a post-apocalyptic Earth where monkeys battle for control in giant, jerry-rigged mechs (think Planet of the Apes, with mechs. The dominant faction (and the name of the collection) would be the mighty Iron Paw Gang.
We decided the idea might be just dumb enough to work, and set about creating an extensive library of modular, animated components to be used for the assembly of the mechs and their simian pilots.
Modular Madness
While creating the individual components, we really sweated the details, trying to incorporate as much humor and creativity as possible into every piece. These components would be chosen at random for each NFT, with varying degrees of rarity.
One of the main challenges was to ensure that each animated component was able to properly layer into any random build, and move correctly according to the walk (or roll) cycle.
For the standard builds, we included two primary actions - one for each arm. These were built to alternate from one to the other, while also looping seamlessly.
Pure-bred Rarity
To add another layer of rarity and interest, we developed the concept of ‘Purebreds.’ These would be a thematic set of components, that, while able to appear in many of the random builds, would appear all together only once, as a 1/1 build.
This allowed us to come up with some really fun, uniquely-themed concepts, such as an old west gunslinger set, steampunk set, an ice-themed set, a sports-centric set, and many more.
Each Purebred set also came equipped with a unique, 1/1 driver.
We are the Champions
Although highly rare, the ultimate IPG sets were not the Purebreds, but in fact the colossal ‘Champions’, a separate set of ten one-of-one animations that were distributed individually and not as part of the main collection.
See the Champion pieces here.
