And the man of the hour himself has arrived welcome give us a few minutes to prep appreciate your money
Hi, everyone, joining. Appreciate you. Joining so promptly and early. Just give us a few
more minutes to get this set and we will be off and running. Thank you, everyone, for
joining today. All right, we should be live. Hello, everyone. How are you? Welcome to
Tuesday, Tuesday. Let me know if you can hear me well. Blanks, retro. Sound right, my man.
I'm sitting down now. Let me just re-invite you. I thought you were up at the speakers before.
Blanks, what about you? Are you there? I'm here, my man. Didn't you hear me?
Okay, I don't hear anything, so give me one second to figure out what's going on with my sound
So I don't know if anyone else has taken the time to go watch like an old episode of the
Thundercats, but it is some of the slowest dialogue I've ever heard in my life. And so
I do understand as a kid why I loved it, but I can't even make it through two minutes of dialogue
given stuff anymore. You go that way. I'll go this way.
You got me cracking up right now. Oh, I'm sorry, man. But that's for real,
though. That's unfortunately like what I grew up with.
Well, welcome to the stage, Manny. How are you? We'll just start it off by asking how are you,
man? Welcome up here. How are you doing? Thank you for taking your time to
come speak with us today. I promise I won't go off Thundercats on you.
I'm doing well. No, please do. I love Thundercats. I grew up on it as well.
And you're totally right. I was watching it again with my kids, just some clips on YouTube.
And I was like, man, this is not how I remember it.
It seems so intense and so fast paced and so much going on in such a short time. Maybe our
concept of time compression or I don't know, man, it's tough now.
But I still stand by that intro is still probably one of the best animated sequences ever.
So you are inspired by 80s style cartoons. What else, man? That's an interesting
beginning. Let's go a little deeper into that. So that's fun.
Yeah, 80s is my jam, really, 80s and early 90s. Really, I'm I was very young in the 80s,
but I've got an older brother. And so he brought a lot of the 80s stuff into the 90s with us. So
I can have a much more vivid memory of it. But but yeah, I grew up on Transformers,
Thundercats, other cartoons. I mean, you know, we I can't believe I used to watch these as a kid,
but like Akira. Oh, I can't believe I watched it as a kid now. He used to terrify me. But
you know, all those all those classic to the animations
are so vivid in my memory. And yeah, they they kind of still hold with me today.
That's awesome. And before we go any further, could I have you go ahead and introduce yourself?
Let everyone here know. And anyone who's tuning in and listening.
And let's see who you are. Kind of a little bit about yourself and just go ahead and share.
I don't know a little bit. Just tease us. Yeah, sure. So my name is Retro Manny.
I'm an artist based in the UK in England in the city of Birmingham, which is what inspired Lord
of the Rings in case anyone doesn't know. And I sort of began life as a filmmaker. But at the
moment, I'm an artist who works primarily in 3D. And yeah, I like to create 80s inspired
nostalgic and 90s inspired nostalgic worlds, universes. And I've recently created the
character Retro Man. And I'm kind of building out that world through creating, recreating a game
like experience to tell a story. That's always been one of the best ways to impart not only
history and wisdom, but also to teach social interactions, competition, healthy ways to win
and lose. That's a good way to go. You can read a lot of books on winning, but it's really
interesting to see someone get a taste of it and then lose sight of anything else. But anyway,
so are you are you back with us, my man? Can you hear me? I'm sorry. Yep, yep. I think that
rejoining fixed it. I don't know what the hell it was. I could hear Retro, but I couldn't hear you.
Like, I couldn't hear your questions. I only heard the answers. It's probably my fault,
actually. But thank you for bearing with the bro. But I can hear you now. So I don't know.
Maybe it is just Twitter or, I don't know, my connection. But in any case, we are here now. I
just wanted to give a welcome to Retro. Retro, thank you for joining us, man. You've already
started chatting. So, yeah, I guess we can keep going. I don't know. What was your first
questions, Blanks? So you just. Oh, we just started off with just a little bit about him,
just kind of started off with a little inspiration. And then I said, go ahead and start introducing
yourself. And that's kind of where we left it out. So we are right up to you. You missed
the most important. No, I'm kidding. So welcome back. You did miss the Thundercats. You missed
my Thundercats impression. That was probably, you know, I'll never do that again. But, you know,
I listened to the recording just for that, man. Please do. So anyone just tuning in,
welcome. Thank you for joining us on Tuesday, Tez Day. We have with us up here, Retro Manny.
He is sharing with us. He is an individual who is highly inspired by things that I am so
nostalgically remembering right now. There's a black and white picture of me somewhere,
standing next to an Optimus Prime, just to give you an idea of how important that was in my life
at that time. So anyway, please do continue. You said you just, you're fleshing out. Is that
what you said? I'm paraphrasing. That's a terrible way to say it. But you're building
and expanding upon the world of Retro Man. Can you go into that a little bit more?
Yeah, definitely. So the idea of Retro Man was when I started in NFTs on Tezos,
obviously being in spaces was a big thing. And my work was always very obviously inspired by
80s retro culture. But when I used to come into spaces, there was, every now and then,
someone would call me Retro Man and not Retro Manny. And I found that hilarious at first.
But then I created a piece called A New Home, and it was for a Tez Town competition.
And in the piece that I did a painting of myself, and I'm in a spaceship with my family,
and in the spaceship, I'm wearing this helmet. And the more that person kept calling me Retro Man,
even though it was by accident, it sort of chimed with me. And I took that picture and I
kind of repainted it, which became my current PFP. And I kind of really started to embody that
as an identity for a new project or a new thing. I still hadn't fully formed what it was.
But I knew it was going to be called Retro Man. So that's the thing there. And
I then did an anniversary collection, because I'm a huge pixel art fan. And so I did an
anniversary collection of my first collection, which was a Cyberpunk collection. So a year
run from launching on Tezos, I did a co-lab collection with some of the best pixel artists
in the game, like Mech, Bombadel, Pixel Dreams. And we did a big, big co-lab collection. And then
I did my own pixel art piece for it. And that's when I first created a Retro Man,
this kind of Retro Man character riding on a motorbike through a city. And over time, I was
like, okay, it's very much like a game. And I was trying to think about how this is going to work.
And then being a massive fan of Star Fox, it just hit me one day, you know what, I'm going to create
something like that, the way the story is told through the ships flying through space or on
different alien planets. And you can see the little dialogues popping up. And there's a
story being told as they're doing certain missions. And I thought that would be a really interesting
way to tell a story. And so I kind of really leaned into that. And yeah, now the collection
is called RMU Gamer. And seven pieces in there. And yes, that's how the story is unfolding and
the universe is being built through this character, there's new characters being involved, and there's
a story being told. So that's kind of the evolution of Retro Man in a very, very small nutshell.
So when was it that you minted that first piece?
You have to forgive me because it gets really complicated and trying to
simplify it down. I really struggle with that. But the first piece I minted was supposed to be
a collaboration with another pixel artist called R Milk. He'd invited me to be part of his
Commodore Opera collection. And this was a while ago. And I created the first piece back in,
like, I think it was maybe the end of summer last year. And then we collabed on it. And then I
started really feeling that this wasn't right for the collab. I felt like this was where I wanted
to take my own project. And R Milk was really good about it. And we spoke about it. And I said,
look, I want to do a different piece now. And he gave me a lot more time. And I sat on that other
piece. And then I minted it last year as a one of one, just as a kind of I don't want to let it go.
It's a one of one. It's a high price. And I just want it to kind of sit there. Because that's like
my prototype for what I was planning, but I hadn't fully formed it. So I minted it, you know, a while
ago. But then randomly, the whole test poll situation happened in December. And it again,
you know, when inspiration strikes you just go, I'm gonna do something. And I was really enjoying
the movement of test poll and what was happening. So this inspiration just struck me that I'm going
to make another piece very quickly that's inspired by test poll, but it's going to be this retro man
ship flying right next to a test poll. And I minted that and it's it's sold out straight away. And
then I thought I'm gonna do another one. So I minted another test poll, retro man flying and
fighting the test polls if it's like a boss in Star Fox. And that sold out really quickly as well.
And I thought, Okay, there's something to this. And then again, I sat on it for a while. And then
about a week later, I minted the first actual piece that went into the collection after test
poll. So yeah, I've been doing that ever since. Which was that piece? So that one's called stage
one, the Zavari mountains. So in the RMU gamer collection on object that is, that's the very
first stage yet. Yeah, I'm looking at it right now. Yeah, and I also noticed that besides the
RMU gainer, you also had like another collection with comics books.
Yeah, yeah. Yeah, right. Yeah. So that was another thing that was in the mix at the time as well. So
this was this is again going back to last year. So it's summer of 2023. And I've been planning it
for a while. So I'm still kind of, you know, after that anniversary collection that I was talking
about where I did my first pixel art piece, and it was retro man riding through the city.
So after I'd done that piece, again, more and more ideas just keep striking me. And I really
in one of the best things about Tezos is just calling up your favorite artists and saying,
would do you want to do a collab with me? And let's do it as a collection. And so again,
the idea struck me that wouldn't it be really cool if there were if I did some kind of
a retro man front covers of like classic comic books, kind of, you know, going back to the whole,
you know, the first time you had Spider Man issue number one, or Batman number one, I was kind of
trying to tap into that kind of energy. And so I painted my own, I created my own front cover
first, and I minted that only five editions. And again, that that flew off, like, within a few
hours, I think it wasn't it wasn't very long. And I price those at 50 Tez each. So it was it was
quite a it was quite a risk that I took there because I know pricing is a big, very contentious
issue on Tez. But yeah, so so I minted those and they sold. And that's when it really made me feel
okay, this could be a really good collaboration. So after that one being minted, and kind of
a bit of proof of concept, I approached Paper Buddha. And Paper Buddha, someone I've, you know,
really looked up to in the space and had a lot of guidance from him and just really tried to watch
how he how he moves and how he operates as an artist. And he's where he treats people,
which I always find very, he's very respectable, he's very kind of like an honorable,
reminds me of a samurai, almost. And so I approached him and I thought this I could get
shut down, he might say, I'm not, I'm not ready for this. I don't want to do any collabs with you.
But he was super nice, he was super gracious, and he accepted. And so with Paper Buddha on
board, I just started feeling like I could approach any artist I wanted to. So, you know,
I started approaching Sarisa Kojima, who I really admire. Who else did I approach? Tomo, Tomoroman,
Atmo, Atmanes, who's like the cyberpunk god. And a bunch of other artists now,
obviously gone out my head. But yeah, so we did a we did a collection of 10 comics.
And we collabed on them where they take the retro man character and create their own front cover
of this comic book series. And so yeah, that was another like a really big moment for me because
I don't like to get attached to metrics too much. Because they can really give you kind of a
distorted reality. And it can really mess with your expectations. But the fact that that
collection got me like a number one on object, it kind of gave me this confidence that I am
I am worthy. And I know it sounds bad. But you know, I mean, you know, we all need that
quote in quotes recognition at some point, you know, to kind of reassure ourselves and
getting out of the first spot on object is not a small fit, in my opinion, like we have so many
artists in the ecosystem. So, you know, getting out of the first spot, I do see that's really
important. So that well done that that's a that's a great fit, I think. And any artists like would
say so right. So on that note, I wanted to also, you know, like, could you walk us through your
creative process, like from concept to meaning like, usually, how do you come up with the ideas?
How do you implement them? You know, I think any anything I create now is it's kind of
it all goes back to me being a filmmaker. And so I've been a filmmaker for since 2004 now.
And I've been through the whole process of understanding about how to tell a story,
how to tell it visually, making all the mistakes, and making some really horrible work,
some work that I'm really proud of, and then going into industry and understanding how it works.
And how you kind of have to find a balance between what your intended audience likes,
who your intended audience is, and what times with you and what kind of fires you up and inspires you.
So I've taken a lot of that. And I brought it into NFTs. The only thing is, is in terms of my film
work, I'm I do art has cinema, which is worlds away from whatever you see me create as under the
name retro money. It's very, very slow cinema. It's kind of, I don't know if you've heard of,
you know, filmmakers like Abbas Karostami, or Hersha Shen, but they are very fame for slow
cinema, long takes slow shots. And so that's kind of my world. And I'm, you know, I'm a fine art
graduate. But when I coming to NFTs, it was like, okay, I've got a chance to completely design
myself however I want to. And so I really wanted to embody the whole my love of computer games,
my love of 80s nostalgia and cartoons growing up. So it's kind of a merge between those two worlds.
So now any inspiration that I have anything that I any idea that I have, it's kind of bringing that
grounded, quote unquote, art kind of background, and merging it with just the inner child.
And I guess that just inspires me just to come up with new ideas and
just always bearing in mind that story is the most important thing.
I've just noticed that they're both gone. I think I must have turned them off.
Well, I guess I'll just carry on seeing as they'll probably come back in a bit. So yeah,
so that's, that's my inspiration in terms of making new work. And for me, anything that I'm
creating, it's all about storytelling more than anything else. I think I, I really respect
being able to create one artwork after the next. And you know, that's what I came in when I started
in NFTs. That's what I came in doing making one artwork and then saying, Okay, I've kind of
created that now I want to create a different piece. But it was always, I always felt strongly
in my head that I want to tell a story and I wanted to build a world. And again, that's
something NFTs allows you to do this whole, it's like you redesign who you are. And I wanted to
redesign a whole world for myself that I could kind of create from scratch. And it not being
something that someone was telling me what I had to do. When you're working in any industry,
so as a filmmaker, you're working in an industry, and you've, even though you are world building,
you've got to go with what the industry thinks works. And you've kind of got to play by their
rules. And that's something I didn't want to do in NFT. So I wanted to just go, right, this is what
I like, this is what I think is cool. And I want to create that. And I didn't want to be held down
by that. So I was always looking for a way to be able to build out a big world or a big universe
with its own characters, its own personalities that could just keep going and going and going.
And so that's, that's the rationale behind, you know, starting by creating this comic book
covers just to give people the idea of what I'm trying to do all around this one character in
this one world and this one ethos. And then the same with all these game, excuse me, all these
game concept stages that I'm making is to get people aware that who Retro Man is, what his world is,
who he interacts with, what his purpose is, how is he relatable, what challenges does he come up
against and how does that become something that's entertaining and that's something that people want
to continually find out more about. And I think that's what really excites me about what I'm doing
at the moment in NFTs versus anything else is the ability to create a, create my own universe and
create something that I'm hoping people can become fans of. And they're not kind of just buying like
at the moment, I know this, how the market works and we're kind of, we're really lifting each other
up and keeping people going. And I love that. I love the community spirit, but in the long run,
I want people to look back in five or 10 years time and go, oh, remember how Retro Man started?
And them enjoying the fact that they are a fan of it and they like to see the stories unfold
and they like to see where else it can go. And that's what's really
exciting for me, if that makes sense to anyone.
I am back by the way. I didn't want to touch you off because that was beautiful. And
sorry about that again. I don't know if it was my computer or what, but I now rejoined from my mobile
because I was from my desktop with my setup, but maybe it's from that. So I just rejoined from my
mobile phone and I could hear you talking. So in that sense, I wanted to ask you, what role
has the community so far played for you in this journey with NFTs and Intelsos?
So that when people ask, and that's a really good question actually, because when people ask
about like why Tezos, it sometimes sounds like I'm really kind of blinded and I'm not looking
elsewhere and I'm not understanding the value of other chains. And that's not what it is. I'm
definitely not a blockchain maxi at all. But when I came in to NFTs originally, it was a minefield.
Like how do you even navigate this? How do you know what the hell is going on? And especially
when I came in, there was so much anonymity. It was like, I didn't know who to trust or who was what.
And then I was going into spaces. I didn't know what was ETH or what was Tezos or what was what.
And so when you go into those spaces and there's a lot of, the talk really is all about hype and
it's all about making loads of money. It feels really fake and it wasn't until I, you know,
kind of randomly, I don't believe it's a random really, but I went into an object.com and Teia
space that I think it was Wise and Merchant were holding a few years ago. And I heard them speak
and it was such a different vibe. And then people came up from the Tezos community and they were
talking and I thought, wow, this is worlds away from what I've been listening to in other spaces.
And then that really got me much more involved. And then, and then I think the next stage from
there was going into and becoming part of Tez Town in terms of like joining their spaces and
getting to know Lily and Sandy and Terry and Mike and realizing that this is a very different,
very, very different vibe and they're very supportive and they all want this to work
for the right reasons or reasons that that resonated with me, which were
people wanted to be artists and they wanted to make a living from making the stuff that they
care about. And that was, that was what was important. It wasn't about we're going to make
loads of money. And if we're going to do, we're going to follow this trend and make loads of
money here. And then we're going to do this. It was just, everybody's got their own thing.
Everyone makes art in their own way. And we're all trying to build this thing out so that we can all
somehow turn it into something that could work as a job for people. And I think that's,
that was the most interesting part of it. And from there, I think Tez Town was really, really,
Tez Town, sorry, was really, really instrumental. I'll talk about Tez Town later.
That's another whole other thing. But yeah, Tez Town was the first real big feeling of community,
how they, you know, they supported you and they, they talked to you and they made you feel like
you're part of something. And I think it's just gone on that way. People are very much open.
I was going to ask you just that, like, do you still see and feel this same vibe in the community
in Tezos right now? Because I've seen you, you have done and are doing spaces from time to time,
right? So do you still see that vibe? Do you see still that, I don't know, diversity, inclusivity,
and that vibe of, you know, not the flashy hype, slash, I don't know what, but the more,
it's like a beautiful, let's say. Yeah, yeah. So you still see it, right?
Yes, I still see it. But I think it's important to note that it's like,
it's the artists that I'm friends with, and it's the artists that I get along with, or it's the
artists that I just really like, and I like what they talk about and how they, and how they carry
themselves. And I just really resonate with them. They're on different blockchains. But they're also
on Tezos. It's just me, mostly that I know that it's kind of exclusively Tezos. But I see that
they're still very supportive of what I do. And I like to be very supportive of what they do.
And I think it's, that's what the community is. It's not elitist. It's not, you have to be like
this to be one of us. It's everyone just kind of mucks in and helps out. And it's, it feels,
I still feel that. And don't get me wrong, there's still things that God, nothing's perfect. But
I try to align myself with, yeah, I try to align myself with the things that resonate with me
and try to tune out of some of the unprocessed thoughts and kind of anger that gets post on the
timeline sometimes. I try to tune out of that and just try to, you know, yeah, just try and keep
going with that, with that positive momentum. And, and when there's, when there's good conversation
and good debate to be had, don't get me wrong. I'm definitely in there. I love it because I'm
passionate about it. And I will talk about it. And I will talk about my point of view. But everyone,
for the most part, is open to hearing different thoughts. And especially when you've got a lot
of spaces running and people can speak rather than just write what they think. They get to think
about what they want to talk about. So I still feel that, that energy and that, and that attitude.
Right. Yeah, I mean, you know, when you have such a diverse community,
not just the NFT community, I mean, in general, it's a community. It's logical to have, you know,
like sort of a lot of different perspectives, a lot of different point of views. You will see,
you know, opinions from all kinds of sites. But I also think that, as you said, you choose to,
you know, focus on what you are doing and how you can improve and move forward.
Not to say that feedback isn't necessary. We always need feedback, but just not to get toxic,
if you know what I mean, you know, because there are levels to all the stuff that we see on Twitter.
And this is not exclusive to Tezos either. Like we say, I see a lot of drama in Ethereum. We see a
lot of drama in Solana. If you dig deep, if you dig deep enough, I think you will find drama
everywhere. But in general, I think the vibe that the art community has on Tezos and the,
I don't know, camaraderie, I think is the word that I see that a lot. And you were talking before
about, you know, asking some of the artists to collaborate and they were very accepting to that.
So I don't know, would that be as easy another chance? Like, have you heard another chance
having that vibe? That is, you know, to get in touch with everybody and be so inclusive?
I'm going to be honest. I haven't really reached out to people on that level. So if I haven't spent
the time in those communities, I can't really speak for them. I can save the people that I know.
And the people that I like and the people that I try and spend the most time with,
they are very inclusive and they make me feel part of something. And I try to
pay that forward to others as well. Because I think that's what the space is all about.
It's not just about being reciprocal. I think it's about paying it forward.
That's how you kind of make it an echo throughout everywhere. So people start to treat each other
better. So I do like that. I mean, I have considered other chains. And I think one
of the things I'm doing is with the people that I know is reaching out
and just asking them about it. But as you'll find with a lot of artists in the same that I've spoken
to, I know I speak to Paper Buddha, MEC, even I remember Jayburn saying something similar.
Tezos feels like home. So it feels like it's a good base and a good foundation. I just haven't
left because I'm very happy here. And it takes a long time for me to make work. I don't really
bang out work very quickly. Mainly because I guess it's the kind of work that it is because
it's animated. But also I drag my feet on stuff because I'm never satisfied. So I never like the
idea of just minting and going, I'm just going to put it out there now. It terrifies me and makes
me very anxious. So because it takes me so long and I've built up a collection on object.
I like seeing it there. And I like seeing how it works together. And one of the things that makes
me anxious is then splitting it up and putting parts of it on another chain. And I can't see,
I can't make that, I can't square that circle at the moment. So that's something that I'm
still contending with, I guess. Manny, I was going to your site and I noticed the audio books.
Could you go a little deeper into what that is? Expand off of where you're going with that.
I know that there's been a lot of work with recorded music, some spoken productions,
but I mean, I don't know how many audio books have been produced in objects. So I'm kind of curious
about that. Yeah, so the audio book was, that was pre-retro man, I believe. That was when I was
still trying to build out a world and figure out how I could create this kind of universe.
But yeah, so that kind of was something I created at the beginning of last year, 2023, January.
And I was doing that and I'm still doing that chapter by chapter and they take a long time to
write because I have someone to perform them, I create the music for them,
the writing after editing, actually the sound effects, all that kind of stuff. So they take
a while. But that's becoming part of this world as well. So it's all kind of one universe, if you
will. But there are now five chapters that I've released. So I released them chapter by chapter
throughout, I've been releasing them throughout the year. I did a couple of collaborations on
the writing of those as well. So you know Bass is right and Terry, they helped me write a few of
the chapters, a few of the early chapters. But it's going to be 10 chapters all in all,
which I'm hoping to finish this year. And then the point of it is that once it's all been
finished, done and dusted and all 10 chapters have been minted and sold, the people who have
bought every single chapter, who own every single chapter, will get a physical thing at the end of
it. At the moment I'm toying with either it being a book with the artwork and the writing in there
or it being an audio tape like a cassette tape, which I think could be quite cool. So that's why
I'm doing that. They'd never be able to play it, it'd be cool, it'd definitely be cool.
I think that's it, it reminds me of a bit of Tangible Wu Tang. I've got that one album
that they created, they only made one and I don't think anyone's heard it. A certain Martin had to
give it back in a certain litigation situation. Yes, I know what you're talking about. Yeah there was
something you've got to think about that wasn't there, but yeah I do like the idea and the
collectors who have been getting every edition, they seem really keen on the cassette tape
and I'll speak to it. It's in a classic format, 80s, 80s file myself, I do love it.
I know there's something priceless about spinning the pencil if you know what I mean.
Yeah there's all the drawbacks that you remember being really annoying in those days and they're
so nostalgic and it's like you'd do anything to bring them back right. Did you ever grab your
buddy's tape and literally reverse the tapes and then take it apart, flip it, reverse it through
the little scrubbers so that for some reason his tape was just messed up for life? I've never
opened one up but I used to borrow my brother's tapes all the time and many times I've just
wound it out and then tried to wind it back in again just because I'm a kid messing around with
something and it won't go back in or the tape twists and you're trying forever to try and get
it back in and then you realize it's just a mess, this ain't happening. I'm gonna have to face up
to this at some point. Yeah that's you're playing with danger there sir, you're a dangerous man but
that's why you're a retro manny. No that's awesome man, that's awesome. So tell me a little bit more
about you man, let's talk about you. Okay so you're very focused on the community and we appreciate
that. What about you man? What do you do for fun? Do you just sit in front of the TV and eat?
Like what do you do for fun? Yeah I do. I need to give myself some damn time, that's what I need
to do so I can figure out what I do for fun. I enjoy spending time with my kids, I think that's
the most important thing. I was talking with my wife the other day, it was like before a friend
of ours had just had a baby and we were just trying to remember what it was like before kids
and it was yeah I had hobbies. I used to do loads of things but yeah I've got two quite big kids
now, one's 10, one's well one's going to be 11 and one's going to be seven and so that's most
my role is being being dad and trying to encourage them as well. I actually got my daughter on Tezos
the other day, she minted her first collection and she made 50 Tezos and she was very tough
with herself so I guess art is a massive part of my life now. That's awesome. Okay so art can
technically be something you do for fun I guess, that's fair, that's fair. Now you have this big
vision to gamify this world. I remember worlds like Sierra, do you remember Space Quest, do you
remember these old like I mean we can go even back further like Commander Keen if you want to go like
way back but I mean we're talking about at the time these worlds were endless in my mind
and I'm looking at what we can do now and how we have like Eve and I don't know man it's
like this is quite the undertaking and it's quite impressive what you've done so
I'd bravo and kudos to you.
Yeah I'd definitely shout out to Commander Keen, what a classic. You know the thing is
I've not played Eve and I've not really played many multiplayer online games.
I'm kind of from the era of those retro games and I spent a while really trying to perfect
like being a master of perfection like really really really making sure that everything was
so spot on and recently just emulating the Star Fox kind of thing and really been inspired
by a lot of the pixel artists that I've seen and the glitch artists that I've seen in the space.
I've really started embracing the non-perfect and so I'm kind of
when you look at the Retro Man the the RMU Gamer Series you can see it's really imperfect it's like
really low poly not it doesn't. I love the low-fi low poly smoof it's beautiful because let's be
honest man pixels don't look the same as they used to I don't know you're probably aware of this
but most people don't know that just the way a pixel was displayed on a CRT versus an LCD or
plasma it looks completely different there's shading there's gaps between the pixels that add
depth and it's so the modern day pixel art is it seems it's more focused on the the straight up
lines defining them whereas before it was all about brightness I don't know but that's just
my opinion I'm sorry no no no you know what I'm I'm really glad you touched on that and this is
you know I love pixel art I love the pixel artists that are out at the moment and they're
massively like first after they're massively inspiring me because they gave me the push to
go back and I can see they're really for me they're really pushing things forward like you look at
what mech is doing and it's mind-blowing how he's creating what he's creating and it's very easy
as an artist to want to be inspired to do something yourself but then get swayed by everything you're
seeing on the timeline or seeing what your friends are doing or seeing what the great
eyes are doing and then you don't know who you are and I'm really glad you touched on that and
I don't know if you you realize that in in the stuff that I'm making it's pixel art but I really
downgrade it to try and make it look really like it is not very high quality either so you can't
see the definition in the pixels even though it is pixel art it's got that hazy you know you're
looking at it on a not quite CRT monitor but just with that really low low tech feel to it
and that's just by just exporting it and crunching it down and just not wanting exports in Blender
to take too long and exports in After Effects to take too long so that it speeds up the workflow
so I can be creative without being a perfectionist and that's kind of automatically made this lower
quality look to it which I'm really feeling and I feel like it defined it's starting to define me
and separate me a little bit without trying to but just more me being me and I'm learning more
and more in this space I've never been so overwhelmed with the amount of amazing art
that I see on a daily basis it's it's incredible and it's very easy to lose yourself to it
and forget who you are because you're trying to go okay look what they're doing now
I mean I was even looking at um Salawaki's work and I think most people know Salawaki
um and she works in Blender and she does just this brilliant storytelling through Blender and it's
it makes me look and it pushes me to go okay how am I what am I doing what's the purpose of what
I'm doing and if you're not careful you can lose yourself because you start to think everybody
else is doing way better than you and they're doing more interesting things and they've got
more to say and so it's really important to constantly kind of bring yourself back to center
and understand that that's that's their journey and you can enjoy their journey for the journey
that there's that they're showing you and then still tap back into who you are and realize that
there's people out there that actually enjoy what you're doing as well but it's a hard balance with
social media it didn't used to be like this when you know when I was a filmmaker in those early
days it was very few people you could see who else were making independent films anyway it was
you know it was judged by the festivals though you weren't really seeing them many online
uh you'd go to festivals and see a handful of films and go okay yeah I would imagine
online distribution at that time would be terrifying losing your rights losing losing
the ability to make any type of profit off of it long term that would be terrifying of a concept at
the time but yeah yeah it was scary that a lot of that was quite scary as the as the technology
emerged and things were changing um but I mean I think you can see now the democratization of it
is better um but it doesn't we had to have we had to be tricked into using shopping carts in grocery
stores did you know that do you know that story like people wouldn't use shopping carts so it used
to just be hand baskets and supermarkets believed that people needed more than they could carry and
if they could they would buy more as long as they had a reason to so they invented the wheeled cart
but most people with common sense understood that hooligans would cause major major problems with
these things and so most people didn't ever use them and so they made this whole campaign where
they hired actors to walk around in the clothes store that looked up and and used the baskets
without smashing into each other causing a problem and everybody agreed oh it can be done
and that's literally why we have shopping carts you'll be pleased to know that I if I'm ever
sent shopping um I always pick up a basket me too brother I'm with you that's because I never
carry a coin with me to to unlock one of the trolleys so I'm stuck with the basket anyway
there now a little long topic uh apple just released the apple vision pro
and I know some artists have been dabbling in immersive uh virtual experiences
do you see that being a direction your project heads in the future uh is that something that
even interests you at all as a creator um where do you see any of that stuff
I mean it's it's interesting um I I personally uh so DNS came up with it came out with a
post I think yesterday or or today I think I shared it uh where they talked about meeting
the people where they are uh and that's how I kind of see it um and being is the fact that I'm
creating very very old school stuff uh I think meeting people where they are is is better than
potentially designing for new for new high-priced tech although at the same time so I like that
ideology like you know you know phones phones are great most people have these most people
that I'm interacting with have access to a phone how do they get to see and experience my work
well I want it to be in the most accessible way so that that makes sense to me not to do that
however what I saw uh I saw an um Instagram real I think where someone was using the apple vision
and they were pulling a they created a new I'd not heard of this it's not a GLB file 3D file it's a
different type of file and they were pulling the 3D file into um you know the VR space whatever you
want to call it AR space and I thought that's quite interesting because I as part of the retro
man um this RMU gamers series there's trophies and people can if they collect all of them
every every month or so they'll get a new trophy and so I thought that would be quite cool because
those are 3D GLB trophies they could have like a trophy shelf in their in their room or something
like that I don't know I thought that would be quite cool uh but again it's quite novel in my
opinion that's very novel it's not I can't come into the value in it at the moment but I mean
never say never have you now do you have much experience in the VR space do you have you messed
around with it at all um well yes and no so my my first big project was um one that I did for Nissan
um this was a few years ago now so I did a I did a an advert for Nissan and the whole thing that
I created for them is they they turned my work into a VR space and um that was the way they
promoted their the the Nissan Aria is elect their electric car the new electric car at the time
um and so they created that and loads of um instagram what they called again people who
what they called influencers loads of instagram influencers were using this new they were using
the oculus I think and going into this this world that I created and um promoting it so
that's probably the experience I've had but I never got to see it myself but that's probably
the extent of my of my knowledge so my uh the oculus or now known as the quest and it's now
gone on to like three iterations and has pro versions mixed in there uh it's basically nothing
more than a cellular phone strapped to your face with maybe some some extended memory and and maybe
there might be an added processor that they throw in maybe but uh the truth of the matter is man
uh it's funny uh the when you talk about everybody has a cell phone in their pocket
that's really all these the quests at least are I know that the um that apple vision pro has some
actual hardware in it but I believe it's if you want to go bang for your buck you could buy
the quest three right now for five or six hundred and you would be basically getting the same thing
as an apple you might have saw the fancy iphone connectivity but anyway I thought that was
interesting but I was curious because I obviously I'm a little in the vr uh it saved my life during
covid it was the only way I could connect with people when we were locked in our homes but um
I it it's a place where I've seen some creators embrace it as a place to work where they still
do their 2d uh developing and their artistic stuff that they do it in a vr space so I don't know I
just it's interesting how it applies to certain people and how they use it so I was just curious
I'm sorry no I've seen that that is that does look really cool um and I think it depends what
suits you as a person and I guess don't knock it until you tried it I haven't tried it but I have
seen it and it looks cool um but I think it because the technology moves so fast in every space and
and man in the nft space it's ridiculous how fast everything is moving when you're on twitter it's
like have you just not seen this do you not open on that or you do you not know about this um
again you can lose sight of the thing that you were trying to do because you keep trying to
then play catch up and I think it sometimes you've got to really pull yourself back and go
what's my north star this is something basis told me um I love basis because he's again going
back to community he's been a big supporter of me and and helped me out especially in the early days
and he told me like you know what's your north star and from that moment I actually wrote it down
and I put it on my wall so every time I get these doubts about what's going on I look back and I
go oh yeah that's what I'm trying to do and does this align does this new tech or this new thing
or this whatever it is align with what I've set out to do and what I've been working so hard for
and if it doesn't I have to go well that's not for me now have you oh sorry go ahead
no I was just gonna ask so on that note um that's totally you know uh fair what you say but uh
at the same time I'm sure that you definitely you know notice some trends that are going on in the
space uh so I would like your opinion on how do you see the whole this whole NFT arts and digital
arts space uh is gonna evolve moving forward like how do you see it evolve in the next years
like you we mentioned the VR and the AR spaces and we see a lot of this um virtual galleries
where you can showcase your work and stuff uh how do you see it play out in the next years
in your opinion uh I mean any first thing I'd say anything that I'm going to say is a complete guess
um I have no real idea I think the gallery thing is great I think that's one of the big problems
that we were facing as an international community is that and and and Miami really highlighted this
was that you've got this really expensive place that's really expensive to get to for most people
that doesn't happen for very long that probably isn't going to pay off any dividends and is more
about like a lot of flashing and you know trying to show off what you have and for a lot of people
that's just not what it's about and it is for some people that's fine or it's just affordable
for some people or it pays dividends for some people that's fine but for a lot of people it
doesn't um they want to still come you know get together uh as a community they still want artwork
exhibited and they want to feel like that they're part of something in a bit more of a visceral way
so I think the gallery thing is could really take off I think that could really really take off
um but ultimately I think if this tech is going to survive and it's going to work I think people
gaming I think is going to be the thing that keeps it alive um and and like entertainment
more than just the will of of artists in the space I think the the wider mainstream cultures of
entertainment like the way films are the way people consume films and the way people consume
games that's going to lead where the tech goes and if people don't take to it I don't think
the smaller communities are going to ever find that kind of stuff affordable to be able to have
so I think that's that's the one thing so I think we have to watch that space and I do I do kind of
have this 3d tv feels about the whole apple vision thing when I saw someone demonstrating how they
can have loads of screens open uh but they can have their terminator vision yeah and for me I I um
I had to add a week trial of contact lenses right and they were horrible because I felt like I
couldn't look away I couldn't rest my eyes I was always on like 2020 super sharp everything I
looked at um everything was bright and vivid and it was it was too much and that's why I went back
to glasses because I always have to just look away and I feel like obviously you can take the
you know that the apple vision off or whatever but I think he's got that kind of vibe for me
um and I think the good thing about a phone is if it feels more convenient as a thing to have
um that's that's my opinion um so unless they can show us how this is how you want to be playing
your games and this is how you want to be experiencing your your films and it and it
makes everybody go yes that's amazing I can't really think of not doing it that way anymore
um then I don't think things will really take off in that it's good to see how they're experimenting
and how new thing ideas are coming about but um I don't know maybe I'm old-fashioned but I kind
of feel like the phone's kind of the pinnacle for a while until we have like a holodeck or something
like that as star trek I want to strap like a quest to on you like a $250 quest to very basic
entry level unit that's very low powered low poly doesn't do much and sit you in front of youtube
premium on a big screen that literally takes up your field division and then open up twitter
and a browser and open up another thing on the side and let you just sit there and sort of change
the environment to whatever you're most comfortable if you want to sit in a void if you want to sit
in a bustling neon cyber city whatever you want man and it's this movement I think with VR is about
turning the television into a personal screen like we've always talked about combining TVs
and phones and I think this may be that final step you might well be right I mean
I'm probably a little bit too old to have the idea for moving forward but it could be if someone
could show me and I could really see how yes this is going to be this is way better than whatever
I've been using then I'm all for it yeah I'm also on the same page because like the last time I used
you know this VR goggles it was I had like it was Oculus back then and you I had to strap my
Samsung Galaxy phone and like it was really cool it was quite immersive right but like
the resolution for example I think wasn't quite well still or the the phone started heating up
after like 20 minutes or so so the experience back then was at very early stages and wasn't
that good you know so maybe I should start looking into it because I mostly share the same view with
retro on the matter but yeah I suppose as technology evolves and it's getting better and better
all those things probably have been worked remember the Super Nintendo was not the premier
technology of its time nor did it tout itself to be nor did it ever try to be it tried to be
accessible it tried to do and every other system could do not necessarily the best but it could
pull it off and it did it well enough that it could be in every single home in America very cheaply
and that was something huge that the SNES did not so much the N64 and Game Boy felt that way
but the SNES definitely with one of those systems that seemed to take over the market
as a time at this juncture at the price of gaming systems no joke the Quest 2 even at the like 128
gig buy-in it's like an SNES right now I think it's 250 same price I think the Game Boy was
the real revolution you think about what you're holding in your hand right now kind of but we had
track quarters man they knew this was coming remember or doo doo doo beam me up Scotty that
was that's been around yeah that's why I think if that's gonna take off for me if VR and AR is
gonna take off for me it would be like a holodeck where I wouldn't have to wear something which
I bet you were going there I bet he's gonna happen eventually be a room everyone's house will have a
room you can go into that would be awesome I mean in VR I already have our room set up so
that I can split the couch and then we've got developer mode off so it basically already is
that holodeck whenever we're playing do you not mind wearing the headset though is that
is that I think it's a preference yeah I was gonna so I yeah you're still you're still aware
that I have spent a little bit of money making it so that it's a very comfortable way to play
video games it's balanced it has extra padding it's comfortable it's it's meant to be supportive
it isn't waiting my head forward or backward it's not so heavy that I have to do exercises in the
gym I I took a little bit of money and I put it toward my future self and I thank myself every day
because when you look at my quest versus my wife's she has the elite strap and it looks very
quest and but it has this horrible strap across the top so it's very uncomfortable
and then mine is this monstrosity because I've I've got custom fitting molds so that I have the
Vive head strap the the audio deluxe audio head strap connected to my quest and then I have a
battery pack that generates the front so weight wise I mean I don't know it's like wearing like
leg weights and then you take them off when you play soccer and you go really fast so I don't know
yeah um I suppose you get used to it as well a fair point so if it's balanced it's a lot
easy to get used to if it's off balance it's horrible yeah yeah for sure it's terrible it's
frustrating that makes sense makes sense by the way I just noticed that we went over an hour
already and we still haven't opened up the stage I think we should open up the stage now for people
that might want to ask questions to retro money um I will remind this is not a shell space or
anything uh but if you want to come up you know join the conversation uh ask questions to retro
feel free to request and we'll get you up here we'll probably go for another I don't know 15-20
minutes max or I don't know is it getting late for you there retro okay I can go for a while
awesome awesome awesome so yeah send in your requests people
so I don't know if you've have you seen some of those dubbed over gi joke episodes
like pork chop sandwiches any of that stuff retro no please send me please send me something
always get into time but yeah is it like comedic dubs or so it's uh yeah I'll after the show
I'll shoot you one via the twitter I'll send you at the end but yeah it's uh brother um I don't know
for for anyone who grew up in the 80s and knows those little gi joke cartoons and
just it's they're they're pretty good wow probably I don't know that it yeah they're good and
Stefano welcome to the stage my man I saw your request a moment ago I I added you hi guys
how are you today what so I'm walking so you're working oh no no I'm walking walking I'm walking
oh walking good don't run there then run and just uh get it home
and a few seconds can talk more definitely get yourself situated I don't want to rush you
welcome to the stage hash brown good to see you again my friend hey
how you guys doing today super fantastic but I'll get better my man how are you doing
good yeah well first off you know shout out retro he knows I'm a huge fan collect as much
as I can when I can sneak um need to get my old wallet back with my best retro pieces but you
know we'll be able to get that also shout out he was actually the winner of our first ever
test tones preseason match so you know what also the only one with 100 win rate um because he only
did one match so shout out him for playing the game that way um but also really wanted to chime in
I was kind of chomping at the bit with the whole like VR AR all that where I honestly I think I
think it's like it's not a an all-or-nothing thing because you know we have our galleries in spatial
and like I have a quest and it's really fun to jump in there in VR and see that and you know
like we did make a trophy and it's like loaded in there and you can't hold it in that visceral
part of it's really cool and and it is trippy also where like my brain remembers spaces it
like files it differently it doesn't remember it as like a flat image it's like oh wasn't I at
that place the other day and also I actually watch uh football games with my mom there American
football sorry um so like I think it is I live off grid in the mountains so it's like a way for
me to connect with people so I think on that level it is amazing but also you know like you
can access spatial and these you know quote-unquote metaverses and all these things also on a phone
and on a computer and I think that's more of to me what's more like powerful about it is the
spatial aspect of it whether you're interacting with that in your own physical realm or on a
computer screen where you can like create these curated spaces and have all these people you know
we have jam sessions with multiple musicians across the world at the same time and you know
here and now and beats are doing their thing like that where it's these curated spaces and to me like
I think that's more of the secret sauce where it doesn't need to be all or nothing because you
know not everyone's like someone who loves the quest and VR and like watch a reboot when I was
a kid and my literal dream was to like do VR like I am so happy and I'm always confused
when more people don't want to do it um but if they don't like you know just jump in on your
phone jump in on your computer wherever you want to meet us and what I will end on is that actually
my quest um my my home you know station that you can set to you know whatever space you want I
actually found a file for the holodeck from next generation so it has the beeps and boots and
everything and I'm in the holodeck and whenever I look out I see the hallway so I'm like in
star trek so kind of full circle with that whole conversation there but yeah just wanted to say
some things love y'all uh retro you're on a holodeck as well I'd like to have an holodeck as well
they do do custom environments now and you can do your own custom skybox as well so
you could uh you could make your own you could uh you could commission an artist to make you one
or you could just be the one that somebody else made and made publicly available that they are
uh the environments are insane uh it's so here's a question for you uh if we as a human species
are used to consuming and seeing uh things from the first person uh and then television was a weird
mirror magic mirror that supposedly we've never had as a species well in report of history
to be able to observe things in near real time and now we have this thing where we can immerse
ourselves such that subconsciously it's almost difficult for the brain to separate it I mean
I know I flinch in certain instances even though I know I'm in VR it's very clear I'm holding
controllers it's very clear this thing if you're not going to get me and yet somebody will put
their finger right in between my eyes slowly and I will feel that burn like they're about to touch
me and it is insane um I do you think that we're ready for these immersive experiences
are we are we really prepared uh mentally like after coming off of the old Hollywood of the 90s
into this weird version I I personally think that we are not ready but we will adapt soon
I mean our brains our brains don't evolve us as fast as technology does
so no but you know I think that it will adjust in one generation we we went from riding horses to
driving fast cars I don't know man we we also you know we went from being able to read books
to not being able to sit down without having three screens open tap tap tap you know
yeah for sure but I mean you know that the evolution of technology is kind of exponential so
um like this whole immersive stuff I don't know uh through trial and error probably you know there
will be some ways to mitigate any risks that our brains uh might have I don't know like um
I think that our brains we are still monkeys you know what I mean like it's no wonder that you
react when you see something and you flinch inside the VR world because your brain cannot
separate if it is a VR or if it is real it's programmed to do such stuff so um as long as it
doesn't go too far I think uh yeah we will be fine someone needs to get like I don't know how
riches like experience hash brown have you messed with that one at all yeah the plank experience
Elma I'm afraid of heights fuck that shit well that one's interesting because it goes through
like several different fears like intrinsic fears that the human most humans have between clowns
drills falling just you know just a lot of dentists so um and then of course like the intense
there's an intense jump scare at the end but uh the whole point of it is uh it's more of a
psychological play on the brain uh because everything is in low quality the point is it's
all very fake it's not real but man it makes my teeth itch I don't know I don't know what it is
man it's it's wild you know are there any uh like shooter games or anything with VR yet depends on
what kind of shooter you like if you like a more call of duty style deathmatch run and gun then
yes that would be contractors if you like a more tactical based uh they've got like a search and
destroy counter strike style called breaches there's an extraction shooter called ghost of
debore and this is all on request maybe this isn't like PCVR there's tons of stuff available
PCVR that's beautiful and fun uh but of course we're talking SNES here
yeah I think you know all those experiences are gonna um improve a lot in the next year it's like
with more equipment guns and stuff that you could play in for the shooters I mean uh as well as I
don't know the um some probably horror movies or experiences escape rooms stuff like that those
would be really interesting so you know those uh weird puzzle games on the phone like uh
that those actually translate really well into VR as VR experiences it's it's very interesting
being able to hold or watch the mechanics happen in real time
um there's a lot of cool stuff like I remember oh here's an old one seventh guest retro Manny
did you play some seventh guest growing up come on now so did you say Sabbath gas seven guests
seventh as in the the first second time seven seven yes well that was one of the PC game
PC game one of the first PC games on CD
oh no I haven't seen that no I I don't remember it either but I'm gonna google it it's it's really
old it's a classic game if you're if you're a really old gamer like myself I'm dating myself
uh it's definitely a game that you played religiously until you beat it it was a horror
experience uh it was along the lines of mist I'm sure all of you know mist um so and even mist
in VR is unreal my man we have this game called walk about golf and they partnered with mist and
so you play 18 holes on the island of mist and brother it is unreal walking around that place
it gave me chills of nostalgia there was the the sunken sailboat with just the
crow's nest sticking out of the bay near where you start but anyway sorry I'm tangent but these
these experiences are really wild like I don't know the one that sealed it for me was Minecraft
because when you look at a two meter high horse or a one meter high pumpkin it really is one
meter high and like I'm not a meter tall like I'm not two meters tall let's just put it that way
I'm not too obviously I'm taller than a meter but um it it was the scale of enormity in these games
it's like you're not only looking through a window when you're playing on a flat screen
you're like 10 feet back that's the honest truth because when you get into these things
the actual scale like standing on top of something that I built in Minecraft
was absolutely astonishing and I know that's I'm nerding out right now I do apologize but uh
to be able to build like a giant structure and then to stand out above it and look out over the
coast it was I'm in my heart pounding thinking about it because I have a problem with heights
in real life so it it that was one of the few things that changed my perspective on VR
I do remember actually trying uh I don't remember if it was like a 360 video what it was
but I there was a VR experience where you were at the top of Burj Khalifa I think uh and uh you were
looking down and then yeah I mean it was pretty scary although you knew you are in VR you know
but uh the height looked real so yeah it is immersive man that's the point the whole point
but uh yep uh we also got Samuel up on the stage welcome man how are you guys I'm doing good
thanks for having me welcome welcome
uh did you come up just to join the convo or you have any questions for retro um well I did kind
of want to join the convo on VR stuff um I have a little bit of experience developing some games in
VR um but also just playing around with PC games on VR and I have to agree with uh blangs that
the immersion that you can achieve with um some of the way that that technology has advanced is
definitely pretty crazy um there's a game called rumble where you're basically earth bending like
an avatar um the last airbender and it's one of the coolest games that I've played in VR just
because of the flexibility that you have and the way that you are able to perform the moves is all
um motion based so you're not just pressing buttons on the controller you have to make
certain um motions with your arms and like once you get the right motion the action will be
performed it better be a predictor man man or else it's like it's gonna fail
I think this is this is the thing though right it's the market will decide so
who if you can get enough people to have enough demand for wanting more of it
then it's going to take off more and they're going to create more of it and it's going to
be cheaper and more people will be able to access it and it becomes mainstream um and I think that's
what that's where it's going to go um if it's going to go in that direction in its current
form is the one thing I'm questioning um but obviously I don't have the answers I just know
from personal experience um that uh I don't like wearing stuff on my face
for very long periods of time whereas if I'm sat in front of a tv screen playing a game
I wouldn't know how long I've been there for I'd be very immersed in it but I know things for
instance would irritate me quite a lot on my face um but again I don't you know we don't know where
where it's all going um and I think it's interesting how it's developing I would like there to be to
get to a point where you don't need to wear anything and you could go into a I don't know
I don't know how it would work actually would it be a room like a holodeck or what I don't know
maybe yeah it's just there there's like yeah yeah I don't know didn't you also say you
prefer glasses to to context though so it's kind of just a form factor well no the other thing
I think glasses really irritate me as well they're the lesser of two he doesn't like glasses he likes
being able to not shut his eyes and shut his eyes and save time he likes that space in between
and that's fair like what if it comes you know what you can quote me the size of contact lenses
you can quote me retro likes the space in between right that's fair and and I think it's a beautiful
way to look at the world because it it's it's fuzzy it's not definite and there's a lot of
interpretation and it can be magical and it can be terrifying but equally if someone gave me one
and I started using it and if I couldn't put it down then I'd be sold and that would be it
I think you just need to get you in with some people who know what they're doing so that you
have a good experience your first draw it's really about your first experience I guess I do have one
question for you Manny in terms of the VR stuff while it may not be something you have a huge
interest in jumping into yourself for various reasons do you think that creating pieces for
people in that kind of environment would be a venture you'd like to take on
so again never say never I think what I'd have to do is use it and understand it and connect with
it and then understand what people want and if it resonates with what I want to do I think that's
that's the only way I can answer that question if I'm going to be honest at the moment I understand
the technology that I'm putting the work out on I understand how it can be consumed on different
devices and I also understand because what I'm creating is that kind of lo-fi stuff
I kind of understand the feeling of it that I'm trying to recreate for people
whereas I can't currently because I haven't tried it I can't connect with that so it's
it's hard to say again if I used it and I could feel it and I could experience that world
I mean for instance I grew up on you know Super Nintendo if I grew up on VR and that's
what I was used to using right now I would be creating stuff for VR because that would be kind
of my throwback so I guess just time will tell and I have to see if I can connect with it I think
that's that's as simple as it is it's not me making a broad generalized statement for everyone
because everybody is different but I could only create something for a medium that I could
understand if that makes sense yeah definitely jump in real quick what I and I would love to
talk to you more about this retron sorry to butt in but like in a way you already are like you're
making stuff in blender that is 3D representations and yeah you generally shoot them from a 2D camera
point of view but like you could load a lot of those things in into VR experiences where you
could like be in those animations and watch them so although I know you're saying you're not making
them for and I totally understand how you know as an artist you want to experience it and know what
you're doing like in a in a way you kind of are already making pieces for VR you're making VR
fingerprints and everything you do on how to translate yeah because you know that that stuff
would be really cool to see it in VR actually in my opinion and that's why I brought it up in the
first like the action at his spaceships and when I got his I was like give me the GLB file and I
threw it into my you know spatial like giant pyramid and I was walking around seeing it and
I put your pieces in there also you know they're 2D but I've experienced your stuff in VR already
so you know just saying the bridge is a little more you know gray area maybe than than a full-on
experience yeah so I totally totally agree with that um I totally agree with the the fact that
you can experience I think I said that earlier that you know to be able to experience the 3D
thing that I create is is great like as GLB files but um if I want to like really push a medium
I think that's what what I would like to do if I'd understand it first so at the moment if you saw
outside of what the camera sees in my blender in my blender scene it'd be a mess like you wouldn't
want to see that it wouldn't be worth experiencing um so I'd want to if I'm going to create for a
medium I'd want to know like what are the rules had you learned the rules understand the rules
break the rules and mess around with it but that would require for me me to get in but I think
you're right I think the good thing about blender and about doing 3D is there's kind of a lot of
carry over so if it gets to a point where I am I do want to push it in that direction a lot of
the assets I've created or the knowledge that I've got can translate over so that's I think that's
a good that's a that's a plus for sure yeah definitely like I actually only learned blender
because I was doing metaverse stuff and I was like shit I don't I want to build my own space and
then I just had to do it and then from there I realized I forget who they're like you know you
can render these into images I was like wait what I'm making visual art so like I entered for a
completely utilitarian like I just want to build blocks I can walk around and then discovered
animation but you know you're kind of on the other end where you're like oh I'm actually also
building worlds and I mean I know you know you're world building but you're like
literally world building you know like a lot of those could translate over
it's funny actually because like for the for the piece that's posted at the top um you know
there's a space scene right if you look out of that that's that all those stars are pixel art
and it's a it's an image so when you look outside of it it's it doesn't look like what
it's supposed to look like it's very layered and I think that's coming from a after effects background
and and maybe to turn a traditional animation background as well is seeing things that way
but the more I'm learning about games because that's this is you know I'm learning Godot
and the the engine Godot for it's making me start to understand how I've got to think differently
already so maybe that would be that the next logical step is going into VR but who knows
I haven't until today I haven't thoroughly really considered it but maybe something that I can start
pondering be interesting so now you're gonna go below like 2400 on Apple Vision right yeah
go go go go be have fun oh I was going to the impression you were going to send me one
oh yeah soon as I have to I will I promise that from a very real standpoint though I believe
that you probably know somebody who bought their kids one and it's sitting in their closet
collecting dust because they don't appreciate it just ask around these things are underutilized
because to be fair there was nothing to do on them for far too long the technology we've had
the technology for a long time it doesn't look much different than it did in the 80s it really
doesn't the Apple Vision Pro almost looks exactly like that homie who's like wired with the like air
tube and the like gloves and the vest and I don't even know it looks like a robot it's Daft Punk
they look like me with my Vive and the giant cable coming off the back yeah yeah see and
that's another thing too your Quest 2 is capable of streaming your your PC VR stuff so you can do
this stuff wirelessly with a decent field of vision it's literally streaming so it doesn't
have to process anything so it's just pushing an image and you can get your PC VR experience
if you have a system that's capable of doing it but that's I mean wireless VR is what I think
sets it off that's the difference being hooked to a cable having a tether coming from the ceiling
or just even like coming off your pocket I don't know man we shouldn't be walked around plugged in
we don't do that with our cell phones like do you remember that craze back in the day when everybody
had a power pack you know it's like oh that one's dead but I've been on my phone like for four hours
so I gotta go to this other one like no man nobody needs to be on their phone that much
or there needs to be better batteries I don't know what to tell you
as Apple Vision Pro I think it doesn't have a source of power on the Google so it has a
it is wired right you have to connect it I think it has an onboard battery but it is literally like
30 minutes of fun or maybe an hour at the most
yeah that might be a good thing that might be built in for a benefit I don't know
yeah it's not a bug it's a feature right it's a feature exactly it's not a bug it's a feature
right all right so um we took quite a journey into VR into the VR discussion I apologize I'm
sorry retro you're the 80s man that was when the dream it all came out of the 80s let's be real
the the VR dreams man do you remember Game Boy VR that like bad rendition to give you a headache
it wasn't on like a tripod do you remember that thing
I remember all zone if you remember all zone yes
virtual virtual reality as an LCD game
well I guess we we just all want Tron so badly if you know what I mean
I just went through the comments and I missed that from the grand troll at some point in the
discussions they said tell him about the juggernaut dabs
was like 20 minutes ago sorry about that
before we close out like um do you have like any future series that you have in mind that you
that you could share or any future projects you were you have been thinking about and also
where can people uh let other people know where can they connect more with you are you just on
twitter do you have any discord or anything um where can they can where can they find you more
easily um so I'm mostly on twitter and instagram um so you can find my instagram as well
I am on discord but I don't have my own server so I do you can kind of if you want to chat over
there with me you can I know do a lot of chats with artists over there and just like a one-to-one
so yeah I do use this code um there's my website as well which is uh retromani.xyz where you can
just see what I'm up to what I'm working on um but yeah I'm on twitter most of the time
I'm on twitter most of the time and um if you want to catch my latest work it's all going to be an
object so follow me over there as well oh and sorry in terms of projects as well um in terms
of projects this is retro man is really what I'm going all in on at the moment and it's going to
look like lots of different things the rmu gamer is where I'm putting a lot of energy right now
um it's going to be most of the year spent on that and then finishing off the audiobook as well
um and I've got some really interesting collabs coming up I'm doing a collaboration with poll
the as in poll the poll there's poll um so I'm doing a piece for them very very shortly
I'm actually working at the moment I got a collaboration with fender coming up which
I'm excited about I got a collaboration with uh pixel quest coming up which is not um not
dead certain yet but I'm excited about that one um and I just found out today I'll be uh hopefully
judging on test tones finale as well which is awesome thanks hash all right shout out it's
it's this Saturday right yes yes I'm just literally making the the post and tagging
also Ryan who's here thank you also for agreeing love you all this Saturday um the 10th 11 a.m
pacific time love you guys awesome awesome all right um so unless there are any other
questions guys I think we could wrap up here uh so unless yeah there are any other questions or any
other topics you would like to touch on I'm pretty covered uh it was really great you know to
finally get in touch with you and learn more about you because we've been interacting here
and there on twitter but uh we haven't been uh the same space as much uh I've always been
watching your work you know so it was great having you here today man no thank you so much
for having me as well I appreciate it um it's always good being part of these um these things
and and I guess feeling part of the community and and um I just really appreciate it thank you very
much oh for sure and yeah I mean I've told you I've seen your spaces in the past I joined some
in the past uh especially the one you did with uh with the gaming which I couldn't attend but I
heard the recording later um but at this point I don't know I feel like I cannot keep up with
all the spaces and all the sub communities that are created you know and because there are a ton
of spaces that I come across each week you know and I feel like I'm missing a lot of uh really
valuable community members and all the stuff they do so yeah I I wanted I want to keep bringing up
here people that are uh sticking you know here with Tezos and are doing great job in Tezos and
they're not just artists builders because you are also builders not just artists uh and like
let the people know more about you because Twitter is great but uh uh you can't really get to know
someone uh in more depth you know through just the posts so yeah I enjoyed that a lot uh blanks
uh blanks I think has some audio issues for sake here but he will be back in the meantime I probably
should just uh remind about the Tezos Commons rewards program we have guys uh most of you
probably are familiar with it but if you are not definitely go to tezoscommons.org
slash rewards uh every month we give up to five thousand tests for people that are
bringing value to the ecosystem to like maybe they are onboarding people maybe they are helping
some people with some beginners that are just joining you know and there are a lot of such
people that are helping and doing great work and we want to reward them it's not just about the
test it's also about the recognition that we see them you know so you can nominate anybody you
can also nominate yourselves if you did something great some posts some videos some whatever it is
we have nine different categories you can check them out there uh but yeah definitely remember
to vote for people to nominate people uh I've talked to a lot of winners and it really is
important for them and maybe you are one of the winners at some point it's it will feel good for
sure so yeah check that out also subscribe to the baking sheet uh newsletter we have every week
every Friday it's going out with all the weekly news uh we try to gather you know all the important
from developments new projects and stuff like that so feel free to subscribe there as well
and yeah I think with that we can close out record you have any final thoughts maybe an advice for
other artists that are planning to meet or haven't joined you know the NFT space anything you have
as a final word um I don't think I don't think I've got advice because the the advice changes
from like minute to minute um I guess you know just come and have fun and join in and I'm here
I'm sorry can you hear me now I can hear you now I can hear you I lost you there for a second
yeah I can hear you now I was just saying um yeah I don't I don't have any strict advice or
particular advice because it changes from minute to minute and I don't think there's anything I
could say that would but I don't know but would be relevant maybe next week or the week after but
what I will say is um I'm always here if you want to DM me and if I can help I will definitely help
awesome awesome once again man thank you for joining us today and sharing you know your journey
and everything and your creative process it was a pleasure thank you guys all for joining we'll be
here next week as always every Tuesday we're here next year they will have a community call so
from the get-go we will be we will have an open stage where you can jump on you know discuss any
topics you like so I suppose see you all next Tuesday thank you all and have a great rest of
the day or night thanks retro and bye bye take care bye