Steve Aoki, Seth Green Will Let NFT Holders Shape Animated Short

Only two months after raised $6.9 millionShibuya-a Web3 video platforms co-founded by digital artist Emily “pppleleasr” Yang—has revealed her next web video NFTs holders can help shape it, scene by scene: brief stop-motion animations from electronic musician Steve Aoki and actor Seth Green’s Stoopid Buddy Stoodios.

Aoki and the studio behind the Adult Swim series “Robot Chicken” will be bringing their “Dominion X: Level 2” project to Shibuya, with a six-week interactive production run that will open in collaboration with the community. Each week, NFT holders get to choose how each new scene will end, and then producers will film the segments accordingly.

This will all add up to one short stop-motion animation that will be viewable by anyone via the Shibuya platform, but only NFT holders will be able to vote during production. Those holders will also receive NFT rewards at one of various levels of rarity, depending on how much they participate during the process.

For Shibuya, “Dominion X” marks its second IP launch since the platform debuting in March 2022, and it is the first to be developed externally. Pplpleasr tell Decryption that it will provide users with a different feel of interactive content creation than “White Rabbit”, the anime series that debuted with Shibuya.

“This is very exciting because it will show, as a first step, where Shibuya is headed,” he said, adding that this collaboration had been in the works for a long time.

“Dominion X” first launched a series of animated scenes sold as Ethereum NFT in August 2021 via the Nifty Gateway, apparently sold out his collection in a matter of seconds. A three-minute short “Dominion X: Level 1” was produced, highlighting the fuzzy pink main creature (Character X) and the rest of the company via the stop-motion style the Stoopid Buddy Stoodios are famous for.

In September 2022, the collaborators released a series of NFTs profile picture (PFP) by project, with each serving as a go-to virtual writer’s room and community to help shape future series. They initially offered 7,777 NFTs at 0.10 ETH each (about $170 at the time), but later cut supply to 4,000 NFT each for 0.05 ETH ($85).

Any NFT holder in the larger Replicant X project that includes “Dominion X” can stake (or lock) assets within the Shibuya platform to vote on story decisions. In addition, any Shibuya White Rabbit Key NFT holder can do the same. Pplpleasr says he expects possibly thousands of voters at every stage of the production process.

Shibuya raised $6.9 million in December in a round co-led by Andreessen Horowitz and the Variant Fund, with high-profile angel investors such as NBA player Kevin Durant and entertainer Paris Hilton also taking part. The startup, co-founded with concept artist Maciej Kuciara, aims to disrupt the traditional funding model for video content and bring NFT buyers into the process.

NFTs are blockchain tokens that represent unique items, including things like PFPs, digital artwork, sports and entertainment collectibles, and video game gear. The broader NFT market has resulted organic trade volume worth about $50 billion since early 2021, per data from DappRadar, although sales momentum started to fall sharply in mid-2022.

Pplpleasr is a well-known emerging digital artist in the NFT space who creates and selling token artwork based on a decentralized finance (DeFi) platform, then designed a Property magazine cover which is auctioned off as that dynamic NFT made over $650,000 for journalistic purposes. He also collaborated with Aoki to create and collect NFT art.

Aoki, a popular DJ, has created or collaborated on a number of NFT-based projects, including his own A0k1verse membership cluba Solana-based NFT marketplace with legendary comic book creator Todd McFarlane, and more to come CryptoPunks themed music project with fellow Web3 creator and DJ, Justin “3LAU” Blau.

Stoopid Buddy Stoodios is also engaged in space, recently receiving funding from Noun NFT project to making floats for the 2023 Rose Parade and shot a documentary around it. Green, the “Austin Powers” actor, is also working on a show based on him Bored Ape Cruise Club NFT avatars, that was taken from him last year but eventually bought back.

Collectively, they have assembled a dream team of leading Web3 builders building decentralized technologies. Pplpleasr tell Decryption that the north star of Shibuya makes quality content, echo his previous comments that “the content on Web3 right now is terrible”.

“Dominion X: Level 2” will show whether the mission is sustainable across genres and styles—and with different collaborators directing the content as well.

“We all believe in Web3’s ability to transform the pre-existing film industry,” he said.

Editor’s note: This article was updated after publication to clarify what type of NFT is required for voting.