KIWIE created seven NFTs for the monster-infused basketball collection. The digital artworks were released to celebrate a sporting festival in Madrid that aims to merge the basketball lifestyle and cultural activities. Promoted via a physical exhibition at the venue, visitors could scan KIWIE’s paintings with the Overly app to reveal their NFTs in augmented reality.
Hundreds of people attended the real-life exhibition, and KIWIE’s physical artworks received more than 700 scans during the eight-day event. While some of the digital tokens are still up for grabs, the event generated traction for the collection. As a result, KIWIE, who’s on a mission to bring ownership to street art through NFTs, is now using augmented reality to unveil his geotagged Rarible drops.
Anyone who purchased one of the NFTs from the “Be Baller” collection at the event also received a signed canvas. Now, owners are able to scan their wall paintings to showcase NFTs to their guests or pose next to digi assets to share content on social media.
In a way, the notion of attaching NFTs to physical artworks with the Overly app builds on KIWIE’s blockchain passion project. For more than a year, the homonymous mural artist has been using NFTs to empower street art ownership. In collaboration with one of the leading NFT marketplaces, Rarible, KIWIE has dropped multiple limited edition geotagged digital tokens. Each of the artist’s creations represent a real spray painting somewhere in the world. The holder of the NFT owns the corresponding street art as well as the NFT.
Inspired by the exhibition’s success, KIWIE is set to add augmented reality features to his upcoming geotagged drop in Spain. Fans who travel to see the street art pieces will be able to view their digital representation in real-time through the Overly app. “Without a doubt, augmented reality goes hand in hand with the latest NFT technology—it’s a match made in heaven,” says KIWIE. “There is a reason why the world’s biggest brands invest millions to create online assets for Metaverse. Digital ownership is becoming just as important as the physical assets we have. It makes complete sense that NFT holders want to interact with their digital purchases or show them off in real life. AR is simply the best tool to do it.”
“I think the future is in technology that will help people do more with their ultra expensive NFTs and I am excited to work with Overly to bridge the gap between my physical and digital work,” adds KIWIE.
While KIWIE has been at the forefront of driving the NFT adoption across the street art community, the “Be Baller” festival was Overly’s first dibs at helping blockchain artists visualize their digital works. Since then, we’ve introduced new features that enable blockchain creators and NFT connoisseurs to easily bring their tokens off the screen and out into the real world.
“While on the surface we see digital items powered by smart contracts, NFTs most often have stories to them and are symbols of physical ownership,” says Gatis Zvejnieks, Chief Technical Officer at Overly. “As creators increasingly offer NFT sealed real-life items such as clothing, sporting equipment and artworks, we hope to offer an opportunity to bring those two worlds together.”
Overly Creator will soon launch its integration with OpenSea.io—the largest and most trusted NFT marketplace. People will use the platform to bring their NFT to life in augmented reality by simply adding a hyperlink to their OpenSea project. At first, the AR tool will support marker-based NFT recognition via the Overly app. The platform will accept such 3D file formats as GLTF, GLB, FBX as well as 2D JPG, PNG and MP4 assets. Similarly, files can already be uploaded to the AR creation tool manually to visualize NFTs sold or purchased on any platform. Markerless NFT visualization via WebAR is currently available on request. “People can use our platform to take photos with their purchases or decorate homes with digital objects. NFTs no longer have to be reserved for our virtual expeditions and games nor be completely separate from our world,” adds Zvejnieks.
