At Hologram Labs, we are upgrading how we express ourselves online. Today, we introduce Hologram NFT Upgrades: transforming entire NFT collections — whether blue chips or newly-launched projects — from 2D to 3D.

3D avatars are fundamental building blocks that empower us to connect, create, and play in the open metaverse. By creating 3D avatars in the collection level, Hologram empowers entire NFT communities to onboard any social, gaming, or conferencing application with their “holograms”.

This is a comprehensive deep-dive into Hologram NFT Upgrades and its core components: 3D Drops, Season Passes, and the Voting System.

Hologram 3D Drops

We have used static usernames and profile pictures to represent our online identities since the beginning of the Internet.  Web3 introduced ENS domains and NFT PFPs, which serve as username and profile pictures that we can truly own. In just a few years, we saw world-renowned brands, IPs, and communities with massive followings created out of our beloved, static PFPs. However, our time online is rapidly shifting towards more dynamic and engaging mediums like video, games, VR, and AR. Our digital presence will similarly evolve from static to dynamic, 2D to 3D, usernames/PFPs to avatars.

Many pioneers in the NFT space are already commissioning artists to create custom 3D avatars for their PFPs, in interviews, concerts, MVs or even just Internet memes. However, from needing to find the right artist, learn about technical formats / compatibility requirements, do QA, and more, getting started is not for the faint-hearted. More importantly, most 3D models are not standardized nor interoperable, making it impossible to integrate with other creation tools (e.g., Adobe Maximo) or metaverse games (e.g., Sandbox, Nifty Islands, Webaverse, etc.).

Hologram makes 3D universally accessible for everyone, starting with web3 communities. All full-body 3D Holograms will be immediately usable by their PFP holders upon upgrade. These avatars closely resemble their original NFT PFP art style, have a wide range of facial expressions / body movements, and adopt the most open / interoperable 3D and on-chain metadata standards.

Specifications

All 3D Holograms will be standardized according to the following specifications:

• Full humanoid body structure

• Individually rigged joints

• FACS system for facial rigging (Apple ARKit blendshape naming standard)

• Cel shading art style to maximize feel of the original 2D, cartoon style art of most existing NFTs

• Wide range of model fidelity – low poly (~10,000 polygon counts) for games, high poly for detailed rendering

• glTF and VRM formats, which are the most interoperable yet widely-used 3D formats

Use cases

Here are just a few of the most common use cases for 3D Holograms.

1. Video communication

With our Hologram extension and desktop studio, you can jump in video calls and town halls in places like Zoom, Discord, Google Meet, and hundreds other platforms. Use realtime motion-tracking and voice mod with your Holograms to stay pseudonymous, express yourself, and flex your PFPs over video.

2. Content creation

Content is king. Creating valuable content drives unparalleled engagement and distribution for your brand. Hologram desktop studio and soon-to-release mobile app empowers you to create content and build your brand using your NFTs.

You can use your holograms to take photos, stream, or create offline video clips. Create video commentaries, stream games, take AR selfies or vlogs at a party — the possibilities are endless, and we can’t wait to see what you create with your holograms!

3. Games

Characters drive the lore of any game. Hologram bridges NFT characters and Web3 communities to the gaming world with the most interoperate avatar format. We are working on our developer SDK and are in talks with various partners to integrate directly into various browser, mobile, and PC games / metaverses.

Production Speed

One of the biggest challenges we tackled with this project is the production capacity of the avatar system — i.e., how fast can we deliver an entire collection of 1-to-1 mapped 3D holograms. With many months of preparation, we have innovated a software-aided avatar generation system that is (1) versatile enough to create a wide range of art style and (2) delivers consistent quality as if artists are creating 2D images from photoshop layers. Initially, we can support around 10,000 avatars, or one collection per month.

IP

We believe the owners should have the full right to create whatever they can imagine with their NFTs. Therefore, we do not impose restrictions on the IP license of these NFTs. We want to enable the community to choose how they want to use their 3D Holograms, such as creating content with their metaverse personas in ways beyond our imagination.

Claiming Process

Each 3D hologram drop is 1-to-1 mapped to the original NFT collection, and the original PFP holders can claim their 3D Hologram via token gating.

For one week, claim will be free for any number of NFT PFP holders. After the free mint period, the claiming price will priced according to market demand.

Sounds exciting? The initial roll out speed means scarcity, how do we determine which collections to create first? Moreover, what if I don’t own a blue-chip NFT? To answer these two questions, we are actually rolling out a community based participation. Details next.

Hologram Season Pass

Together with 3D Drops, we are launching Hologram Season Passes. These are free-to-mint ERC721 NFTs with utility throughout the Hologram ecosystem. The mint will be available to early supporters of Hologram and holders from partnering NFT communities.

How to get the Pass

We wouldn’t be here today without the support of our early community. Therefore, we will be hosting numerous events for anyone to participate in to join our community, as well as rewarding our earliest believers.

Here are some previous or ongoing qualifying events we’ve hosted:

1. Upload a screenshot or video with your Hologram

2. Participate in our twitter banner competition

3. Be a member of one of Hologram’s partnering NFT communities

4. Be an early, active contributor in our Discord before the announcement

5. Own a Hologram POAP from our Twitter Spaces

Follow our Twitter and our Discord to stay updated about the latest upcoming events!

Utility

The first utility of the Hologram Season Pass empowers our community to help decide which NFT collection Hologram will upgrade from 2D to 3D next (See “Hologram Voting System” section below).

In addition, the passes themselves are digital assets (e.g., wearables, accessories) that can be used in experiences we create for the 3D holograms.

Future utility will only be unlocked if one participates in our future events. The longer one holds the pass, the more Hologram events one can participate in, which means the more future utility one can potentially receive.  Very soon, Hologram will release limited edition –redacted– wearables and accessories to season pass holders.

Vision

An open metaverse means our online identities, virtual avatars and digital assets will be created and curated by independent creators and grassroots communities, not big corporations. Hologram is building tools to empower anyone to create web3-native digital avatars, wearables, emotes, voices, and other expressive digital assets at scale.

For example, budding creators can import their favorite 2D art to generate unique outfits that one can wear on their 3D Holograms, while 3D veterans can seamlessly integrate and export their masterpieces onto all Hologram-compatible applications, games, and metaverses through their software of choice (e.g. Blender, Maya, Unity). Leveraging the latest developments in stable diffusion and conditional GAN, Hologram enables anyone to bring their ideas to life. Through building on Web3, Hologram unlocks the next generation of fashion and entertainment brands, ones that empower their communities to own, distribute, and create value for their IP.

The holders of the Hologram Season Passes are the early community members whom we will build this vision with. They will be prioritized for early access and will have the opportunity to shape the destiny of Hologram in its journey building towards the open metaverse.

Hologram Voting System

Every month, holders of the Hologram Season Pass can vote on which NFT collection we upgrade to 3D holograms for the next drop.

Vote

When the voting begins, for a week of time, holders can use the wallet that contains their Hologram Season Passes to vote by signing a gasless message.

Each pass can cast one vote. Live updates of the voting process will be shown on our website.

At the end of the one week voting period, the community with the most votes wins and we will immediately start the 3D transformation process for the entire collection. The remaining communities will remain in the pool for the next round of voting. For the first few rounds, Hologram will handpick the collections in the voting pool . Later on, the community will nominate what collections should join the voting pool.

Reveal

Immediately after the voting result is released, the production begins for the winning collection.

For another week of time, the original NFT PFP owners of the winning collection immediately get access to a “mascot” 3D character from their collection, with which they can use to create content.

There will be a 3 week reveal period, during which the entire 3D collection will be created and gradually revealed. Hologram will prioritize reveal for those who are actively creating content for the community.

Repeat

Each pass will be valid for one round of voting. Those who used up their passes  can participate in our community events to become eligible to freely claim new passes.

Only passes that have been used will be eligible for future utility. Voting and minting will repeat every month. New events and season passes will be released after each round. In the future, we will add multiple voting pools, and voting will happen more frequently.