Blockchains and Animation Production

This is a three part series on Blockchains and Animation Production. The Nytrogen Newsletter follows my thoughts on the evolution of real time production in computer graphics.

Part 01: F***** on the First One

Agents and Lawyers, Oh My…

When I was 29, I sold a show idea to a television network. I was simply a guy who enjoyed animating things.

I was working on a studio lot to work on a film. I used the internal studio index to find the people to pitch to, and set myself up to make a deal with this mighty corporation’s animation development department.

My writing partner tactfully let the world know that we had set up a deal, and suddenly, a lawyer and an agent magically arrived. They told me, as experts, they would take care of the business dealings. I was removed from negotiations, and kept on the sidelines.

Three months later, the lawyer placed a stack of papers on the desk in front of me. It outlined a deal where I needed to work my ass off for imaginary outcomes, to which the network would own every character, joke, technical solution and story point until (should the show be green lit) the second season. And then, myself, my writing partner, and our production team would receive only a small percentage.

“I’m being f*****.” I said out loud.
My lawyer nodded. “This is a network deal, you always get f***** on the first one.”

Intellectual property is the life blood of entertainment, and it is systematically controlled through corporate legal systems. Whether intellectual property began as an ethical concept is immaterial, it’s evolved into a mechanism for large expensive legal teams to steal from artists.

Set the Ideas Free

The internet has proliferated ideas, that only when *compounded* – as in – smashed together – create magical things. Going viral comes from modulation. An idea proliferates because people change it, and make it their own. It may be possible for a single idea to resonate with others, but encapsulating that idea into a box and stamping ownership on it, will limit its ability to evolve.

This means, in the networked world, we all need to let go of our ideas.

Give them away.

The value we will gain from our collective creative network will outperform the gain we will get from a traditional, legally structured, intellectual property system.

I must admit I still have trouble accepting this line of thought. It is counter to what business and law tell you about how you should conduct your business dealings. The reality is that our business dealings have become unacceptably corroded. Corporate interest has become too powerful.

No artist should ever be “f****** on the first one.”

Is there another way?

However, there still needs to be a system.

Artists need a way to be paid; compensated for their efforts, and rewarded for their devotion to their craft. The ideas, the rates, and the work will need to be protected by more than something as clumsy as a legal team.

This is why I believe animators need to know about the development of blockchains. It may just be a way for artists to work together without a system composed of lawyers and agents. Decentralized computing is pretty complex stuff, but I believe it important for artists and creators to understand. I will begin to share my thoughts on blockchains as they pertain to computer graphics, next week.

Part 02: The Lawyer in the Database

Blockwhat?

I’ve read hundreds of self proclaimed “simple explanations” about blockchains. They usually begin by talking about Bitcoin and Satoshi Nakamoto. These explanations tend to get a bit “mathy” and spend a lot of time on game theoretical problems about trust and governance. It’s no wonder Silicon Valley types love to tweet about this stuff.

For our understanding of blockchains as it pertains to computer graphics, I’d like to clear your mind of any preconceived ideas of decentralization or smart contracts and just focus on two simple words:

Copy and Paste

Because we all work on a computer, every photoshop file, maya file, python script, or word document contains our ideas, our designs, and our stories. If I like something I create, then I feel it has value. If I can make a copy of it, in essence, I have reduced the scarcity (and the real world value) of the idea. Simply, it’s no longer unique.

In economics, the concept that an idea (or art work) can be duplicated digitally like this, with no additional labor, is called “zero marginal cost.”When the cost of making an infinite amount of something is the same as making one of something, it begins to challenge conventional capitalist thinking. This is why I believe that our value systems need a realignment to reflect network value rather than individual value.

And the data we create, should belong to … us.

So, just what are Blockchains?

Blockchains are trusted networks. They are trusted because no one owns them, and if built correctly, they provide the necessary ethical practices that define the collective. The nodes on the networks support each other, not by deciding to, but by being incentivized to.

As opposed to using a centralized company or service to mediate conflict, the governance of blockchains are designed for the collective to benefit. Those that follow the practices, that enable the trust of the network, are rewarded with tokens. In a decentralized, or blockchain enabled network, the collective protects it’s own data.

I saw Zavian Dar give a fairly clear presentation of blockchain economics at the Blockstack summit. (below)

I like to say that a blockchain creates it’s own “lawyer in a database.”

To mistake cryptocurrency as simply a currency to be bought and traded, is missing the point of blockchains. All too often we are worrying about the price of bitcoin and ethereum, instead of understanding the value they really have. The network is built as a means for collective groups to come to a consensus. How we track and pay for value, (cyrptographic tokens) is merely a device for execution.

By using blockchains to track intellectual property, we enable the collective to protect it’s own value. Things can be copied and pasted, only if conditions are met. The collective ethics or “governance” can be programmed into the chain, so we don’t need to an agent or lawyer to “handle” it for us.

Next week, I will define how I think a blockchain network could work for a computer graphics collective. It isn’t so much about the technical components, but the concept that artistic collective can govern themselves more ethically and efficiently than the centralized corporate system we have now.

Part 03: Blockchain Guilds

Associations of Craftsmen

In the medieval era, artists and builders formed group associations to protect their “tricks of the trade.” As opposed to artists who were owned by monarchies and religious organizations, the founders of these organizations, or ‘guilds,’ were independent masters who cultivated apprenticeship programs, created documentation, and standardized methods for protecting intellectual property. These collectives were the precursor to universities.

The industrial era saw rise of organized labor unions to protect workers from centralized interest. Many of these initiatives were centralized themselves, and were ineffective, either being too small to combat large corporate power, or (worse) becoming big interest themselves.

Computer graphics artists have no protection now. They are scattered around the globe, unorganized, and often misvalued for their contribution to the craft.

My hope is a new form of guild will arise, thanks to some fancy computer science.

Incentivizing Distributed Networks

The company Otoy has a unique vision for computer graphics. As one of the leaders in rendering with their Octane system, they have begun to think about how distributed rendering would benefit everyone.

They have proposed a blockchain solution aptly named “render token,” that compensates users on a network who contribute their processing power. By assigning a compensation to the donation of GPU’s, it allows users to govern how their contribution can be used, and (potentially) assign an accurate market value for it.

From their website:

Ethereum’s widespread adoption was the key to realizing our vision. Instead of GPUs being used to only mine currencies, we use their intrinsic function to render and leverage the features of the blockchain: network, incentives and trust.

Otoy has gained a small amount of traction in the entertainment community, (mainly among the motion graphics community) with support from Bad Robot leader, J.J. Abrams, himself.

They are not the only ones who see this blockchain benefit.

The network Golem, also provides a token for processing power contribution. A new chain called Helium, rewards users for buying and maintaining independent wireless network hardware. Others, like IPFS (interplanetary file storage) and Storj pay tokens in exchange for storage space. Whether these networks use the large crypto-networks like ethereum, or develop their own side chains to scale, the truth about blockchains is starting to becoming clear.

Blockchains are coming, and the effect will be incredibly and entirely disruptive.

When networks of creatives can share their processing power, their storage, and give their intellectual property openly, with full knowledge that they will accurately compensated for their contributions — it suddenly diminishes the need for a centralized company or organization.

Decentralized Guilds

My hope is that computer graphics artists will begin to form guilds on the blockchain to protect their intellectual property, gain access to shared assets, and get paid for their contributions (and fairly.) Should this actually work, artists will flock to the networks with the most ethical governance, and thus create global network value.

The governance of these networks will be like the guilds of the medieval era, but instead of being confined to a city or area, they will propagate to wherever the network will reach. (Everywhere on the planet.)

Blockchains are still very much in their infancy. It is still uncertain whether projects like Bitcoin, Ethereum or even Otoy will truly scale, but now that the idea has been set free in our collective consciousness, it is only a matter of time before some form of decentralized network becomes a reality. I’m hopeful the technology will rise to the need.

Thanks for reading!