Moonlights #50

Dec 16, 2022

Watch 📺

When Google debuts their annual Year in Search video, I immediately start watching them from the beginning, starting with the first one from 2010. Check out this year’s video below.

Look 👀

This was one of the best things I came across this week. Some of Nolan's techniques appear very realistic, and without seeing this overview, I would have assumed it was mostly CGI. Check out this thread to see some of his magic in action.

Trung Phan @TrungTPhan

Christoper Nolan hates CGI and prefers to use practical effects for insane shots. Here are 5 gems. 1/ INTERSTELLAR: Nolan spent $100k to plant 500 real acres of corn in Alberta. After filming, he sold the crop for profit.

Listen 🎧

Sam, the CEO of OpenAI, answers a lot of questions about the recent explosion of AI products, including the product his company just released, chatGPT. It’s well worth a listen!

“I think this will be the biggest technological platform of this generation.”
— Sam Altman

NFTs 🦉

The Proof team has been creating waves in the NFT industry for quite some time. Less than a month ago they announced that the entire Moonbirds collection is now “in-chain”. So, what does that mean? In simple terms, it means that your NFT can be changed using smart contracts, which is unusual in this world and a big change from how most collections usually work. If you want to learn more, check this out.

This opens up a lot of possibilities, one of which they announced yesterday — the ability to change your backgrounds based on what you own in your wallet. For their first collaboration, they partnered with one of the top crypto artists in the world, XCopy. He created a custom background (titled "X”) that all Moonbirds holders get, as long as you owned his ‘Max Pain’ edition. This might not seem like a big deal right now, but I think this will have a positive effect across the rest of the landscape and we’ll see many other teams attempt something similar. It’s unique and fun, it helps to celebrate collaboration and shines a light on other artists, all without diluting the holders.

From Me 🎒

I’m really excited for the World Cup final on Sunday but I also know that I’ll be so bummed when there aren’t any more games. I’m hoping Messi takes home the trophy, he’s had an incredible tournament and I’d love to see him finally win it all.

I finished another art piece recently, I had a lot of fun with this one.

Hope you all have a great weekend!