This is a look at how a h4x0r piece comes together — the story, techniques, and construction behind the work.

The beauty of the art is that everyone interprets it differently. I explain my thinking below, but that might differ from how the viewer interprets the art.

The most recognizable aspect of the h4x0r piece is the green pattern. I utilize a background color from a historic on-chain asset in each piece. This pattern started from the Cryptopunk blue background, which I then ran through a JS library to control the style and animation. Shout-out to Felix for the lib. Each green block is a node (you) interacting with the chain. (You buy an nft—you are a block.) These green blocks are the stories that h4x0r visualizes in each piece of artwork.

I've utilized actual data in this environment, highlighting 11 of the largest cryptocurrency hacks totaling over 20 billion dollars. h4x0r's workspace is then visualized via the tron-esque grid. One of the most challenging aspects of the grid was figuring out how to visualize data flowing through the grid in the form of on-chain node transfers.

In this story, the subject is seen inside a large room. A node inside of nodes. This on-chain environment is the space the character lives inside transferring between nodes with each story and overseeing all transactions and transfers. After patterns, environment, and message are created I dive into effect techniques before finalizing the output.

Early on, I decided on specific artwork tradeoffs, for example, minting animated art instead of static. Motion output would allow me to dive deeper into a story. Creating in 3D instead of pixel and raster allows every piece to be packaged and used in any 3D environment giving them unlimited flexibility.

I don't consider h4x0r pieces a meme. But I do hope the viewers realize the artwork has a much deeper symbolism than the visual output. One of my goals with h4x0r is to utilize the stories to help educate the Web3 space. Let's not be the adoption blockers or the trust disablers.

Before the character h4x0r, I hadn't used a 3d program. In proper artist form, I utilize the best tools for the message, so learning 3d rapidly was challenging but rewarding.