KATATONIK

Wing

May 19, 2022

WGMI Rating:

 2.5/5

Mint Details

Mint Date

July 22

Supply

9,999

Mint Price

0.15 – 0.25 ETH

What is Katatonik?

Katatonik is an upcoming collection of 9,999 ‘Kats’ crafted by a number of Hollywood’s best 3D digital artists. These are artists who have worked on beloved animated films such as Kung Fu Panda and How To Train Your Dragon. Each Kat will have the capacity to be fully animated and is created with the level of detail we’d come to expect from a DreamWorks movie. The quality of art is that good, each Kat could drop into one of the above movies as an extra without arousing any suspicion at all.

Katatonik claims that it will be “more than just another 3D project”. It has the long term ambition of becoming a globally recognised brand by relying on a team of more than 100, and what it hopes will be a strong community. As of now, there are 385 confirmed traits, and partnerships with leading IRL brands are being teased.

With the long term commitment of a bonafide Hollywood experienced design team, and close to $1,000,000 already funded into the project via the team’s own investment, alongside other third party investors, the project certainly has a solid foundation.

Story / Background

The lore of Katatonik centers, unsurprisingly, around Kats. At the start, Kats roamed and explored the earth, doing things that normal cats do. Scratching, sleeping, snorting catnip and watching unevolved apes – however, that wasn’t enough for the Kats… they needed more. After centuries of aimless wandering, they found their new home, The Metaverse. In this digital universe, the Kats aim is to create a community unlike anything we’ve ever seen, thus Katatonik was born.

According to Tektonik and OmsKat (two of the project founders) the idea to create an NFT collection came to them around two years ago during the pandemic. From here, they began to learn about the space, fell in love, and started up the company as it is today. As big believers in The Metaverse, Web3 and NFTs, they hope to launch and grow this collection to ‘blue chip’ status.

Utility

Full details on utility are yet to be revealed, however, the team have teased a number of things to the community. Currently, we know that all NFTs will be Metaverse ready and feature full 3D animation in time. In real life, we can expect planned meetups via events and exclusive merchandise. Longer term, collaborations with high end consumer brands have been promised alongside “a new platform for the NFT space and Web3”, although it is still unknown what this will be.

Roadmap

Katatonik’s roadmap has been designed as a 4 phase plan of action. As of this moment, prior to launch, we are seeing phase 1 unfold. The roadmap can be seen as below:

Phase 1 – Genesis

Hollywood movie quality, character design.
A new, cutting edge 3D engine that is able to render full collections and animations.
Build a devoted community.
Launch a fun and interactive website.
Launch the full, Katatonik collection and detail the minting experience.
IRL events.
DAO, decision making process.

Phase 2 – The time is Meow

Debut of EBreezy, the number #1 cat influencer in the world. Create a social presence as the face of the brand and increase awareness of the project.
Introduction of Katatonik merch for token holders.

Phase 3 – Into the Kataverse

Roll out full animation for the collection.
$KAT token and ecosystem for the community in which the token can be used.
Metaverse marketplace to include metaverse merch, traits customisation, rare item store and holder perks.
WL opportunities in other upcoming projects.
Collaborations with other brands that want to maximize the potential of Web3.

Phase 4 – Time for some scratching ball

All “Kats” to be metaverse ready.
Full feature, animated film to be created tapping into the skillset of the team including film directors from DreamWorks animation.
Full feature game will be developed in collaboration with Neko productions who have a rich history in film animation as well as game design.

Team

The Katatonik team consists of over 100 people when taking into consideration the studios it has partnered with such as Neko. Unfortunately, many of them don’t have bio’s available. However, we can learn about core members below:

Founder – OmsKat.eth

Little information is revealed in regards to the founder of Katatonik. They have 6,621 followers on Twitter and claim to be on a mission to deliver fun, unforgettable experiences for all.

Co-Founder – Tektonik.eth

Much like fellow co-founder, there isn’t much we can see in regards to their background. They are on a mission to build, create, innovate and improve, Tektonik.eth has a following of 6,061 on Twitter.

Lead Artist/Creative Director – Liron Topaz

Liron is a veteran in the movie industry. Currently a Director, Supervising Animator and chair of the Animation department for DreamWorks animation. He is responsible for films such as Shrek, Madagascar, Megamind and Kung Fu Panda. Having just finished working as Supervising Animator for the newly released film Bad Guys, Liron is full steam ahead on Katatonik.

Lead Artist/Creative Director – JP Sans

Director of animation at DreamWorks, JP Sans also brings an abundance of knowledge and experience to the table. Having started his career at Blue Sky Studios working on beloved franchises such as Ice Age, he progressed to DreamWorks and animated for the popular films such as Rise of the Guardians and Trolls 2. Alongside Liron, JP Sans was part of the Bad Guys project, working as Head of Character Animation.

Production Team – Neko Productions

Founded in 2010, Neko Productions is a specialist in providing support to studios in 2D and 3D animation for TV, Film, Gaming, Digital, AR and VR. Due to their expertise, they have had the privilege to work alongside industry giants such as Sega, Hulu, Facebook, Marvel, Harry Potter and Universal Music. Based in California, Neko Productions will provide valuable assistance in the design and animation of each NFT and will play a key role in the development of a AAA gaming experience.

Unfortunately, very little information is provided on the rest of the team behind Katatonik. A list of credits has been provided and can be viewed on the project’s Discord server HERE.

Collaborations

Katatonik has wasted no time aligning itself with a number of influential individuals in the space offering Whitelist spots to followers. Notable inclusions involve WGMI Co-Founder BentoBoi, Champ of Champs Only Pass, founder of Picks Passport, Popeye and well known Degen, Gmoney. The project has also featured in a number of YouTube videos from the mentioned influencers, and has managed some screen time from the excellent content creator Sajad in a recent video highlighting upcoming NFTs. Katatonik has also partnered with a number of other projects, the majority of which fall into the smaller hype bracket much like Katatonik itself. This is excluding a couple of exceptions such as Kuroki NFT.

Ultimately, the fact that it has managed to combine with a number of very influential figures in the space should stand Katatonik in good stead regardless of the fact that the project partnerships have been with less hyped ones. The WGMI team feel that given more time, the big collaborations will come as development and progress continues.

Marketing / Community

Relying more on organic marketing strategies, including collaborations and partnerships with influencers and other projects, Katatonik has grown to a respectable 58K+ followers on Twitter at the time of writing. It is an active brand, posting on a regular basis, often giving away WL spots to followers. Community engagement is solid with plenty of comments, although it isn’t quite as bustling as we see in more hyped projects.

Katatonik’s Discord server currently sits at arguably the smaller end of the scale with 14,596 members at the time of writing. Taking a deeper look into the server, it appears to be a friendly space with a community that is excited for the project. The activity within general chat is consistent and frequent – which is a good sign. Whitelist spots can be earned via community contribution and won through games held within the server. There is nothing here to suggest any form of tedious grind is required.

As of now, the community seems to be a slow burner, however, not every project ‘skyrockets’ instantly upon deployment. For now, Katatonik seems to be happy to lean heavily on its genuine Hollywood power backing it. As more information surfaces we would hope to see momentum build.

How to get on WL

Website Graffiti & WL Giveaway

To enter:

Head over to https://katatonik.xyz
Make some graffiti with the spray cans
Share in comments
Like & RT

Analysis

Bullish case

At a glance, the raw community metrics for Katatonik may not seem to be overly impressive, especially when compared to other upcoming hyped projects. However, there is still cause for excitement. The fact that the project is being led by two artists who have worked on some of the highest rated animated movies ever, really cannot be ignored. The 3D artwork is objectively stunning even if you don’t like the designs, the level of detail is arguably up there with the best we’ve seen in an NFT project.

It has also been revealed that a Non-Compete Disclosure Agreement has been signed by the core members of the team which legally binds them to the project for a predetermined number of years which suggests commitment. It’s fair to say that there is genuine belief in the project from those involved. The Roadmap is solid, there is the promise of great utility in the future and a desire to make a full feature film. In addition, the game sounds like a brilliant yet realistic ambition due to its partnership with Neko Productions.

Reservations

Often when gauging an upcoming project, we go through a checklist. While Katatonik does tick a good number of boxes, the biggest potential concern is the community. For a project with the resources and team that it has, why is the community so small compared to other NFT brands that arguably don’t have the same resources?

In addition, 3D artstyle NFT projects are known to have faced a challenging time in the NFT space recently. Many months ago where 3D art style projects were trending, Katatonik would have enjoyed more success during the build up. However, in the current market, many 3D projects automatically face a harder time. It’s possible that Katatonik will be able to navigate through the stigma due to its impressive team. The WGMI team is excited to see how Katatonik rolls out.