Raf Grassetti is a digital and traditional artist who has worked in the entertainment industry for over seventeen years. He is one of the best-known digital sculptors in the world. ^[1]

He has contributed to some of the most successful franchises in the world, winning many awards over the years including Best Art Director, Best Digital Sculptor, and Video Game of the Year awards. ^[2]

Early Life

Rafael Grassetti, commonly known as Raf Grassetti was born in Brazil in 1988.  In an interview with The Crypto Times, when asked what his career goal was as a child, he said:

"I don’t remember wanting to do anything other than working with something related to art. I first got introduced to flash animation and building websites, which then led me to start using 3D to create things for websites. This then slowly transformed me into creating more complex things in 3D, exploring animation, visual effects, and even a time came when I was not able to leave the computer anymore."

He was always that kid who drew when his brothers were playing. Growing up he was always fascinated by art and had amazing support from family that helped him to cultivate what he is today. ^[3]

He also added:

"It was really tough in the 90s due to lower accessibility, especially for someone coming from outside the US." ^[4]

Career

Grassetti started working for advertising companies when he was 17 years old, in 2006 he worked as a lead modeler for more than 20 films including advertising and cinema work at PixPost Animation Studio for about a year. He worked as a lead artist for Tribbo Post for more than a year.

He worked as a Senior Character Artist for BioWare from August 2011 – September 2012 working on video games like Mass Effect 3, Mass Effect 3: Leviathan, Mass Effect 3 - Omega, and Dragon Age.^[5]

In September 2012 he was employed as a Lead Character Artist for Playstation, he was active there for a year and 3 months working on video games like Killzone Shadow Fall, Infamous Second Son, The Order: 1886.^[6]

He worked as a freelancer digital sculptor on titles like Star Wars, Marvel Series, Transformers, and G.I. Joe with Hasbro for over 8 years. ^[7]

He started his career as a traditional sculptor, but later he transitioned to digital sculpting after discovering the power of immortalizing his subjects in digital stone.

He has already made a name for himself in the NFT space with some high-profile sales, and was one of the top-selling artists in Christie's "Proof of Sovereignty" Auction and Sotheby's "Contemporary Curated" Auction.

He has done works for comic books and statues and some of his clients include DC, Marvel, Image Comics, Sideshow, McFarlane Toys, and Hasbro. ^[9]

Currently, he is located in Los Angeles, working as an Art Director at Sony Santa Monica’s God of War (upcoming video game) franchise, as well as working on his personal art book, exhibition/gallery work, and crypto art. The sequel of God of War (2018), The God of War : Ragnarök trailer released in September 2022 and the game is scheduled to release on November 7, 2022. Raf Grassetti also shared screenshots of that on his twitter handle in August last week and also said - ^{[12][13][14][15][16][17]}

"the best part? you haven't seen anything yet, get hyped! "

Grassetti is one of the best-known digital sculptors in the world and contributed to more than twenty titles during his career, including some of the most successful franchises in the world, winning many awards over the years. Awards include Best Art Director, Best Digital Sculptor, and Video Game of the Year awards.^[8]

NFTs

Raf’s very first NFT was a Beeple bust. He said that he has known Beeple since before NFT existed, and watching him break into the industry pushed him to do the same. He didn’t understand it at first but it “clicked” after a few of his friends like Billelis entered the sector.

He was asked in an interview with The Crypto Times what brought him into NFTs, and he responded:

"I had some crypto from a couple of years back as an investment. But when I understood Ethereum and Smart Contracts everything clicked and I saw the potential of the blockchain and NFTs and that’s when all my perceptions changed."

The idea behind his NFTs is to communicate with the audience through his art. He says that his arts allow a deeper connection with the people who appreciate the craft.

The most expensive NFT ever sold by Grassetti is “[ ] All That Remains” sold on September 2, 2021, for 51 Ethereum, approximately USD $200,000 at the time of auction.

Collections by Raf Grassetti

The Crypto History Collection

This collection is Raf’s first set of NFT artworks. It consists of 8 digital sculptures of famous personalities in the crypto world, including Beeple, Elon Musk, Vitalik Buterin, Presumed Satoshi Nakamoto, Fewocious, Mark Cuban, Charles Hoskinson, and Snoop Dogg.

The Ali Collection

In May 2021, Grassetti dropped the Muhammad Ali collection on Ethernity Chain. He stated:

“Ali inspired me in my personal and professional life as he did to most of us. It’s an honor and privilege to use my craft and work with new technologies to celebrate his life and create this collection to help us remember the greatest of all time.”

This collection has 4 major parts - Float, Sting, G.O.A.T, and Wings. The first, an open edition, depicts boxing shoes of the likes that Ali wore ($499). The second, a limited edition of 500, features a dangling pair of boxing gloves with Muhammad Ali’s signature ($1,000). The third, a limited edition of 100, portrays Ali at different stages of his life ($5,000). The last is an edition of 1 inspired by Ali’s famous quote “The man who has no imagination has no wings”. Additionally, one of the NFTs comes with a physical pair of boxing gloves signed by Muhammad Ali and an Infinite Objects frame. ^[10]

Lady Justice at Christie's

This was Grassetti's first piece which was auctioned on Christie’s. The NFT was sold for USD $137,500 on June 3, 2021. Raf stated the following about this artwork:

“Through the power of digital tools, I’ve carried the legacy of timeless classical sculpture into the 21st century: I aim to connect our past to its relationship with our ever-changing present. This work, to me, represents a period of deep reflection. Using figures that most of us can relate to, I present ideas of decentralization, what it means, and how the disruptive forces can impact our future.”^[11]

The Meme Kingdom

This set of NFT expresses human behavior through animal emojis. This collection is an attempt to make people think about how the internet culture evolved over the years and the emoji representation. This collection of NFT was sold to “dontbuymeme” for 17.777 MEME.

Niftygateway Drops

Generations

The goal of this collection was to put the positive and negative aspects of technology’s impact into perspective, and also to present a new perspective on the Body, Mind, Heart, and Soul concept. It shows what we must preserve in order to help future generations be happy with who they are and live a fruitful life.

Generations were released on June 1st, 2021, the collection consisted of Heart, Body, Mind, and Soul. The sculptures represent the titles, heart is a sculpture of a child, he is trying to show that a heart should be like a child, innocent, pure, and true to your nature. The body represents a young person, beautiful, brave, and confident. The soul is like a butterfly, free to its nature and unbounded. The mind represents an old caring person, explains one to be wiser, loving, and caring.

Fragments

Fragments’ was created to deconstruct such expressions that a single glance at a person’s face and expression can disclose a lot of information about them, including their identity and emotional state.

But rather to focus on how people perceive faces, bodies, and the stories they tell. His sculptures are showcased in their simplest form thanks to the rough brush strokes and fluidity. There is a total of 7 NFT pieces in fragments namely Broken, Time, Pressure, Individuality, Spectrum, Future, and Flow.

The Flow was a rare edition having ranked auction of 10 editions, with an average bid of $30,000, while Future was gifted to the collectors of the entire “Generations” drop. The rest were limited editions of 30 pieces given by a lucky draw system.

SuperRare Single Editions

Generations

At the time when ‘Generations’ was released on Nifty Gateway, this limited edition of 1 was auctioned on SuperRare. It was bought by lot555lot 15.556 ETH on April 23rd, 2021.

Fearless

Raf released this NFT alongside “Lady Justice”. It was purchased by @silverpoet for 8 ETH on May 22nd, 2021.

Fragments #00 – Beauty

Like ‘Generations’, even ‘Fragments’ was released at Nifty Gateway. On SuperRare the 1/1 edition of it was released. It was bought by nottodaynonono at 22 ETH on August 3, 2021.

Core

This art says "Listen to your heart and connect with the quiet". This NFT piece was gifted by Raf to @888thevault.

All That Remain

It is a 1/1 edition and is owned by Hardik. He bought it on September 2, 2021, for 51 ETH. This is the most expensive NFT sold by Raf.

Remains of the Future Past

In this NFT Raf tried to create a dystopian future of the remains of our civilization that was once ruled by machines. This NFT represents a future after human extinction where computers and robots are trying to remember humans and continue our human culture.

This is also a single edition NFT and owned by Hardik. He bought it at 30.26 ETH on September 14th, 2021.

Fragments: Dreams of Color on Sotheby’s

This was the first NFT by Raf that was auctioned on Sotheby's auction house, it was sold for 107,100 USD.

Dreams of color is a part of Raf’s Fragments Collection. He had announced that the owner of this NFT will receive additional 5 NFTs representing the different stages of dreams.