Vending Machine

I worked on the 3D and motion design for the launch of Vending Machine - a consultancy helping web3 projects design smarter, more sustainable token economies.

They specialise in the mechanics behind tokens: how they're earned, used, and balanced.
That thinking inspired the interactive 3D vending machine on the site,
A visual metaphor for the systems they build.

Ideation

We were given complete creative freedom to design a device that represented the company. It didn’t need to function as a realistic vending machine, but rather communicate the idea that you bring your business to the machine and it generates a token in return. Early sketches explored a wide range of forms, drawing from modern technology and retrofuturism, with experiments around buttons, dials, screens, and familiar vending-machine cues to understand what felt right.

Final Output

The device was fully modelled and rendered in Blender, with materials, textures, and lighting considered from the outset, while the UI animations were created in After Effects. Although the asset was built to a high visual fidelity, the final output needed to perform efficiently on the web.

To achieve this, the model was optimised and brought into Spline, removing elements that would impact performance while preserving the essential details. Interactions were then programmed directly in Spline, allowing user input to trigger a sequence of animations where buttons depress, dials rotate, the screen animates, and the tray opens to dispense a printed token.