- Tips & Tricks
- Feb 16, 2022
How To Make NFT Art – 8 Easy Steps
“If you are an artist and want to be successful, then learn to convert your art into NFT art.” ― Anuj Jasani
NFTs are becoming increasingly popular, and anyone interested in getting in on the action as a digital artist or business owner must first learn what they are and how to create one. Knowing the basics of cryptocurrencies and blockchain will make building your first NFT a breeze. If you’ve never heard of these terms, don’t worry; our explanation is simple to follow and will have you up and running in no time.
What is an NFT?
A non-fungible token (NFT) is a digital asset that can be transferred, sold, or purchased digitally but cannot be touched. It can be a form of digital file like a picture, gif, music, art, etc. It can also be a meme like the “Disaster Girl,” that sold for a gigantic profit of $500k.
An NFT provides validation of ownership and uniqueness. You must be thinking that if we sell something digitally, how can we keep it unique and how can its ownership be proven? Right! The ownership is proven with a non-interchangeable unit of data stored on a blockchain, a form of digital ledger that is unique for everyone and has a public certificate of authenticity or proof of ownership. NFTs are designed to give you something that cannot be replicated: ownership of the work (though the artist can still retain the copyright and reproduction rights, just like with physical artwork). To put it another way, anyone can purchase a van Gogh print. The original, on the other hand, can only be owned by one person. Minting a non-fungible token that is uniquely identifiable is what makes it valuable. That’s why only the owner can sell or transfer an NFT through his/her official ledger.
Why do you need to learn how to create NFTs?
While some believe that NFTs are in trend and are unnecessarily hyped, there are also those who have become millionaires by just selling their selfies as NFTs. So, you must decide on which side you’re on.
Whether it is a fad or a technology that will take over all other technologies, you can take the chance to reap the benefits by creating your token at the right time. Stay with us to find out what they are and why people consistently invest in them.
Earn Followup Royalties
As an artist, you usually make art, try to sell it, and get paid. That’s it! However, this is not the case with NFTs, where you are paid for the rest of your life through repeat purchases and royalties in perpetuity.
NFTs can be sold in different markets, and their rates vary significantly from each other. Some marketplaces offer 2.5% follow-up royalties, whereas some offer up to 30% shares. In the NFT market, there is a lot of variety, and no one knows exactly what will happen next.
Attract New Audience
Since a number of states have adopted cryptocurrencies as their official currency, and many businesses now accept crypto payments, they are no longer considered unwelcome. Coins such as Bitcoin and Ethereum are becoming increasingly popular. Therefore, you can utilize crypto to get easy access to your viewers, who’ll also be interested in purchasing your digital art.
Jumpstart your career
If you’re a new artist or entrepreneur who doesn’t have a large audience to showcase your abilities, an NFT platform is the best option. In addition to gaining followers, this strategy will help you launch your career from the ground up.
NFTs have been a boon to artists, particularly graphic designers, who were unable to exhibit their work otherwise. As a result, their works are fetching thousands and sometimes millions of dollars and drawing a large audience. Anybody with a computer and internet connection can set up an NFT and make a fortune. As an example one famous hypnotizing cat, the Nyan Cat, fetched $600,000 for auction.
An Ever-expanding Industry
The market for NFT art and cryptocurrency is still in its infancy, making it highly volatile. NFTs, like a person’s selfies, can sell well, but sometimes unique art pieces don’t get any attention at all. This speculation only fuels the popularity because it allows creators to gauge the market value of their ideas.
Learning how to make these tokens isn’t just for the sake of becoming more popular or expanding your audience; rather, it’s driven by the enormous market potential, which isn’t going away any time soon. According to research, NFTs have grown to 41 Billion in market size in 2021, with the biggest sale in its history so far being the art piece named “Everyday: the first 5000 days” which sold for over 69 million.
Whatever the future holds for NFTs, one thing is for certain: they’re here to stay in some way or form. So, it will be a wise choice to enter this industry and learn how you can profit. And to do so, this guide will provide you with everything you need for making a superhero-like entry into the world of NFTs.
Step by Step Guide for Creating NFTs
For whatever reason you want to create a nonfungible token; we’ll walk you through every step of the process. To get started, you’ll need a working cryptocurrency wallet and some ETH.
Step 1: Setting up an ETH Wallet
Ethereum is a blockchain based platform best known for its cryptocurrency named ETH or Ether. This currency has occupied a vast market share in the NFT market because it enables the deployment of smart contracts and decentralized applications to be built and run without any downtime, fraud, control, or interference from a third party. That’s why to make nonfungible tokens, you’ll use Ether most of the time and not other cryptocurrencies. To begin making NFTs, you must first purchase this cryptocurrency, deposit it into your crypto wallet and then connect it to an NFT marketplace.
The most commonly used NFT wallets are Math Wallet, Coinbase Wallet, Alpha Wallet and Metamask. These wallets will give you access to your digital funds/investments. You can also use a hardware wallet like Ledger Nano X which is comparatively secure. You can connect the ledger wallet to other wallets as well.
Step 2: Selecting a Marketplace
After making an account and transferring currency to your wallet, you can start finding a suitable marketplace according to your niche. Top marketplaces like NBA Top Shot, Foundation, Mintable, OpenSea, Axie, CryptoPunks, Rarible, Nifty Gateway, and ThetaDrop are good ones to start from.
You can select any of these markets as per your interests like Axie is for those making art related to the game Axie Infinity. Similarly, NBA Top shot mainly covers basketball-related NFTs. But, before selecting any marketplace, search everything about them, especially their currency. Some markets only accept their own currency like Rarible.
We recommend you start searching with the OpenSea marketplace because it is one of the top-ranked platforms and is considered a leader. After selecting a marketplace, you can connect it to your digital wallet for further processing.
Step 3: Creating NFTs Collection
NFTs, which are unique and can attract the viewers’ attention, get sold quickly. As we’ve discussed in the Nyan cat and Disaster girl example, all you need is a stable internet connection, a computer, and a photo editing app.
You can turn your simple art into a perfect NFT design by using a photo editing app or software to remove blemishes, change colors, contrast exposure, remove background, add icons, resize, crop, add effects, animation, filters, text, and graphics.
Let’s take one example to help you clearly understand this step. If we use the OpenSea marketplace, the first step will be to make an account and use your wallet to log in. You can use Metamask wallet to start because it is straightforward for beginners. To choose your wallet, you’ll need to click on the “wallet icon” placed on the top-right corner of OpenSea web. Then go to the Menu, located under your profile button, and select “My collection” from the Menu. Once you’ve selected this option, you’ll be presented with a full page of customization options for your NFT collection.
Step 4: Selection of Payment Options
After creating your art and uploading it onto the platform, you can select an appropriate payment option and the percentage for royalties, usually up to 10% at OpenSea.
You can also select a blockchain currency to receive payments in the form of tokens. To start with, you can keep ETH as your blockchain currency as it’s the most trustworthy right now. After finalizing, you’ll be redirected to a page where you can make your collections by selecting the “Add Item” button in the upper-right corner.
Step 5: Publishing NFTs
To create a non-fungible token, you can upload any digital file. It could be anything from a selfie of yours to a GIF or a painting. You can also use 3D images on the OpenSea website.
After uploading a file:
- Save it with a proper name.
- Write a suitable description.
- Select some stats & properties for your collection.
This step is crucial as it’ll help you protect your token at later stages. Then click on the “Create” button and hurray you’ve created your first NFT! You can then preview your token to make sure it looks great to the buyers.
Step 6: Selling NFTs
At this stage, you can sell or auction your token whenever you want, and the best part is that you can also sell it privately on the OpenSea platform, which is a great thing. You can mint your token by paying a gas fee which will appear on the web page once everything is done. The gas fee is a very small percentage of the Ether price. It employs the gwei unit, which is equal to 0.000000001 ETH. To use the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), you must compensate by asking miners to perform a transaction on your behalf in exchange for a few gwei.
Protip: To reduce gas fees costs try to use Ether at a non-peak time, such as during the weekends.
You can then decide on a selling process for your non-fungible tokens, such as selling them at a minimum rate or setting up a limited auction time for potential buyers to bid on the token during a specific timeframe. Alternatively you can sell them with an unlimited auction time to allow any buyer to bid wherever they want.
Step 7: Working with NFTs
Artists often sell a whole collection of tokens instead of selling one or two, but it can cost them a considerable gas fee. Here’s a tip: you can publish your tokens in bundles. Select multiple tokens and publish them all at once, it will reduce the fee, and you’ll be able to mint your collection faster.
Because people mostly use Ether coins, the more transactions, the higher the gas fees will be. So, you should keep a hawk’s eye on the market trend and keep in mind that it can change in a second! The market is affected by the hype and popularity of any coin or token at any given time, so watch it closely to increase your chances of profit.
To grow your network, make an extensive collection of tokens and put them all in one account. Give access to some tokens for free so buyers can access your artwork and purchase premium ones.
Step 8: Market Your Collection
Starting up an NFT is just like starting an online business; no one will buy your products unless you show your presence. And to do so, you should package your product to your targeted audience and market them consistently..
Just like you, there are millions of other people who want to sell their tokens with huge profits, so what will distinguish you from them? Here are some ways to attract the right audience:
Digital artists sometimes have their fan following and social accounts with many followers. You can present your tokens to your followers for sale. If you don’t have a fan following yet, prompt yourself to build one with free platforms like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Tiktok and Youtube. It is one of the best ways to grow your buyers and earn profit.
Expert’s Advice:
“If you are an artist and still don’t use NFT (Non-Fungible Token), you are potentially missing out on millions of dollars.” ― Olawale Daniel.
Cryptocurrency and non-fungible tokens have great potential and can change the future of the creative industry. It’s just the beginning of something that can be considered the norm in the future, but there are certain risks that need to be addressed, like security and scams.
By following our guide, you can easily make your token a success. As a beginner, we’ll advise you to start with recommended coins and marketplaces like ETH and OpenSea. If you start with the ones that are difficult to predict, you might lose your money and effort.
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