Introduction to NFT Art
Art is one of the most prominent niches within the NFT space. After all, the boom in 2020 and 2021 began with this niche. For instance, the artist, Beeple, sold an NFT for about $69 million at Christie’s auction.
According to NonFungible, the number of NFT art sales was over 1.5 million between October and November of 2021. The total number of sales in the previous year surpassed 11 million.
Now, you might have a couple of obvious questions:
- How to create NFT art?
- How to sell NFT art?
If you’re an artist now is the right time to ask these questions and venture into the industry. After all, there are numerous other statistics that showcase the potential of the NFT art space.
In this article, we will be answering questions such as ‘How to make and sell NFT art?’. Besides this, we will discuss the challenges of creating an NFT, and introduce you to alternative methods which leverage platforms such as CreatorMachine and FellowshipDAO, that can solve those challenges. Let’s dive in.
How to Make and Sell NFT Art
Making and selling NFT art is a long process that involves several steps. Right from conceptualizing what your art piece(s) would be about, designing them, and more. Let us take you through each of them.
1) Conceptualizing the NFT Collection
The first part would answer the question, How to make an NFT art? To begin with, one needs to conceptualize the NFT piece/collection. In this step, you’ll decide three main things:
- The purpose of your NFT collection.
- The utility of the various art NFT pieces.
- The design/look and feel of your NFT.
This is quite crucial because people tend to simply launch collections as quirky characters or as collectibles/memorabilia which can’t be leveraged in any specific way. So, understand what your NFT collection stands for.
It is a good sign if it solves a purpose or offers something unique. Next, you’ll need to ensure that this purpose is translated into individual pieces in the form of a specific utility that the audience can benefit from. Finally, design your artwork that will represent your collection.
2) Choosing a Blockchain Network and Marketplace
Choosing a blockchain network and marketplace tends to get confusing. You need to take into account the following factors:
- How many people use the network?
- How high or low is the gas fee?
- What are the marketplaces on the network?
- How simple or complex is the process?
- What is the cost of creating and selling an NFT there?
Once you do your research to answer these questions you might have a few chains and marketplaces to choose from. While Ethereum is the most popular network for NFTs, it has challenges such as high gas fees, low transaction speed, and more.
On the other hand, Solana is a rapidly growing blockchain network that acts as an alternative to Ethereum. It is fast, cheap, and efficient. For instance, while Ethereum can process only 15 transactions per second, Solana can go up to 65000 tps.
Furthermore, marketplaces such as Magic Eden, Solanart, and Solsea are widely accessed by aficionados who like to buy/sell NFTs.
3) Setting Up the Wallet and Account
For this article, I’ll be using Solana blockchain and Magic Eden as an example. Follow the steps below:
Create a Wallet
a. Download and install the Phantom wallet on your browser as an extension, since the Phantom wallet is Solana-compatible.
b. After the installation, you’ll be redirected to a page where you need to click Create a New Wallet.
c. Here type in and confirm your password.
d. Phantom will then show you your recovery phrase which you’ll need to save. This way if you ever forget your password and need access, this phrase can be used. So be sure to save it.
e. You can then click Finish and your wallet is created. Now, onto the second part:
Add Funds to Phantom
For any transaction on Magic Eden, you’ll need funds in the form of SOL, which is the network’s native cryptocurrency.
a. Go to a cryptocurrency exchange and buy SOL.
b. Transfer your SOL coins to the Phantom wallet by pasting your wallet address or scanning the QR code.
Create an Account on Magic Eden
a. Go to Magic Eden and click on the Connect Wallet option at the top right corner.
b. If you’re on the same Chrome browser on which you installed the Phantom extension, the platform will automatically detect the wallet.
c. A prompt will pop up, asking you for permission to connect the wallet. So click Connect.
With these steps, you’ve successfully set up your Magic Eden account and connected it to the wallet.
a. Now, you’ll be redirected to a page that has a random character phrase, and beneath it is the Sign button.
b. The idea is to sign over this phrase to prove your ownership of the wallet.
c. Click the button and your wallet extension will ask you if you approve the message.
d. Click the Approve button and you’re signed in.
4) Steps to Create NFT on Solana
There are multiple ways of creating an NFT. While one of the obvious ways is to design your artwork and then uploading onto the platform, it has a few challenges.
Firstly, if you want to create a large collection, then designing each and everything on your own is a long and cumbersome process. Secondly, there are a few backend processes that you might oversee, which would prevent you from making full use of the platform. Finally, if you want to venture into the generative NFT process, it will be different from the usual one and would have problems of its own.
The generative NFT collections are increasingly growing in demand. For you to create and sell these NFTs in an auction through whitelists and public sales, you need to use the Candy Machine tool and also understand coding.
Art Layer Creation
Your artwork would have multiple attributes and facets such as the characters, the traits of the characters, backgrounds, and more. Here, you create a file with each of these traits with a transparent background separately.
Metadata Setup
Your metadata is essentially data about data. It usually is in the form of .JSON files. Here you essentially create a directory structure for storing your different traits and create metadata files that tell the tool where and how the traits are stored.
Art Generation
With the traits and metadata in place, you use tools and code to generate art pieces. This way you get multiple variations with the different traits you have and each variation becomes an NFT piece in the collection.
With this the process of creating your NFT art collection is complete.
5) Selling NFT Art
This involves the final phase of your process – Auction and Whitelisting. Once you’ve performed the above steps with the Candy Machine tool, you can set up the following:
a. Public sale date
b. Whitelist (If you choose to have one)
c. Price per NFT
d. Royalties program where you determine the amount you’ll get paid for every trade after people first buy your NFT.
Once you’ve coded all this information you deploy and mint the NFT collection. With this information, you’ve just learned how to create NFT art and how to sell NFT art.
However, your next question might be ‘What if I do not know how to code?’ Well, I’ve got answers for that as well.
Challenges of Creating and Selling Art on Your Own
In general, creating and selling NFT art is a tedious process as mentioned before. However, there are numerous challenges that one faces during this process.
Need for Coding Knowledge
This is one of the most prominent challenges artists and creators face while launching their own NFT collection. Each of the creating and selling steps mentioned above involves some level of coding that most people from a creator’s background wouldn’t be proficient in.
High Cost
The above problem means that you’ll need to hire developers who understand coding and tools such as Candy Machine. This leads to a much higher cost than you had previously predetermined and when you include the marketplace and network-related costs, it might come up to $10,000. This is pretty expensive and not everyone can afford it.
Time Inefficient
Beyond all this, the process will also take longer. When more people are involved the task is bound to take more time, and when there’s coding involved in the process, it takes a few rounds of testing, altering the code, and perfecting the process.
These are some of the most common hurdles creators face today. However, there is a solution to these.
How to Create and Sell NFT Art with CreatorMachine
CreatorMachine is a permissionless, self-serve, and no-code platform that allows you to create, launch, and sell your NFT art on Solana with zero knowledge of code. It strives to enable and empower creators and artists who want to enter the NFT space by offering them financial independence and a hassle-free experience.
It eliminates the challenges that come with dependency. It enables you to perform all the tasks through an intuitive platform, that understands and caters to your needs.
How Does CreatorMachine Work?
The CreatorMachine is an intuitive platform that helps you with all stages of NFT development. Right from helping you generate your artwork to launching them, the platform does it all with the following steps:
Art Layers
Any artwork you create will have multiple facets or layers to it. If it is the artwork of a character avatar, the different traits of the avatar would act as different layers. This means the character’s eyes, hair, accessories, skin tone, and other such traits will be separate layers. Thus every layer would be the trait with a transparent background. In the first step, you’ll need to create this.
Metadata Setup
In this step, with the help of the CandyMachine tool on the platform, you’ll be able to add metadata information. This simply means that you’re informing the platform, in directories and locations are your different files stored. Instead of typing it all out as python code, you can simply mention it on the platform.
Art Generation
After you’ve provided all the information, you simply need to let the platform generate diverse art pieces which are created from different permutations and combinations of the traits you had designed.
After the creation of the NFT collection, the platform also facilitates the launch of your collection on the Solana blockchain network on popular marketplaces. All you need to do is follow the simple steps, sit back, and let your collection do the magic.
For further information, you can reach out to the official website and the platform guide. Alternatively, you can also contact our support team, who can take you through the complete process, in case you feel stuck, and enable you to create and launch your collection.
Conclusion
Overall, these are the ways in which you can create, launch, and sell your NFT collection. With the rise in the number of creators and artists, the NFT space is going to become much bigger. The industry is becoming more mainstream and more people are venturing in as creators.
Thus, the future lies in no-code platforms and tools such as CreatorMachine, which not only makes the process simpler but even much cheaper. So, if you want to become an NFT artist or creator now is the time to get started.
