Adobe Illustrator is one of the most widely used art creator software for digital artists. It’s also a great tool to use for creating NFTs! If you’re planning to create an NFT collection with Adobe Illustrator, you’re in luck. Read on for a complete guide on how to create NFT art with Adobe Illustrator!
Extra Resources For NFT Creators
If you want to expand your horizons and create NFTs with other design tools and sell them on multiple platforms, check out the guides below!
- How hard is it to create an NFT?
- How to create NFT art without coding
- How to create NFT art on Mac
- How to create NFT art on PC
- How to create NFT art on Android
- How to create NFT art from a photo
- How to create an NFT art collection
- How to create an NFT GIF
- How to create an NFT smart contract
- How to create NFTs on Coinbase
- How to create NFT art for free
- How to create an NFT on Canva
What Are NFTs?
Before we get to making awesome illustrations and NFT pieces, we need to do a deep dive into what NFTs are. For a better grasp of the concept of NFTs, we need to know what “fungible” means. A fungible item is something that’s easily traded with something else of equal value. Fiat currency like dollars is fungible because a $20 bill can be traded with another $20 bill and hold the same value.
However, non-fungible items cannot be traded on an equal value basis because it’s unique in some ways. For instance, you can’t trade the Mona Lisa with Starry Night because while they’re both paintings, they’re created by different people and have different historical backgrounds.
NFTs (non-fungible tokens) are named as such because there can only be one copy of an NFT art piece in existence. They act as digital authenticity certificates, recorded on a digital ledger called a blockchain. If you need to check for an NFT’s authenticity, all you need to do is check the blockchain records.
NFTs are usually traded on NFT marketplace sites like OpenSea, Rarible, and Coinbase NFT. Digital artists can upload their work to sell in fixed-price sales or auctions, while collectors can use the secondary sale feature to trade their pre-owned NFT pieces.
Not all NFTs are static images, either. Any kind of digital content can be made into NFTs from GIFs, audio files, videos, and even screenshots of social media posts. As long as the crypto artist owns the rights to a piece of content, they can make it into a non-fungible token.
Many digital artists decide to sell their art through blockchain because of its support for independent creators. Almost all prominent non-fungible token creators have a community that genuinely wants to back the artist’s creative process, and these community members are often the first people to buy any new work the crypto artist has to offer.
The NFT art community also acts as word-of-mouth marketers for the crypto artist, recommending the NFT collection to their friends and coworkers.
What Are The Different Types Of NFTs?
There are many types of NFTs available on the market these days, providing a very wide platform for Web3 artists. Here are some of them:
Digital Artwork
This is the most common type of NFT being sold today and the most popular type made by beginner artists. Digital artwork NFTs are generally static images sold individually or as part of a set. One of the most famous examples of this is “Everydays: The First 5000 Days” by crypto artist Beeple, which was valued at over $69 million by famed auction house Christie’s.
GIFs And Videos
In addition to digital art and pixelated images, you can also turn video and GIFs into NFTs. One of the most famous examples of this type of non-fungible token is basketball moments sold by NBA Top Shot. The store sells famous basketball moments as video clip NFTs for fans to collect and trade.
Memes
As with any major innovation on the Internet, meme creators are also getting into the non-fungible token craze. Well-known memes like Doge, Bad Luck Brian, and Disaster Girl have all been recently minted and sold as NFTs.
Digital Avatars
Many NFT collections are created for people to use as social media and online avatars. Some examples of these are Bored Ape Yacht Club, Lazy Lions, and CryptoPunks.
Instead of being created manually, these NFTs are usually created in large numbers with art generator software. These AI-generated digital files are then sold in large batches so many people can buy and use them.
Trading Cards
NFT trading cards work just like old-fashioned trading cards. People buy these digital files and interact with other collectors to see if they can buy or trade for a card that they don’t have yet.
Music
Music NFTs are beginning to rise in popularity as more and more famous musicians release their music as NFT digital files. This allows them to sell directly to fans instead of having to go through a record label.
Artists like Snoop Dogg, Grimes, and Kings of Leon have released NFT albums in recent years. Steve Aoki even said that he made more money selling music NFTs in 2021 than he did in an entire decade of his music career.
Video Game Items
Some recent games like Axie Infinity, Gods Unchained, and Splinterlands use NFTs as an integral part of their gameplay. These NFTs usually represent unique items that give players an edge over others. Players can also trade these NFTs with other players for real-world money or other in-game items.
How To Create NFTs
How do you create NFTs? Before we answer that question, a crypto artist needs to prepare several things first:
- An art piece
- An NFT marketplace account
- A cryptocurrency wallet
- Some cryptocurrency tokens
Most of the biggest marketplaces have the same general steps for a crypto artist to upload and mint NFTs. Here are the steps:
- Go through the creative process and make art with your creation software of choice
- Upload your art files to the marketplace’s minting page
- Fill in key details like your work’s title and description
- Set your NFT piece’s price and royalty value, if applicable
- Choose a sale type – most marketplaces offer fixed-price sales and auctions
- Pay the gas fee
- Mint your NFT
Once your NFT is minted and listed, it’s ready to be bought by others!
Advantages Of Using Adobe Illustrator To Create NFTs
Adobe Illustrator is an awesome creator software for digital artists. It’s also one of the best tools to create an NFT with. Why? Here are some benefits that you get when using Adobe Illustrator to make NFTs:
- A flexible and intuitive user interface that makes the creative process easier
- Scalable design results that are print-ready in any dimension
- Reasonable file sizes that don’t fill up your hard drive
- Software from Adobe Inc. supports both PC and Mac devices
Disadvantages Of Using Adobe Illustrator To Create NFTs
That said, there are some disadvantages that digital artists need to keep in mind when using Adobe Illustrator creation software for making NFTs. Here are some of them:
- A steep learning curve if the crypto artist doesn’t have a background in vector drawings or has taken graphic design courses
- It takes much more time to create realistic art compared to other creator apps like Adobe Photoshop
- It only comes in a subscription model through Adobe Creative Cloud and there are no free versions
- The interface requires a lot of space, which may make the app seem crowded on smaller displays
How To Use Adobe Illustrator To Create NFTs
Now that you’ve learned how to make NFTs and why you should use Adobe Illustrator, it’s finally time to learn how to use Illustrator to create your NFT masterpiece. Note that this guide is primarily made for the creation of generative art NFTs in the vein of Bored Ape Yacht Club and CryptoPunks.
Coming Up With The Idea
Your first order of business should be ideation. Just about anything can be turned into NFTs these days. From monkeys to punks, the only limit to what digital artists can make is their imagination.
In addition to the concept, you should also think about its art style. Do you want a realistic approach, a cartoony style, or a mix of both? Whatever style you pick will influence your work for the entire project.
Defining What Layer And Traits Will Be Created
Generative NFTs usually consist of a base character with other traits added to it. The combination of the base and traits are what makes each NFT art piece unique.
You need to define what traits are standard for each art piece. Let’s say you’re creating an NFT collection starring cool potatoes. In addition to its potato base character, its traits are its hat, eyes, mouth, and accessory. This means every single potato in your collection consists of a combination of those four traits on top of the base character. For more variety, you can even give your potato base several different colors.
Planning Rarities
Next, you need to define which traits are rare and which ones are common. Generally, you need to make a table containing the rarity of each sub-trait in each trait category. For example, under the “eyes” category you can set aviator shades to appear 10% of the time, while round glasses only appear 1% of the time.
Creating The First Piece
Now you need to create one NFT art piece that has all the traits you planned as multiple layers. Draw your base and each of your traits, saving them as a different layer each time.
Creating The Variations
Once the digital painting process finishes, you need to make duplicates of the first artboard and create several wholly unique variations on the art piece with the traits you made earlier.
Saving All Artboards
Save all the artboards and get them ready to export by using the handy creator software’s export feature.
Importing The Art Layers Into Photoshop And Structure The Document
Now, you need to import everything you exported into Adobe Photoshop and make sure the hierarchy is correct. If your NFT piece consists of a base character, hat, eyes, mouth, and accessory, it should be placed in folders like that.
Add Values For Rarities
Go to each sublayer that represents individual traits and add a rarity value based on the table you created earlier in the process.
Download A Script For Generating A Collection
Find and download art generator software in NFT forums and communities. Follow the instructions outlined in your art generators to prepare the generation process.
Save The File In The Script Folder
Place your Adobe Photoshop file in the folder that your art generator software provides.
Run The Script
The last thing you need to do is simply run the art generator software. As soon as the auto-generation process finishes, you’ll have an NFT collection ready to sell!
Key Takeaways
Adobe Illustrator is one of the best tools for NFT art creation due to its excellent features and strong design capability. It’s also one of the easiest tools to make generative art NFTs with.
Looking to start a large NFT collection of your own! Tokenfy is here for you. Check out our services and see how our team can help bring your NFT art projects to life!
Creating an NFT Using Adobe Illustrator FAQs
If you have more questions about creating NFTs with Adobe Illustrator, we’ve got the answers:
Can you create NFT with Illustrator?
You can create NFT art with Illustrator. Just like any other design tool, you simply need to draw your art.
How do I create an NFT file in Illustrator?
You can’t create an NFT file in Illustrator. You can only create the art piece and then mint the NFTs at a marketplace.
Can you make NFT on Adobe?
You can make an NFT art piece on Adobe software. The most common choices are Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator.
How do I create an NFT art code?
You can create an NFT art code by writing it yourself. However, you don’t have to do so since you just have to upload the piece of art to an NFT marketplace for minting.
