Dane Wesolko

In this quick freestyle tutorial, I cover how to make NFT digital art using Photoshop. Suppose you’ve seen NFT collections that have many variations of a single character, like Pudgy Penguins. In that case, you’re familiar with this idea. It’s a concept that consists of creating a base and building from it. These techniques can be applied in any graphics editing software. You could use Affinity Photo, Gimp, or Procreate to replicate a similar approach.

As I mentioned, we’ll discuss how to make NFT digital art using layers to create different variations of a single idea. Too long, don’t want to read? No problem.

To start, we’re going to need a new document. Easy peasy. 

I created a new file for this tutorial and chose 444 x 444px at random. You can choose whatever size document you’d like. The file size doesn’t necessarily matter; just know that the higher you go in resolution, the larger the file sizes will become. Making it harder for graphics editing software and computers to deal with many different layers. 

If this is the case, Photoshop tends to force you to save the file as a PSB, their version of a large format document. You can avoid some of these pitfalls if your art is getting really complex by using smart objects and linked files. More on that another day.

Once a new document is created, we can begin designing. For the tutorial’s sake and the fact that I did it as I was recording, I kept the artwork very simple. By drawing some basic shapes of a character, I established the foundations for subsequent layers. When drawing, students are typically taught to find the basic form that makes up the objects. Suppose we apply that methodology to the concept we’re discussing today. In that case, we can begin to see how easy it might be to create something fantastic.

I drew a person by using the shape tool. You can draw whatever you want to your abilities. You can even use an image as a starting point, up to you. Be creative.

Our character consists of a rectangle for the body, a circle for the head, two circles for the eyes, and an oval for the mouth. Nothing fancy. By grouping layers, we can keep our documents organized. 

Groups will come in handy later on as the file gets more complex. It’s always best practice to try and stay as organized as possible.

With a foundation established, we can create the layers to make our character cooler than a cucumber. This is where things can get really fun. The following steps to make NFT digital art rely solely on the artwork being created. I’ve discussed planning projects in previous articles and thinking through the different variations. It’s not a required step and not something that should hold you back, especially if you’re exploring the process, but it will be helpful if you’re planning to go above and beyond. 

There are many reasons I bring this up. In this tutorial, planning ahead of time helps develop production processes and speed up or make creating much more efficient.

I created a group for backgrounds to organize the background colors in moving forward. When using any form of a randomizer, files are stored in directories where the compiler pulls from. Their folder structures are similar to model our groups and layers in our graphics editing software. Since the little homie was in the nude, I decided it was best to clothe our little buddy. 

Reverting back to the shape tool, I created a beanie, puffy jacket, and pants to complete one variation. In the video tutorial, you can see how I used the root-shape method, as I like to call it, to create the elements. The beanie was drawn by pulling a few rectangles with the shape tool. At the same time, the puffy jacket followed a similar pattern. Grouping the elements by hats, tops, and pants, another variation was created: a sideways baseball cap, graphic t-shirt, and blue jeans. Voila, two completely unique variations.

We can actually create quite a few combos with these two variations if we were using a randomizer to create art. We have two hats, two shirts, two pants, and one body when you think about it. According to math and combination formulas, that gives us roughly 10 variations. Pretty easy to get creative here with that logic. You can also begin to see how it’s possible to create NFT collections of ten thousand or so.

The next part of the process is essential when you’re doing this. The entire artboard must be exported for each element, meaning that all outputs should be the same size as your original file size. This has to happen so the randomizers can compile them properly to make NFT digital art. 

To export layers from Photoshop, you’ll want to turn off all the layers you don’t want and begin exporting them one by one. Which could get pretty tricky if you have a lot of layers and variations. There are ways to automate exportation. However, I revert back to my comment regarding planning. 

It’s hard to know how to structure your file to use automation properly if you’re not sure what you want to create, to begin with. In this example, if I was going to use automated exports, I would organize my file, so it’s easy to turn what I do and don’t need on and off. Or I would probably use smart objects. You need to turn layers on and off because Photoshop will export whatever is visible. 

Going through group by group, you’ll eventually have directories full of your base character, clothing, and whatever else you might want to add. From there, you’d like to make sure that all the layers line up and everything overlaps the way it should. If it all looks good, you can send it to a dev or run it through a compiler. And just like that, that’s how to make NFT digital art!