Creating beautiful NFTs with an AI art generator is an easy process. The popularity of NFTs (or ‘digital collectibles’) continues to grow, and now you can harness the power of AI technology to help you make your own NFT series or collection. No artistic skills or art supplies are needed!
There are many different AI art generators to choose from. Choosing the right type of generator is key to creating professional artwork for NFTs. Whether you want to create a 10,000 NFT PFP collection, or a series of 1/1 photorealistic images, using an AI tool for NFT creation can speed up the process. We have tried and tested some of the most popular AI art generators on the market to bring you our top NFT art generators. From free AI art generators, to photorealistic AI and even AI fine art, we have got you covered.
Jason Allen’s A.I.-generated work, “Théâtre D’opéra Spatial”
What is an AI-Generated NFT?
AI-generated NFTs are NFTs created using AI software. The user inputs the prompt, whether that is text or image, and the AI program creates an image or series of images. NFTs have had momentous growth in the past few years, and AI NFTs are the next big thing. The ability to generate new content using the data you input is very attractive, as it speeds up the process of NFT creation, and allows anyone to generate artwork.
One example of AI NFT art is ‘Botto’. In 2021, An AI algorithm called ‘Botto‘ sold its first collection of 6 NFTs for $1.3 million through SuperRare. Botto’s style draws on famous artists (such as Monet and Van Gogh) yet gives them new life. The AI artist generates random strings of words and sentences before feeding these into VQGAN – Vector Quantized Generative Adversarial Network. Then, VQGAN uses the words to generate images from a database of prior artworks. Botto generates thousands of images, and a community of real world people vote to create its direction and decide on the auction piece. All of the AI-generated NFTs are unique, and transcend time and space to create a new era of NFT art.
Blossoming Cadaver: “As the bone whitens, the dead are revealed. A group awash in light who constantly play. A trip that has yet to end.” – Botto
Therefore, using AI art NFT generators, founders can create entire collections using only a keyword. Then, the algorithm will analyse existing artwork to churn out its own visual interpretation of the text. So, users can produce new pieces of abstract art based on the text, over and over again. Finally, this can be minted as an NFT, as you know that there is no other artwork like this in existence.
Best AI Generators for NFT Art
We tested many different AI art generators to find the best solutions for your NFT art. To give a fair comparison, we used the same prompt for each AI generator. The prompt was ‘A King spilling spaghetti on his feet’. We wanted to make it as weird as possible to test the capabilities of the art generators. Here are our top AI art generator picks!
Easy to Use AI Art Generator: NightCafe
If you’re looking for an easy-to-use AI art generator, then NightCafe is the one. The tool is packed full of algorithms and art-generations features, even including AI features from other AI tools. It is extremely easy to get started with NightCafe, as no sign-up is required. Simply type in your text prompt, choose your style, and create!
The first page of NightCafe has three styles to choose from – ‘NightCafe’, ‘Artistic Portrait’ and ‘Bon Voyage’. Naturally, we tested the same prompt with all three.
Prompt: ‘A King spilling spaghetti on his feet’. Art generated by ‘NightCafe’. Styles output (L-R)- – ‘NightCafe’, ‘Artistic Portrait’, ‘Bon Voyage’.
Once your creation is ready, you go through to ‘view creation’. From there, you can choose to ‘evolve’ your creation, using the image you already have as a starting image and tweaking the setting (however, you will need to access the ‘Advanced’ settings for these features). If you want to start again, simply go to create a new image, choose a creation method. Options include Stable Diffusion, DALL·E 2, and ‘Coherent’ to name a few. Then, once again, enter your prompt and generate your artwork. There are over 25 styles to choose from, so you can create an incredible number of images from one just prompt.
NightCafe Pricing:
You need credits to create with NightCafe. The more credits you have, the more images you can create. There are five free credits per day, and you can also earn credits by taking part in the community. Additionally, you can buy credits. $100 credits cost $9.99 USD.
Licensing:
Once you have created an artwork with NightCafe, all intellectual property rights for that artwork are transferred to you. You may use the artwork for personal or commercial purposes. However, there is no guarantee that you can trademark or copyright that artwork.
Photorealistic Art Generator: Artbreeder
Artbreeder is one of the top AI art generators. To clarify, Artbreeder uses AI to enhance image quality, create different versions of your image, and generate images from text. Using Artbreeder, you can use the ‘Splicer’ tool to create different versions of one image, and the ‘Collage’ tool to generate AI images using text prompts.
Prompt: ‘A King spilling spaghetti on his feet’. Art generated by Artbreeder
An important feature of Artbreeder is that it has thousands of illustrations. You can remix these illustrations to create a new piece of artwork all together. Additionally, you can remix with your own image to create a collage of your work and an existing Artbreeder artwork.
Transforming a pink floral landscape to a dark room of mysterious people
Finally, Artbreeder empowers creativity by making it easier to explore art styles and collaboration techniques by harnessing the power of AI technology.
Artbreeder Pricing:
Artbreeder has many great feature for free. If you want access to the premium features, then a subscription to a paid plan is needed. This costs $8.99 per month.
Licensing:
Each artwork created on Artbreeder falls under the Creative Commons CCo license. Therefore, all images created are released into the public domain, and may be used by any person, for any purpose, with or without attribution. Therefore, you can create artwork and mint as an NFT, but anyone has access to that same image under the CCo license and could also mint that same artwork.
Best Free AI Tool: DALL·E 2
Perhaps the most well-known AI generator on the market is DALL·E 2. DALL·E 2 is an AI system which creates realistic images and artwork from a text prompt. It is an incredibly simple system to use – simply type in what you want to create, and the system generates the artwork right away! Furthermore, DALL·E 2 does not provide only one image, but outputs four images for each prompt.
Prompt: ‘A King spilling spaghetti on his feet’. Art generated by DALL·E 2
The generated images vary in style, and so you have a great variance of images from one input. Even better, if you are looking for an image in a certain medium simple enter that in your prompt (i.e crayon drawing, line drawing, painting, etc).
DALL·E 2 can output artwork in specified mediums – such as ‘crayon’
Not only this, but DALL·E 2 also has additional features, such as the image-to-image generator. Using this feature, you can highlight a part of an image and have DALL·E 2 replace it with something else. Therefore, you can remove elements of an image whilst knowing that DALL·E 2 takes shadows, reflections, and textures into account. Furthermore, DALL·E 2 can expand upon an image to generate larger background, and even take one image and create different versions inspired by the original!
Using DALL·E 2 you can edit part of an image and replace it with something else
DALL·E 2 Pricing:
DALL·E 2 gives users free credits each month, with one request ( text prompt, an edit request, or a variation request) costing one credit. For the first month you will have 50 credits, and each month after, 15 credits. Credits do not roll over to the next month so you cannot stack them. However, you can buy extra credits, with 115 credits costing $15 USD.
Licensing:
As the user, you provide ‘input’ to the service in order to generate ‘output’. If you comply with all terms, you own all rights to input and output (the image). You must indicate that the content is AI-generated in a way no user could reasonably miss or misunderstand.
Best Art Generator for NFTs: StarryAI
Now to the important business – how can you create NFTs using an AI art generator? StarryAI is an AI art generator dedicated to creating NFT artwork from your ideas. As with other art generators, input your prompt in text to begin creating. What makes StarryAI especially catered to NFT creation is how much you can control the style. For example, you can close the art style from options such as Anime Portrait, Digital Art, Graphic Pencil Drawing, and more. Then, input the descriptive terms you want to apply – i.e polished, futuristic, heat wave. You can even choose to emulate another artist’s style, input the medium (political cartoon, oil on canvas, etc) and specify an art movement. Using a free profile, we were able to generate 8 artworks from one prompt.
Prompt: ‘A King spilling spaghetti on his feet’. Art generated by StarryAI
As we can see, all of these images are unique but they are all in the same style. The styles input were ‘graphite pencil drawing, realistic, natural, b&w illustration, fine art, Takashi Murakami’. The resulting images would not look out of place as a small NFT collection.
StarryAI is both an online application and a mobile App. Therefore, you can generate images on the go. To begin, you have five free credits to work with, and do not have to connect your credit card to get started. you can create images with such accuracy and detail, and that is what makes StarryAI an excellent NFT art generator.
StarryAI Pricing:
To begin, you have five free credits to use on StarryAI. You can then earn credits by joining the StarryAI club, sharing your artwork on Twitter, Instagram, TikTok or Reddit, or by watching an Ad. Additionally, you can purchase StarryAI Pro to have a 50-credit pack monthly, costing $17.49 per month.
Licensing:
The area of AI-generated images and copyright is complex and will vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. Best to check the website T&Cs.
AI Art Generator From Text Prompt: Stable Diffusion
Stability AI created the AI art generator ‘Stable Diffusion‘. This generator uses advanced AI technology to create images from text, but also, to create images from other images. Like DALL·E 2, Stable Diffusion outputs four images from one prompt. The resulting images are of incredible quality.
Prompt: ‘A King spilling spaghetti on his feet’. Art generated by Stable Diffusion
Depending on the prompt given, Stable Diffusion can create incredibly photo-realistic images. Furthermore, the license allows for commercial and non-commercial use of the tool at no cost.
Stability AI can create incredibly photo-realistic images
When using the demo versions it can take a while to retrieve your images. Also, the tool may throw up an ‘application too busy’ notice if the system is overloaded. So, if this is happening to you, come back and try again later – the results are with it.
Stable Diffusion Pricing:
Stable Diffusion is currently on in a ‘demo’ period and is completely free to use.
Licensing:
The area of AI-generated images and copyright is complex and will vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. Best to check the website T&Cs.
Latest AI Art Generator: Midjourney (v5.2)
Midjourney, an innovative AI program and service, is the brainchild of Midjourney, Inc., an independent research lab based in San Francisco. Similar to OpenAI’s DALL-E and Stable Diffusion, Midjourney utilizes natural language descriptions, referred to as “prompts,” to generate stunning images. Spearheaded by David Holz, a co-founder of Leap Motion, the Midjourney team has been successful, with Holz revealing their profitability in August 2022. Users can unleash their artistic abilities with Midjourney through the utilization of Discord bot commands.
Midjourney allows you to create high-quality images using simple text prompts in the Discord chat app. Unlike some competitors, Midjourney requires payment before generating images. It employs large language and diffusion models, similar to AI chatbots like ChatGPT. The large language model helps understand the prompt and converts it into a numerical vector. The diffusion model uses random noise to create art by gradually learning to reverse the noise and generate new images through denoising. Diffusion models have gained popularity in the past decade, leading to the rise of AI image generators.
Midjourney V5.2 Latest Features
Midjourney V5.2 brings an upgraded aesthetic system with improved aesthetics, coherence, and diversity. Exciting new features and commands are introduced to enhance your creative journey. The stylize command now offers a more pronounced effect with a range from 0 to 1000. It is recommended to reduce the stylize value by up to 5 times, such as using a value of 200 in V5.2 instead of 1000 in V5/V5.1.
New Features
- High Variation Mode:
- Enabled by default
- Amplifies the diversity of all variation tasks significantly
- To switch, type /settings and select an alternative variation mode
- You can choose the desired intensity of variation for all enhancements
- New “/shorten” command:
- Allows you to “analyze” a prompt and receive suggestions regarding which words may be redundant and which ones may be crucial
- Cancels out unnecessary keywords for you and returns you with different shortened prompts
- You can also click details to view the weight of each word
- New “Zoom Out” Feature:
- Each upscale option now includes buttons for “zooming out” underneath you can use to reframe the image
- [Zoom Out 1.5x] [Zoom Out 2x] shifts the camera perspective and enhances details on all sides.
- [Make Square] adds details on two sides to transform a non-square image into a square one.
- [Custom Zoom] presents a text box where you can modify the prompt while zooming out, as well as adjust the aspect ratio–ar and precise zoom –zoom.
Pricing:
- Basic plan: $9 monthly, 200 minutes of GPU time per month.
- Standard plan: $24 monthly, 15 hours of GPU time per month.
- Corporate plan: $48 monthly, 30 hours of GPU time per month.
Best AI Artists, Art Pieces, & AI Projects You Should Know
Now that we have outline the top tools to create incredible AI artwork, here are some AI artists you should know about. These artists are famous for their work created harnessing the power of AI. Take a look at their work and see the boundless possibilities of AI art!
Sougwen Chung
- Sougwen Chung, a widely recognized artist, explores the relationship between human-to-human and human-to-machine communication through a combination of hand-drawn and computer-generated marks. With a background as a researcher at MIT Media Lab, she currently holds the position of Artist in Residence at Bell Labs and the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York. Chung’s creative work encompasses various forms such as installation, sculpture, still images, drawings, and performance, all reflecting her speculative and thought-provoking approach.
- She also explores the interaction between humans and computers through hand-drawn and machine-made marks. Her speculative practice encompasses installation, sculpture, still image, drawing, and performance. She has received prestigious awards like the Japan Media Art’s Excellence Award in 2016 and has been an Artist in Residence at Google, Eyebeam, Japan Media Arts, and Pier 9 Autodesk.
- Sougwen’s work has been exhibited worldwide, including at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Geneva, The New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York, and the NTT Intercommunication Center in Tokyo. Her work has also garnered attention from renowned publications like The New Yorker, BBC, and The New York Times.
Refik Anadol
- Renowned for their expertise, Refik Anadol and his studio specialize in converting architectural spaces and exteriors into expansive platforms for live media arts. Their artistic endeavors involve the creation of location-specific public art and data sculptures, complemented by dynamic audio/visual performances and captivating immersive installations.
- Anadol’s impressive portfolio delves into the intricacies of ubiquitous computing and contemplates the implications of human existence in the era of machine intelligence. Through award-winning projects, he also investigates the transformative impact of machines on our perception and encounter with time and space, reshaping our daily lives.
- Refik Anadol’s work examines the impact of ubiquitous computing and machine intelligence on humanity, exploring the changing perceptions of time and space. As a spatial thinker, he leverages digital age and machine intelligence to create immersive environments that redefine architectural functionalities. His multidisciplinary approach merges art, science, and technology through site-specific data sculptures, audio/visual performances, and immersive installations.
Claire Silver
- Claire Silver engages in collaborative art-making with AI, aiming to create transcendent pieces that elicit an ineffable truth in viewers. By merging the capabilities of both the artist and AI, they produce works that surpass individual contributions, emphasizing the equality of their roles in the creative process. Furthermore, Silver extends their artistic practice by physically replicating digital artworks. This integration allows the AI and the artist to coexist within the same artistic realm.
- Having experienced a childhood transitioning from analog to digital, Silver’s creative process reflects this evolution. They employ diverse mediums such as oil, acrylic, collage, photography, and digital tools to craft their pieces. Blending classical aesthetics and mythical elements, Silver’s art evokes a sense of familiarity and intrigue.
- Silver delves into themes of vulnerability, trauma, disability, social hierarchy, innocence, and divinity, contemplating their relevance in a future shaped by transhumanism. Their exploration prompts introspection and raises questions about the impact of these concepts in the years to come.
