Given all the hype around NFTs these days, it seems like countless people every day are landing on the same question – how can I become an NFT creator? Indeed, the know-how to create NFTs can seem like a lot to take on for newcomers to the space. There are smart contracts to deploy, metadata to edit, and gas fees to pay. And that’s just what you have to do before you can even focus on marketing and selling your NFTs!
Luckily, the process is easier than it has ever been before. To be sure, there are a number of platforms that are making it so that people can create NFTs without needing to know how to code or create smart contracts all by themselves. Let’s walk through some of the tools you can use today to help you create your very own NFTs.
There are tools out there that can help the next Beeple start their NFT journey! Credit: Beeple, “Into The Ether”
Become an NFT creator with these 6 awesome Tools
NiftyKit is an awesome tool for NFT creators.
1. NiftyKit: All-in-one solution for NFT creators
NiftyKit is a no-code platform for NFT creators. It allows people to create, manage and sell NFTs. Not to mention, it allows creators to use their own custom smart contracts. Thus NiftyKit allows NFT creators to truly own the assets they create on the platform. NFT creators on NiftyKit can create NFTs for both Ethereum and Polygon. Users can then sell these NFTs on NiftyKit’s platform, OpenSea, and Rarible, or their own websites.
NiftyKit is a subscription service and costs $9.99 a month. This package gives users unlimited minting on Polygon. On the other hand, users will still need to pay gas fees on Ethereum to use their smart contracts. In addition, NiftyKit takes 5% of primary sales once users withdraw earnings through the smart contract.
2. NFT Art Generator: Create generative NFT collections with no coding required
NFT Art Generator allows you to create layers, import your art assets and create entire generative NFT collections. It handles just about everything, allowing you to select rarities for traits and groups of traits, edit the metadata for your collection, and preview the generated artworks.
It even has a free version for up to 100 assets. Though it’s important to note that the free version carries a watermark.
The paid tiers start at $179 for up to 1,000 assets and go up to 10,000 assets for $389. What’s more, NFT Art Generator can even create smart contracts for your NFT collection. For the smart contracts, it charges 4.9% royalty on each NFT sold in the primary sale.
Manifold has been flying the flag for NFT creators for some time. Credit: Manifold
3. Manifold Studio: Custom smart contract for NFT Creators, and much more
Launched in October 2021, Manifold Studio comes from the company best known for crafting custom smart contracts for NFT creators, both for those new to the space and for major names and projects. The Manifold Studio dashboard allows users to create smart contracts with the click of a button – no coding necessary. And best of all, it’s completely free to use!
Manifold prides itself on giving NFT creators full control of their smart contracts as soon as they deploy them. To clarify, the contracts allow users to mint both ERC 721 and ERC 1155 tokens. To mint an NFT all you have to do is upload your assets, customize your metadata, and hit the “MINT” button. Notably, Manifold accepts unlimited file sizes for high res video and images and decentralized storage. Creators can then sell the NFTs on all the major NFT marketplaces.
4. Appy Pie NFT Generator
Appy Pie NFT Generator is a powerful no-code NFT tool. In short, it allows you to create and manage your own NFTs without any coding or technical knowledge. Plus, it has the largest collection of 3D characters & icons to use as unique traits in an NFT collection. Their generator tool also allows you to customize images you upload yourself.
Appy Pie generated artworks are compatible to mint on blockchains like Ethereum or Polygon. Then, you are free to list your NFT collection on leading marketing places like OpenSea.
As the largest NFT generator platform, Appy Pie focuses on generating tokens quickly and securely. Accordingly, the Appy Pie NFT generator works in real-time and can process thousands of NFTs in a matter of seconds.
What’s more, the generator integrates different security measures that help prevent any unauthorized access to your NFTs. To make it easy, they are compatible with most browsers and you can even integrate them into most websites and mobile applications.
5. OpenSea: Gasless minting on the largest NFT marketplace
OpenSea has a free minting tool that allows NFT creators to make NFTs via “lazy minting”. To sum up, lazy minting refers to the process of minting an NFT without having to pay gas fees upfront. Instead, the smart contract for your NFT is only deployed on the blockchain once somebody buys it.
In addition, with lazy minting, you don’t need to provide your own smart contract. Although it’s important to note that users will need to pay a one-time fee the first time they first mint an NFT on OpenSea.
As the largest NFT marketplace, OpenSea’s free minting tool is hugely popular. In fact, it is probably the most used tool by NFT creators in their early stages. Just recently, however, the company nearly made a bad decision to limit the number of NFTs users could create and sell.
Fortunately, after a huge amount of backlash from creators, OpenSea reversed its decision. That means that OpenSea might is still one of the most accessible tools for NFT creators. At least for now.
Its selective process for creators arguably leads to Foundation having a higher overall quality of NFTs on its site, compared to OpenSea. Credit: Foundation
6. Foundation: A great launchpad for NFT creators, but you’ll need an invitation
Foundation is a platform that prides itself on being creator-focused and having more curation to its marketplace than you’ll find on OpenSea. After all, OpenSea itself admits that about 80% of the content on its platform is junk. To that end, NFT creators hoping to use Foundation will first need an invitation from someone already on Foundation.
As far as minting an NFT, Foundation makes the process incredibly straightforward. Deploying a smart contract, uploading art, and editing metadata and collection attributes all happen at the click of a button.
Foundation does have a 50 MB limit for file sizes. Even so, the files are stored on the decentralized IPFS system rather than on Foundation’s servers, which is a big plus. And of course, you’ll need to pay all the associated gas fees.
Importantly, Foundation introduced an update allowing users to deploy their own smart contracts on the platform. Before that, creators would upload their NFTs to a shared smart contract, the “Foundation Collection”. This was a major step because it allows NFT creators to take advantage of everything that Foundation has to offer while maintaining complete control over the NFTs tied to their smart contracts.
Need to start a step back and learn how to make your own awesome NFT art? Check out our beginners’ guide on how to create your own NFT art today!
