Complete Guide to Building an NFT Collection

AESIR — the algorithmic cryptocurrency trading platform that a team of 7 of us have been working for over a year and a half now, is finally ready for an Open Beta release. This is a huge moment for us and I wanted to mark the occasion by offering everyone who has applied for Early Access a free Norse-themed NFT collectible, to be used on the app, or anywhere else.

This would be the first time I build an NFT collection from scratch, so sharing my progress and the challenges I had along the way may prove useful to you.

But first, if you wish to secure a FREE AESIR Viking for yourself, or test out our algorithmic crypto trading application, simply drop your email at this link. The collection is hardcapped at 5000 NFTs and only 1 NFT per wallet is allowed.

#1 The Concept

Getting the creative concept sketched out before building anything will save you a lot of trouble later down the line. For this collection, I wanted to allow everyone to choose whether they would like to mint a Berserker (male) or a Valkyrie (female) NFT.

So each one would have its own properties. For collectible NFTs at least, properties are essentially Photoshop Layers containing different parts of the whole image.

For instance both Valkyries and Berserkers have 6 properties:

Of course, Valkyries would have a necklace instead of a beard. With these properties in mind, it was time to create the design. This requires drawing each layer in Photoshop, on the same canvas size, so that when you bring all the layers together, everything is in its place. Massive thank you to my girlfriend who actually drew all of these, I can’t draw to save my life.

Here’s a raw version of one of the faces randomly available —

Then create a new layer and draw the eyes…