Getting started with the Aspen Creator Tools, our advanced no-code NFT creation engine.

Step 1 - Choose whether to create your collection on a test network or a mainnet. You may also start by importing the contents of another collection that you previously created on Aspen to quickly launch your collection.

Add collection - Choose this option if you would like to start from scratch and deploy your collection on a mainnet. Currently, you can deploy to Ethereum, Polygon, Palm, or Canto.

Import existing collection (coming soon) - Choose this option to reuse the content from another collection you created on Aspen. Typically, a user might deploy a test collection and when they are happy with the results, use the import feature to quickly launch that collection on a mainnet.

Testnet Collection - Great for when you are just starting out using the platform. Go through the entire process and launch a collection on a testnet. We currently support Goerli (a testnet of Ethereum), Mumbai (a testnet of Polygon), and the Palm testnet. Deploying to a testnet is free and we encourage you to start here until you are ready to launch on your mainnet of choice.

Step 2 - Give your collection a name. This will be public and prominently displayed to collectors.

Step 3 - Add content for your collection page.

Collection Name - Required. Will be publicly and prominently displayed.

Creator Name - Required. Will be publicly displayed. This could be your name, your company or DAO's name, or an alias.

Creator Email - Required. Will not be publicly displayed. We collect this so that we may contact you, if needed, about your collection.

Collection Description - Required. Will be publicly displayed. Could be a few sentences, or a few paragraphs. Describe this collection, your project, yourself, your company, the artist(s) or whatever you want. Use this space to provide context to collectors.

Logo and Banner - Required. Will be publicly and prominently displayed at the top of your collection page. Upload a square image for your logo (recommended dimensions are 200x200) and a rectangular image for your banner (recommended dimensions are 878x187). We support .gif, .jpg, .jpeg, .png, .svg, .avif, and .webp file types. See example logo and banner below:

The following collection page fields are optional:

Add Social and Website Links - Add links to your website and social media pages on your collection page. In addition to your website, you can link to the following social media pages - Twitter, Instagram, Discord, LinkedIn, Telegram.

Add to Category - Select categories that best describe your collection. This will allow users to browse and discover your collection more easily. You can select multiple categories from the following list - Music, Gaming, Metaverse, PFP, Art, Generative Art, Photography, AccessPass, Utility, Collectible, and Video.

Explicit Content - Select “Yes” here only if you you believe that your collection contains content that is overly sexual, violent, has harsh language, or would be considered offensive to some.

Add Promotional Image - Upload a promotional image (recommended dimensions are 1280x720) and use a custom call to action that links to a website of your choice. We support .gif, .jpg, .jpeg, .png, .svg, .avif, and .webp file types. See example below:

Add Promotional Video - Upload a promotional video (recommended dimensions are 1280x960 (4:3) or 1920x1080 (16:9) to showcase yourself or your collection. We support .mp4, .webm, and .ogv.

Step 4 - Create your NFTs. Select the blockchain network that you would like your collection to mint on. For mainnets, we currently support Ethereum, Polygon, Palm, and Canto. For testnets, we currently support Goerli (a testnet of Ethereum), and Mumbai (a testnet of Polygon).

Select the token standard that you would like to use, ERC1155 or ERC721. The main difference between the token standards is that ERC1155 allows you to create multiple copies of the same NFT, with all of the same metadata and token ID number, while ERC721 is more popular and means that all of your tokens will be unique 1-of-1s with unique token ID numbers.

Pre-reveal Image or Video (Optional) - Upload an image or video file that will appear on all NFTs in your collection when they are first minted. The real token files and metadata will not appear until a later date and time of your choosing when you can reveal them all at once. We support .gif, .jpg, .jpeg, .png, .svg, .avif, .webp, .mp4, .webm, and .ogv file types.

Select the file type for your NFTs - Image, Video, Audio, or Document. We support .gif, .jpg, .jpeg, .png, .svg, .avif, .webp, .mp4, .webm, .ogv, .wav, .mp3, .ogg, .txt, and .pdf file types.

If you select Video or Audio, we give you the option to also include a Preview Image.

You will be able to add this when you are creating your NFTs and this will have an impact when collectors are viewing the NFTs when they are minted. The preview image will appear as the main image on the NFT card with a play button. For a video, when the play button is pressed the video begins and the preview image is replaced. If a preview image is not used for a video NFT, then the first frame of the video will be what is displayed on the NFT card until the play button is pressed. For an audio NFT, the preview image will remain displayed at all times, even when the audio file is being played.

Create NFTs one at a time - Click on “+ New NFT”

Create NFTs in bulk - Click on “+ Create in Bulk”

For more information on using our bulk upload tool, please see our Bulk Upload Guide.

You can edit NFTs that you have already created or click "Continue" to move on to the next step:

Step 5 - Set the conditions for the mint. You have two minting options in this step:

Easy Marketing and Commercial Drop. The first one is perfect if you distribute NFTs using only your users' emails or via QR codes, you pay for the gas and it is great if your users are not familiar with crypto.

If you hit on Easy Marketing, the process will be quite different from the regular one. Once you click on "Continue", you will immediately go to the next step, which is the terms and royalties and then Launch the collection.

The main difference is that your collection will be available only through a link or QR code generated when you deploy the collection. As you can see in this example, not everyone will be able to claim the NFTs.

After launching your collection, go to your Creator tools account; on the left side, just below "Collection", is the "Marketing" section. There you will find the Distribution list in the form of links and the option to download it; you can also download it in cvs format and QR codes.

Regarding Commercial Drop, the users pay for the gas and allow you to customise drops, native crypto drops, multi-price drops, and define your mint phase(s). A phase consists of a price, allowlist (optional), and timeframe. You can choose to have multiple phases, e.g. a phase that is free for a list of wallets to mint that lasts 24 hours, after which is a phase that any wallet can mint for a price and lasts until the collection is minted out.

Set mint price - Required. Define the price that must be paid to mint an NFT during this phase.

Currency - Required. Choose the currency that you want to receive from those minting the NFTs. Select "NATIVE_COIN" to price your NFTs in the native currency of the blockchain network you selected, e.g. Eth if you selected Ethereum, and Matic if you selected Polygon.

Limit Who Can Mint - Allow your community a guaranteed spot for minting your collection. Add an allowlist by uploading a simple CSV file. You can download a template to help you properly format it, but the CSV should have two columns, "Wallet Address" and "Allocation". Add in the wallet addresses that you have collected from your community and the number of NFTs they are allowed to mint.

Allowlist - A list of wallet addresses that are allowed to mint a set number of NFTs during a given phase, while all other wallets are unable to mint.

Limit Minting (Per Wallet or Transaction) - You may choose to limit the amount of NFTs that a particular wallet can mint in total and/or in a single transaction. This could give more people a chance to mint as opposed to many of the NFTs ending up in a few wallets.

Max mint per wallet - The maximum number of NFTs from the collection that a single wallet can mint.

Quantity Limit per Transaction - The maximum number of NFTs from the collection that a user can mint in a single transaction. The user will be able to mint additional NFTs after a cooldown in follow up transactions, until they reach the max mint per wallet.

Wait Time in Seconds Between Claims - Set the cooldown period, after which the user will be allowed to mint additional NFTs.

Sales Proceeds Recipients - Required for paid mints. This is the wallet address(es) that you would like to receive the funds collected from mints. If you include multiple addresses, the total percentage must equal 100%. Please note this is 100% after the Aspen platform fee is already taken out.

Mint Schedule -Select the date and time, in your time zone, that the mint will go live. If you want to launch your collection immediately choose a past date, if not, you can future date your mint.

Banner Header text - The name of the phase. This will appear on the banner near the mint button. E.g. "Public Mint", or "Allowlist Phase", or "Private Sale" (recommended max 46 characters including spaces).

Banner Button Text - This text will appear on the mint button. E.g. "Mint Now" or simply "Mint" (recommended max 20 characters including spaces).

Multi - Phased Mint -The mint will occur over multiple phases. Follow the same steps above on each phase. The only difference to be aware of here is that you need to set a quantity, or volume of tokens that will be available during each phase. Also, be sure that your dates and times do not overlap as only a single phase can be active at one time.

Volume - Set the quantity of tokens that will be available to mint during this phase. If you are already controlling the allocation of tokens via an allowlist, feel free to set this to the max number of tokens in the collection. If you set this to 10 and 10 NFTs are minted, the phase will end, however a new phase will not begin until the date and time specified.

Step 6 - Terms and Royalties (optional). As a creator, you have the option to add terms and conditions to the NFTs in the collection that must be accepted on chain prior to any wallet address taking ownership of the NFTs. Please note that enabling terms and conditions will make it so your NFTs are not tradeable on other marketplaces (such as OpenSea) unless the secondary purchasers first come to your collection page on Aspen to accept the terms.

You may select from a dropdown list of terms and conditions templates that have been created for and are commonly used by NFT projects, or upload a custom PDF/HTML with your own terms and conditions. To learn more about the terms templates used, please go to a16zcrypto.com/introducing-nft-licenses/.

You also have the option to set a royalty percentage so that you earn royalties on secondary sales of the NFTs in the collection.

Total Royalties Amount (%) - This is the percentage that you wish to collect of the secondary market sales of the NFTs in the collection.

Add Royalty Recipient - This is the wallet address(es) that you would like to receive the funds collected from royalties on secondary sales. If you include multiple addresses, the total percentage must equal 100%.

Step 7 - Launch your collection. In this step you have the option to check if all the information you entered is correct and once you are sure of it, hit the launch button.

This will deploy your collection and launch the mint with all of the settings and information you provided.

Please note that once you hit the launch button, you will only be able to edit certain fields, such as the content on your collection page. This is another reason to review that all of the information you entered is correct.

At the top right you will see a "Deployed" message in green. This means that your collection has been deployed successfully. Finally, click on the “Mint” button. This will "lazy mint" your tokens, which prepares them to be minted by your community.

Congratulations, your collection is live! Now, you may click on “View on Aspen” to check out what you have created. You can also click to view your contract on a block explorer for the network that you deployed your collection on.

Lastly, there is a "Resync" button that you can click should you ever go back and edit settings that need to be resynced to the blockchain. For instance, revealing your NFTs, adding NFTs to the collection, and adding or editing a phase.

✨Extra Information✨

Before you can utilize any of Aspen's features, you'll need to set up a cryptocurrency or email wallet and connect that to your profile on the platform.

Click the little wallet in the upper right corner of the site to launch your profile view.

Choose what type of wallet you would like to connect. This wallet will be associated with your Aspen ID.

In the profile view, you can add a username, and tab between wallets, social links, and settings.

The settings tab allows you to set browsing mode (light/dark), edit your username, logout or delete your account, and switch between utilizing the Ethereum, Polygon, Canto or Palm networks.

If you would like to know more about the basics and getting started with Aspen, please see Completing your profile.

If you created your collection on a testnet and would like to mint some of your NFTs, but don't know how, please check out Minting Testnet Tokens.

Lastly, if you would like to try out the platform but need some inspiration for your collection, we have several collections that you can use to test with all of the files you will need. Check out our minting assets folder and the 4 collections you can choose from here.