Hey, I'm Walter. Here's my Linktree.

https://linktr.ee/walterostlie

Introduction

**Definitions:**

PFP - profile picture. This is a type of art collection that is generated using a base image dressed up with unique traits. I will also refer to this as a collection.

Base image - This is the core image of the collection, the face of the collection. It’s the one image shared by all art within the PFP collection. At least for the most part, you may have different color/types of skin for the base image. We will cover this in the course.

Traits - These are different elements that will dress up the base image. These can be different types of eyes, glasses, clothes, hats, weapons, hair, etc.  The only limit is your imagination. Well that and clipping.

Trait Groups - The different categories of traits. This could be eyes or hair or mouth or clothes or weapons. Inside of eyes you’d have sleepy eyes, stoned eyes, crossed eye, glasses, pilot shades, sci-fi visor, steampunk goggles, etc.

Clipping - This is when a trait clashes with another trait or even the base image. Maybe they don’t look good together, but it’s mostly when a trait overlaps incorrectly.

Exceptions- This is a list of conditions used to stop clipping. Basically it says if this trait is used, don’t use this trait.

Art Program - This is a program that lets you create the artwork. Technically, you can create a collection using pen and paper, photography, 3D modeling, clay, or whatever really.
Exporter - This is the script, software, or program used to get all the traits out in your art program file into individual files that will be used by the generator. For example your art file will have layers for glasses, sunglasses, big eyes. The exporter will export that out into individual image files called glasses.png, sunglasses.png, big eyes.png. You could do this manually, but it would take forever.

Generator - This is a program that takes the base image and all traits and smooshes them together into a single PFP image several times to create the PFP collection. Again, you could do this manually, but when you’re creating a collection of 1,000 PFPs, it would take forever. A generator can generate 10K images in a few minutes depending on the complexity of the project.

Metadata - this is the list of properties in json used by the online marketplaces to list off the NFTs traits. Like sword, mohawk, hoodie, etc. Json is just a specific file layout. The generator will create this for us.

Overview + Definitions

**Tools:**

Krita - https://krita.org/
Python
Text Editor - OpenOffice - https://www.openoffice.org/

Tools

Super Very Important Quiz

01 - Orientation

Before you start drawing, you need to decide what you’re drawing. This is core to the project. It will establish the branding, the messaging, the vibe. It is the identity of the project, it is the project.

There are two main components to the design. The base image and the style.

The base image may need to be defined by the project itself. If the project is about saving a type of bird from extinction, then the base image should be that bird.

If there is more freedom to the base image, then think about what you like, what you like to draw, or just what you think looks cool. You’ll be seeing this image over and over, so it’s important that it holds some meaning to you.

Remember it’s not just drawing the PFP, there will be promotional images, etc that will be needed for the project as well. I’ve found it helpful to draw the entire character while designing, not just the head and shoulders. It gives the PFP a more solid foundation which will help carry the art and design beyond just being a PFP.

The other aspect is style. It can inform the collection just as much as the base image. Again, this could be dictated by the project. If it’s a cutesy project, then having edgy art doesn’t really make sense. If it’s for a gritty action game, cartoony art doesn’t fit.

Otherwise the same applies, do what you like.

Before you’ve settled on a final base image and style, make sure to draw a handful of traits for different trait groups. You really should be designing traits and the base image at the same time. You want to make sure that the base image can support a wide variety of traits without causing clipping or the need to create a lot of exclusions.

As for traits, the skies are the limit, it really could be anything. Again, the project may dictate the traits needed. A sci-fi project will need more futuristic looking traits, but even with that, throwing in a retro propeller hat still works. Or maybe a cute cuddly teddy bear happens to have a pair of x-ray visors. As long as the style matches, it can work.

Design

Let’s talk specs. It’s important to know what kind of final image you want to create. Basically this boils down to resolution.

Of course, the answer is usually bigger is better. Why not make the image 4K? Or what about 8K? The reason is resources. Can your computer handle images that large? It requires file storage, cpu, gpu, and memory.

Most profile pictures used for social apps aren’t larger than 1200px. A lot of PFP collections have images that are only 1000px. So why create one that’s 4000px?

The main reason would be for use outside of profile pictures. T-Shirts, company mascots, current expectations, etc. Use what the project dictates. 

The layout of the art file is very important. The rigid structure is required by the exporter, changes will cause the exporter to fail or give unexpected results.. They are made up of Layers and Group Layers. In our case, a layer either contains linework or color. Groups contain layers into traits and trait groups.

Our layout will look like this.

Each trait group will have its own group labeled with the trait group name followed by the word group. This is needed for the exporter.

Each group layer will contain another group layer, one for each trait. Within that trait group layer, you’ll find a layer for the linework and a layer for the color.

This is the most basic setup. You can expand on this to create more complex layering options. Just remember, to test layout changes with the exporter and generator to make sure you’re getting the results you want.

It’s likely any changes you make will need coding changes. Luckily both the exporter and generator are written in python, which is simple to use and well supported on the internet. You should be able to google your way out of any problem.

If the export should fail, look for errors in the layer structure. It could be as simple as forgetting to add the group label to the trait group name or even misspelling it.


Art File and Specs

As I mentioned, this is not an art course. However, I would like to quickly cover a few concepts that will help create a better looking collection.

Line work has a big impact on the vibe. Thicker, curvy lines are great for cartoon stuff. Thin, angular lines are great for an edgy look.

Colors are just as important as the design and lines. Having a strong palette will make the collection instantly recognizable. Making a PFP easily and quickly recognizable is a huge step for success. The more recognizable the PFP, the easier time it will have inserting itself into pop culture.

You can search google for palettes as a starting point. You can search for cyberpunk palettes, pastel palettes, candy palettes. Whatever fits the mode of your project. There’s websites dedicated to different palettes.

Another important aspect to recognition is silhouette. This is what your PFP would look like if it was completely filled in with black. If the collection is identifiable by the silhouette alone, that is powerful.

Because of the importance of silhouette it is important that your traits don’t distort the core silhouette too much.

You can get away with it occasionally if your palette is strong enough, but I’d still warn to use it sparingly. 

The same goes for color. Traits should live in the same color palette as the base image otherwise things will start to look garish. 


Art Concepts

Okay, we’re ready to start making the thing. I am going to do a quick step-by-step of the entire process from creating the art, exporting the art, and generating the entire PFP collection.

Obviously you want to create the art in your way and your style, but this should be enough to get you pointed in the right direction regardless of art skill. The most important thing with PFP art is structure.

Remember I expect you to know how to make art, feel comfortable with art programs, and know your way around a computer.

I’m using Krita, but most of this applies to any art program. Not to beat a dead horse, but make sure you test your entire process, art, export, generate before you start drawing all the traits. You’ll thank me later.

Let’s get started.

Open KRITA
Click the menu file and choose NEW
Change the width and height to 4000 pixels (or whatever you want/need)
You don’t need to worry about the DPI, but you can leave it at 300.
Click create.

Look over at the layers view and unlock the background layer by click the lock symbol.
Right click on the background layer and click remove layer.

You should have paint layer 1 selected, double click on this layer to rename it to Circle guide. Make sure it’s all caps, the exporter needs this to identify the layer correctly.

Remember to correctly name, spell, and capitalize your trait names and categories to the way you want them to show in the metadata.

Set the opacity slider to 10, or whatever works for you.

This will help us design our traits for profile pictures that are circles instead of squares.

Create a new layer using the plus symbol on the layer view. Drag the new layer below the circle guide layer.

Use the keyboard shortcut ctrl-g to create a group.
Rename it to Background group by double clicking on the group layer.

Click paint layer 1 again and do ctrl g, rename that group to White

Go back to paint layer 1. Click the paint bucket tool, found here. Now go to the advanced color selector view and choose a white color.

Click on the canvas and it should fill up with white.

This is where you can create all your different backgrounds. Just click the collapse arrow on the group White. Then click the plus symbol to add a new layer, then do ctrl-g. Rename that to Blue. Select a blue color and that paint bucket the canvas.

We’re going to stick with the white layer for now. Click the eye symbol on the blue group to hide it.


Drawing the PFP: Part 1 - File Setup and Background

Collapse the background group and add a new layer using that plus symbol.

Hit ctrl-g and rename that layer to Brown, hit enter. Hit ctrl-G and rename that layer to Base group.

Now click back to that paint layer under the Brown group. Now we want to sketch the base image. You should have already done this while designing so I’ll just sketch something real quick. Pay attention to the red circle guide while designing. You want to make sure you leave room for traits to fit inside the circle.

Quick sidenote, I’m using the default paint brush and default brush size. Use what works for your style and project.

Now we want to lower the opacity of this sketch by adjusting this slider in the layer view. Create a new layer, this will be our final artwork. If possible, try to close all your lines. This will make coloring quicker.

You can delete the sketch layer, by clicking on the layer, then clicking the trash can layer. We’re going to have so many layers, so keeping our file as clean as possible will help make things more manageable.

Okay, now add a new layer. Drag this new layer below your linework layer, by click on the new layer and dragging it below the linework layer. Make sure you pay attention to the indention to make sure it’s in the same group.

This is in the same layer. This is not in the same layer.

Side note, you can change these layer names as well to make things easier to find. The exporter only needs the group names to work, but renaming the layer names may help your sanity.

Depending on the complexity of your linework, you can color it pretty quick. Choose the paint bucket tool, go to the tool options view.

Scroll down until you see reference and select the third option “use labels”

Select the blue box to use as the reference color. Also uncheck the empty transparent box on the far left. 

Now change the grow setting to 10px. You may have to adjust depending on your brush size and resolution.

Go back to the color selector and choose a brown color.

Make sure you have the color layer selected and click the paint bucket tool inside your body lines.

Make sure you don’t see any white between your lines and the color. If you see white, it means your grow setting is too low. 

If you see brown outside of your lines, it means the grow setting is too high

If the paint fills up the entire canvas, it prolly means you didn’t close all your lines and you have a gap in your line work.

This is one of those times I expect you to know how to create art and use an art program, so moving along.

Now right click on the brown group layer, choose the duplicate layer. rename the copy to Pink. Select the color layer under the pink group, choose a pink color, and paint bucket again.

Rinse and repeat for all the skin colors you want. You could do robot skins here as well, you’d just have to update your linework layer as well.

A good point to remember is you want to be conscious of changing the base silhouette, if you change by adding bigger muscles or shoulder spikes or whatever, it could mess up your other traits.

like shirts won’t look right with a random shoulder spike popping out of it…unless you somehow account or plan for it.


Drawing the PFP: Part 2 - Base Image

Collapse the body group.

Create a new layer. ctrl-g group it, rename it to normal. ctrl-g group it, rename that to Eyes group.

rename the paint layer to lines if you want. Normally you’d want to sketch the trait like we did for the base, but this will be super simple, so I’ll just draw the final lines.

create a new layer, drag it below the lines, rename it color.  I’ll just use paint color to color these white like we did for the base. but you can use whatever method you prefer.

Let’s do another eye trait. Collapse normal eye trait, and hide it by clicking the eye symbol, and create a new layer, group it, rename it shades. Draw your shades, color them.

Because the lines overlap the body lines, we need to change the reference color the paint bucket tool is using. 

right click on the line layer, change the reference color to green. 

Now go to the tool properties for the paint bucket and change the reference label color to green as well.

I’ll quickly do one new trait group, just so you can see how it works.

Collapse eyes, create a new layer, group it, rename it to mohawk. group it, rename it to Hair group. Click on the paint layer, rename to lines, draw your trait. color it.

Pay attention to keeping your mohawk inside the red circle guide.

Let’s do one more because I like swords. For this, we actually want the sword behind the base. So click on the background group, create a new layer, ctrl g group it, name it sword. ctrl g group that, name it weapon group.

Do the art and color.

Notice with this, if I hide the body group, by clicking on the visibility eye, the sword looks really crappy, well more so, behind the body, that’s because you will never see that part because the base body will block it.

That’s it. Rinse and repeat this for all your trait groups and traits. I’ll do a clothes one as well. Notice here, I do one shirt and just duplicate the layer and change the shirt color.

You wouldn’t want to do this too much with the collection because it could get a little boring, but it’s nice to have options, not everyone likes green.

Save your file. I’ll save it as PFPCourse .krita and place it in a PFP Course directory.

The art I created here is very simple. PFP art does not have to be this simple. The sky is really the limit, the only thing holding you back is your imagination, dedication, patience, willingness to reach beyond what you know.

Create the art you want to create, the way you want to create it, the way you want it to look and force the exporter and generator to comply with your demands.


Drawing the PFP: Part 3 - Traits

02 - Art

To access any scripts from this course, go to my GIST
https://gist.github.com/walterostlie/84b1fe5c68744e7d5e15b865b7c0adf2

Krita has a tool that allows you to export individual layers into their own image files. I tweaked it a little so that it will export in a specific structure needed by the generator.

If you don’t use my version, the generation process will not work.

First we need to find the krita python script directory. For my install this is C:/program files/krita/share/krita/pykrita. Could be different for linux and mac, but should be easy enough to find with a search or google.

If you want to play it safe, make a copy of the exportlayer folder. Just copy and paste it and it’ll make a  dash copy folder like the one I have here.

Go into the exportlayers folder and edit the uiexportlayer.py file. You can use IDLE python editor or any simple notepad program will do.

Make sure it’s the UI exportlayer.py file, not the exportlayer.py file.

Copy the uiexportlayers.py code from this lesson and paste it over the current uiexportlayer contents.

Save the file.

Now just save our new script into the exportlayer folder.

Once that is there, close down Krita if it’s open, reopen it, open your art file, go to the tools menu, scripts and select export layers.

Choose your file, select an initial directory. Everything you need checked should be already checked. Click ok.

Depending on how many traits you have and the size of your file, this could take a while. The last collection I did took a few hours to export all of them.

Side note. If you’ve already exported all your traits but find out you need to fix some or add some new traits, instead of re-exporting everything, copy over those new traits into a separate file and export from there to save time.

This is what you should see after your export. A directory labeled after your file name. Inside of that you should see a directory for every trait group you have. Inside of that you should see a single image for each trait.

If you don’t have this or if your export failed with an error. Double check your group and trait naming. It’s very important.


Exporting

Most art programs can save files as Photoshop files. Krita can open Photoshop files. So whatever program you use, just save it as a Photoshop file when you're done and load that into Krita, save it as a Krita file, and export using this course's script.

To access any scripts from this course, go to my GIST.
https://gist.github.com/walterostlie/84b1fe5c68744e7d5e15b865b7c0adf2

If you don’t use krita to create your art, then my export layers script won’t help you. You’ll have to figure out how your art program handles exports. They are all different.

Example, photoshop uses javascript. Here is a very basic export script for photoshop. It doesn’t work for this PFP layout, but it could be edited with very basic programming knowledge.

If you’re not using photoshop, your art program may be able to export to photoshop format or it may even have it’s own export methods. Just google your program and export layers to files.

Here’s a link that explains how to do it with clip studio with a different type of layout. Also this isn’t specific to PFPs, so you’ll have to tweak it some.

https://ask.clip-studio.com/en-us/detail?id=17193

Exporting can be tricky, that’s why it’s important to test before you get too deep into creating traits.

Most art programs can save files as Photoshop files. Krita can open Photoshop files. So whatever program you use, just save it as a Photoshop file when you're done and load that into Krita, save it as a Krita file, and export using this course's script.


Exporting not using Krita

GIST Script Repository
https://gist.github.com/walterostlie/84b1fe5c68744e7d5e15b865b7c0adf2

The generator uses python, so you’ll need to install python and  all the required modules. 

If you don’t know how to install python, there are plenty of tutorials to be found via google.

Copy the scripts to your PFPCourse directory.

The generator is made up of 4 files.

generator.py
trait_rarity_generator.py
generatorsettings.txt
and finally exception_list.csv

You’ll need to modify generator settings and exception list for your specific project. They are just simple text files, though you can open csv files in a free spreadsheet program like openoffice calc.

Let’s check out the generator settings file. The amount setting is how big you want your collection to be. this could be 1 or 10,000. 

Make a note that if you run a large number like 10,000 it could take a while depending on the amount of traits you have and the resolution. You could also eat up a lot of hard drive space.

I’ve had collections take 12 hours and eat up several gigs of hard drive space.

PFP width and height is your resolution. This is the size you used to draw your art. remember we did 4000px x 4000px

Category order is the hierarchy of your traits, the order in which they should be layered, bottom first, top last. Usually the bottom is going to be the background, followed by the base unless you have a back weapon or accessory.

All your categories need to be listed here. otherwise they won’t be used.

category optional is a way to make certain categories as optional. The number is a percentage chance that it will be used. So hair has a 60% chance of being used. This is one way to control rarity. Not all pfps will have every trait, so ones with more traits will end up being more rare.


Generator and Settings

GIST Script Repository
https://gist.github.com/walterostlie/84b1fe5c68744e7d5e15b865b7c0adf2

The next file is the trait_rarity_list.csv file. This file is optional. This allows for greater control of rarity. The higher the number, the more often the trait will appear in the collection. The number itself is a little tricky to understand

For each category, you’d sum up all the numbers you used, then to determine the probability, you’d divide the individual traits number by the total.

So if we had two traits, A and B, A has a weight of 10, b has 5. For a total of 15

the chance of getting A is 10/15 or 66%. B has a 33% chance. You can see how this could get a little cumbersome when you have 30 traits in a single category.

What if there are 3 more traits also with a weight of 10. What’s B probability now? Well the total weight is now 45. So for B it’s 5/45 or 11%. See how drastically that changed?

Usually I just tweak the numbers if I feel like a trait is showing up too much or too little. If you want to get fancy, You can also write your own program to parse all the json files to see how many times a trait shows up to get an accurate trait appearance count and adjust accordingly.

During your rarity fine tuning, I would recommend doing a smaller generation amount. Maybe just 100 to start, then you can go to 500 or 1000. waiting for 10K just to see your trait counts would be slow

There is a second python script called trait_rarity_generator.py. This will create a trait_rarity_list for you. Make sure you run the exporter first or it won’t work. BE WARNED, running this will overwrite the trait_rarity_list file. So if you’ve already created it and spent time getting your weights just right, make a backup before you run the script. Cause it will erase whatever’s in your old trait_rarity_list file.

Now you can open the csv file in something like openoffice calc, a free document editor program similar to microsoft word

Once you have it open you’ll see a list of all your categories and traits. You want to edit the numbers to your preferred weights. If all the numbers are the same, there’s an equal chance they will be picked.

Remember what I just said about the probability calculations? Have fun. Don’t forget each category is independent of other categories. So the probability of a hair doesn’t impact the probability of a mouth.

The third file is for exceptions. In the first column is the trait that is on the chopping block. The second is a delimited list of all the traits it won’t work with. So here I am saying the mohawk shouldn’t show up if the red t-shirt or the shades were used.

Pay attention to the way I’m delimiting the second column, two colons. The generator will work funky if you do something else.

Important to remember here that the exception trait, in this case mohawk, has to be lower in the hierarchy. For example I wouldn’t be able to set up an exception that stopped a red shirt from being used if a mohawk was picked, because we haven’t gotten to the hair category in the category order yet, so we won’t know if mohawk will be used while picking our shirt.

There are ways to code around this, but it’s out of scope for this course.

There’s a chance you could create too many exceptions to allow for a PFP to be created. Imagine if you created an exception for the mohawk with every body type, there is no way the generator could finish.

It will attempt finding a new trait, but if it fails too many times, I’ve coded 50 attempts. it will just give up and spit out an error message telling you which trait had a problem. You’ll have to fix it and rerun the generation.

Okay, now we’re ready to run the generator. 

Make sure Your generator scripts and your trait image files are  in the same directory. 

Okay, double click the generator to execute it.

Once it’s complete, you’ll see a Generation folder with two sub folders, images and json. It should be obvious what’s in them.

The json files are the traits used for each PFP. The project’s developer will need this to populate the NFTs metadata.

Notice the mohawk doesn’t show up with the red shirt or shades. Nor does every PFP have hair, weapons, or clothes.

The python scripts are just text files, so you can edit it with any text program. If you installed python, you’ll prolly have IDLE installed which will make reading and editing the code easier.

These scripts are a starting point for you to build from. There are a ton of other stuff you can accomplish with python. This includes different layering types like shadows, glows and multiplies. You could also code for more complex clothing that spans across categories.


Trait Settings and Rarity

Section Quiz

03 - Export and Generation

So that’s how you make a PFP at least a very streamlined process. I tried to make it as simple and quick as possible, but you’ll find out that it's not really all that easy. It takes passion, dedication, and pure tenacity to finish a PFP project.

Creating trait after trait, looking at the same image while trying to be original and unique is draining.

The best way to win is by pre-planning and design. Work out all the kinks and make sure it works before you start working on final artwork or doing a bunch of traits.

Nothing is worse than having to redo art, it can really kill momentum.

Most important is to make sure whatever it is you're working on is fun and encompasses who you are as an artist. Compromising who you are and what you do will sour any project.

Other than that, have fun.

Peace.


Have Fun!

04 - Closing

Learn how to create the art for your very own PFP collection. This course will take you from zero to fully generated art. 

The course will provide instruction and custom code that will be used for the export and generation process.

All tools used in the course are 100% free and will work on Windows, Linux, or Mac.

Learn how to make a PFP art collection from start to finish.

PFP Art Crash Course

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