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NFTs (non-fungible tokens) are associated with digital art of a static nature: an image, a post, or a photo. But in fact, NFTs are not limited to just one type of content. In fact, it’s a digital tokenized confirmation of possession of any type of content with unique characteristics. It can also be a video and a GIF.
The Role of NFT in Contemporary Art
The head of the development of the modern world has become digitalization. This manifestation has touched not only the economic or financial spheres. Digital art as a modern form of the art piece was also transformed by cryptography and the blockchain space, and NFT became an object reflecting this change.
Digital artists were able to generate their own non-fungible tokens, not limiting themselves to the format of only one plane but using visualization, images, videos, and GIFs. This helped to further diversify the artistic process and monetized the artists’ work itself.
However, the Number of Collections Presented on the Platforms—on the Contrary—Has Increased, as Has Their Diversity, Thanks in Part to the Proliferation of the Video Format and GIF Format.
Minuses of NFT Video
Despite the diversity of the NFT digital art market, there are a number of problems that the community of crypto investors is still struggling to solve:
The copyright issue
This is a common problem for NFTs of all formats, both video and GIFs, as well as regular tokens. During the token boom, numerous objects were digitized and sold, with historical or rather famous images being in great demand and only occasional uses being agreed upon with the author.
Copyright is even more acute in the digitalization of memes and GIFs because this viral material can easily sell due to its fame, so often, tokenizing GIFs ignores copyright.
Marketplace sites, where artists (as well as scammers) post content to be sold, also contribute to the violation of authors’ rights. They do not check the works for authenticity and do not establish copyrights. Often illustrators do not even know that their work is for sale, and meanwhile, scammers make money on it.
For example, a famous comic book artist Liam Sharp, who drew, among other things, the Green Lantern and Wonder Woman series for DC, suffered at the hands of fraudsters. His collection was stolen from DeviantArt and put up for sale as NFT.
Carbon footprint
So far, most NFT token collections are based on Ethereum smart contracts. According to CMC – 9 out of 10 top collections are based on this blockchain.
While Ethereum remains on the PoW mining algorithm, every transaction on this blockchain results in high electricity consumption, affecting the environment and carbon footprint. Analysts have calculated that the cost of mining ETH is comparable to the electricity costs of a small country.
Plus, mint NFT transactions, trading platforms, transaction cancellations, and so on are more energy intensive than classic Ethereum transfers.
The difficulty of navigating the NFT realm
If you are an artist and fully immersed in the process, navigating the rather new market of cryptocurrencies may scare you because it is now the most dynamically developing segment of the economy.
To launch your works on the blockchain and then monetize them through the sale of NFT, you need to consider a lot of details: which blockchain to choose, how to digitize, where to sell and how to store them. Getting to know cryptocurrencies and a blockchain can take some of your time.
So let, without details, get to the main question: how to make an animated NFT GIF with video for the first time?
What Does It Take To Produce Your First NFT GIF?
It’s actually hard, and each step will get you closer to making your dream come true:
Decide on a blockchain for NFT coining
Now there are enough app blockchain offerings to produce non-fungible tokens: BSC, Solana, Flow, Ronin, WAX, and others. However, Ethereum remains the absolute leader in the use of NFT developers.
Decide on a platform for the sale and a cryptocurrency wallet according to the chosen blockchain
At this stage, you close the important issues of storing and selling your future art piece. There are many options. Use one that is convenient for you.
Marketplaces:
- OpenSea for Ethereum, Polygon, Solana;
- X2Y2 — ETH;
- BloctoBay, NBA Top Shot — for Flow blockchain;
- Aavegotchi – Polygon;
- Magic Eden — Solana;
- Mobox — BSC and others.
Storage Wallets:
- Metamask is suitable for storing NFT standard ERC, BSC and several other blockchains;
- Trust Wallet supports ERC and BEP standards;
- Phantom Wallet is the most common wallet for the Solana blockchain;
- Kukai Wallet—for Tezos NFT;
- Nami Wallet—for Cardano;
- Enjin Wallet—only for Ethereum.
After completing your selection, register your account on the marketplace and then connect the wallet.
Time to work with video or GIFs
Upload an image, video, or GIF to the marketplace. Pay attention to the standards of the platform. They are different everywhere. You need to make your future non-fungible token appropriate.
Animation in the style of GIF or cropped video you can edit with special programs: Ezgif, GIPHY and Photoshop.
Transactions
Pay the network’s commission, mint your own NFT, and post it for sale.
You should have had a small amount of blockchain cryptocurrency on your balance to pay the commission.
To promote the created collection, you can initiate NFT promotion either within the marketplace or by creating your own NFT community on social networks (Facebook, Instagram, Discord, Twitter, Reddit, and so on). Or hire professionals to generate your own marketing strategy.
The Most Successful Examples
Animated NFTs get a lot of attention, but they are still not artists’ favorite types of non-fungible tokens. Probably, more straightforward images or photos tokenized for sale look more understandable. But there are records of selling NFTs, too. Three examples of the most successful GiFs in history.
Nyan Cat
The historic Nyan Cat game z meme, which has been viewed by more than 1 billion people in its decade-long history, has been turned into an NFT by artist Chris Torres. As a result, the lot on the crypto-art platform Foundation exceeded $500,000.
Two Pac work
In this example, there are two works by the same artist – Pac and his works Transforming Finite Infinity Sign and Playing with Shapes in Metarift. The first digital art object was sold through the Foundation for 444 ETH (or about ~$840,000 USD at the time of sale). The second token was sold on the marketplace, and the purchase price was 489 ETH (or ~$904,413 USD at the time of sale).
Donald Trump’s Non-fungible tokens
The leader among GIFs is a work with political overtones by well-known artist Bepple.
The CROSSROAD GIF with Donald Trump’s election victory was resold on the secondary market for a record $6.6 million for an animated token.
To be fair, Beeple created a GIF on the occasion of winning the 2020 presidential race as well. But, as we can see, it wasn’t needed.
Where You Can Apply Animated NFTs
Animated Non-fungible tokens, as we have written above, have their own unique advantages, with the details and inputs to the minting of this type of asset not differing much from the standard tokens. Therefore, their use is possible, including for commercial purposes. For example, for advertising.
Advertising
Advertising is the most rewarding practical use of animated non-fungible tokens. The ability to showcase your product in the most versatile and vivid way possible through NFT realization, attracting a new circle of users from the advanced digital world and additional audience reach—all these qualities work for the marketing of the product.
These opportunities are often used by brands. According to statistics, only the Nike brand was able to earn $185 million of income on sales, part of which was attracted through the use of GIF technology in the tokenization of the brand.
In second place are Dolce & Gabbana and $26.6 million. In third place are Tiffany and $12.62 million for the year.
Music
A song, a melody, and a complex symphony are examples of non-linear art that incorporates hundreds of facets of human life. The experience and vision of music require a supplement in the form of an animation, a visual object. And since the creator wants to maximize the vision of the creation, the use of animated digital objects and their tokenization is appropriate.
The most recent example to see such a connection is the album of the British rock band Muse called “Will Of The People”. The musicians released an NFT version of their new album, becoming the first release of this type in the UK charts.
Just 1,000 copies of the limited edition, priced at £20, will be available on the Serenade trading app on August 26.
Monetization of Humor
Another way to monetize animated artwork is through humor. Memes and GIFs are part of this industry and bring profit to the creators every day.
Probably the most famous monetized meme today is Disaster Girl (a girl with a sly smile standing in front of a burning house). The original photo was taken in January 2005 by the child’s father (her name is Zoe Roth) during the firefighting team’s training to extinguish the fire. The fire itself was planned and controlled.
It wasn’t until 11 years later that Zoe was able to profit from her own fame by selling the photo as an NFT for $430,000.
