Minting ON-CHAIN

Minting on-chain refers to the process of uploading the entire artwork directly onto the blockchain. The main advantage of this method is that all the data is fully stored in a decentralized manner, eliminating the need for external storage solutions.

However, a significant drawback is that it is limited by file size and file type constraints. In this tutorial, we will specifically focus on saving SVG files as data URIs on the Ham blockchain.

For more detailed information about on-chain NFTs, I recommend reading this wonderful article:

https://www.fullyonchain.art/articles/why-fully-on-chain

Ham Chain 🍖

Ham Chain is a fast, cost-effective Layer 3 blockchain built on the OP Stack and Base. While saving files directly on the blockchain can be expensive, using Layer 3 solutions like Ham Chain reduces these costs, making on-chain file storage more affordable.

Besides that, Ham is at the forefront of a paradigm shift where users are prioritizing control, ownership, privacy, and interoperability over the censorship and ad-ridden experiences managed by centralized corporations.

Ham is empowering social connections with fun experiences built on decentralized systems.

A perfect place to start putting our art on-chain.

Net Protocol

In order to mint our artwork on-chain, we will need a smart contract to be injected into the blockchain. For this tutorial we gonna use: Net protocol.

Net Protocol is a decentralized permissionless messaging protocol written by Aspyn. Net is completely free and open source. You can explore the code on GitHub for more information.

Besides the messaging board, Net Protocol also offers a minting page to create smart contracts for Ham and Base, which we will discuss at the end of this tutorial.

Minting on your Art

Let us start minting our art fully on-chain on Ham. This requires the following steps:

1. create our artwork

2. convert our art to a svg file

3. compress our file

4. convert our svg file to a data uri base64 code

5. mint our art

   First, we need to create a piece of art. I'm a fan of pixel art, so I designed a charming Tiny Dino holding a ham. To save this image on-chain, we need to convert it into an SVG format, which can then be rendered by our browser as a data URI.

Next, we need to convert our png file into an svg file. There are various online tools, and I found this one quite handy:

https://www.freeconvert.com/png-to-svg/download

After converting our PNG to an SVG, I strongly recommend compressing the file. As we know, file size is crucial for on-chain storage—the smaller, the better. That's why compression is our best friend in this process.

https://vecta.io/nano

Attached, you will find the compressed version of our SVG. We saved 74.3% without losing quality! Pretty cool.

Finally, we're ready to convert our image into a piece of code by turning the SVG into a Base64 data URI string using a Base64 encoder:

https://base64.guru/converter/encode/image/svg

What you get is a code snippet, which miraculously represents your art as a piece of code. You can copy the code into your browser window, and it should render the image above.

data:image/svg+xml;base64,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

Finally, we can inscribe our code snipped on the blockchain using the Net Protocol Open Edition Smart Contract Creator:

https://www.netprotocol.app/app/inscribed-drops/create

Net Protocols creator page is quite simple. The important part here is that you paste your code into the “Enter url manually...“ field, and you are connected to the Ham network. (You can also use the tool on Base if you are connected with your wallet to Base.)

Next, we give our artwork a name, description, mint price, and supply. Then press the magical “Inscribe drop” button.

A final pop-up window will appear, summarizing your drop. This also serves as a checkpoint—if your art is coded correctly, you should see a small thumbnail of your image.

And voila, we successfully inscribed our art fully on-chain on the Ham Network!

There are no secondary royalties and no fee to create an inscribed drop. On every mint of a paid inscribed drop, there’s a 5% fee (95% of mint fees go to the creator who made the drops, and 5% is a fee to me to help support the development of the Net protocol). On free inscribed drops, there’s no fee.

Big up for the developers providing creators with tools for putting our art on-chain. Special thanks to Asypn of Net Protocol and Deployer of Ham Chain.

Thanks for your time and interest for on-chain art. You can visit filter8.xyz for more information.

You can find me on warpcaster or twitter.

Wish you a wonderful day.

Your Filter 💜

Attached you can find my already successfully inscribed artworks on 🍖 Ham.

Dino loves Ham

https://www.netprotocol.app/app/inscribed-drops/mint/ham/0

Net Dino:

https://www.netprotocol.app/app/inscribed-drops/mint/ham/1

Hamcaster:

https://www.netprotocol.app/app/inscribed-drops/mint/ham/2

THE OPEPEN FRAMEWORK

The fundamental structure of the artwork is an 8x8 pixel representation of an Opepen silhouette. Opepen serves as an open art canvas/protocol, encouraging participation from artists worldwide who contribute their interpretations of its shape.

The 8PEPEN symbolizes the most simplified form achievable in pixel format, consisting of a total of 64 pixels arranged in an 8x8 grid.

THE BLOCK 8PEPEN

The code driving this artwork generates infinite variations based on the Block Height of each minted piece. Utilizing block data enables ensuring that each minted artwork is unique to its respective block.

The Block Height, or Block Number, influences four key layers of the artwork:

1. The canvas background color

2. The position and color of the eyes

3. The background color of the body

4. The color and pixel count of the 8pepen body

1. THE BACKGROUND

To enhance the dynamic nature of the artwork, I've opted to calculate the background color based on the last three digits of the block number on the Base Network.

Let's consider BLOCK 8PEPEN #1 as an illustrative example:

https://opensea.io/assets/0xBE17f4056bBad5640e0060975A9585d8E9Ac0C3D/1

For BLOCK 8PEPEN #1, with a block number of 13473826, the RGB values are derived from the last three digits as follows:

R: 6 (multiplied by 25 to fit within the 0-255 range) -> R = 6 * 25 = 200

G: 2 (multiplied by 25) -> G = 2 * 25 = 50

B: 3 (multiplied by 25) -> B = 6 * 25 = 150

Thus, the calculated RGB color for the background of this artwork would be (R: 200, G: 50, B: 150).

2. THE EYES

For the eyes of BLOCK 8PEPEN, they play a significant role in humanizing its shape. The direction of the eyes, either left or right, is determined by the last digit of the block number. Here's the logic:

• When the last digit is odd, the eyes look to the right side.

• When the last digit is even, the eyes look to the left side.

3. THE BODY BACKGROUND

To determine the background color of the body in BLOCK 8PEPEN, a grayscale value is derived from the fourth last digit of the block number. The higher the digit, the darker the background; conversely, the lower the digit, the lighter the background.

Starting from a base RGB value of (250, 250, 250), the grayscale value decreases by a factor of 20 for each increment in the digit. At 0, the body background color will be nearly white, while at 9, it will be nearly black.

4. THE BODY COLOR AND PIXELS

For the body of BLOCK 8PEPEN, a grid of random pixels is generated, with the randomness of colors influenced by the RGB components of the last four digits of the block number.

The number of random pixels drawn is determined by the fifth last digit of the block number, contributing to variability in the appearance of the grid. A lower digit results in fewer pixels being drawn, increasing the probability of the body's background color being visible.

The body color itself is determined by a random function, ensuring that every token minted has a unique combination of colors, even if multiple tokens are minted within the same block.

Random colors are generated for each 64 pixel within the canvas. The randomness is influenced by the RGB components of the last 3 digits.

For each color component (red, green, blue), a random value between 0 and 255 is generated, and the corresponding RGB component of the number (r, g, b) is added to it. This helps ensure that the generated colors are influenced by the RGB components of the number.

The scaling factor for each color component is adjusted based on the fourth last digit of the number. If this digit is even, the scaling factor is set to 2, otherwise, it remains 1.

UNLIMITED & FREE

In conclusion, BLOCK 8PEPEN embodies a fusion of art and technology, where each piece is a unique reflection of the blockchain's data.

Join the journey of discovery and creativity by collecting your own BLOCK 8PEPEN token. The token is free to mint on with an unlimited supply. The code is written to ensure not a single generated artwork is the same.

https://highlight.xyz/mint/66258cd8a9abba67ec41e639

Embrace the uniqueness of blockchain art and be part of a global community shaping the future of digital expression.Start your collection now and become a part of the groundbreaking Opepen movement.

Thanks for your time and interest in my art. You can visit filter8.xyz for more information.

You can find me on warpcaster or twitter.

Wish you a wonderful day.

Your Filter 💜

Despite the economical pain it creates, it can push creativity into unknown paths.

THE START

I noticed Ticker from people starting to share posts from this project. It should be a meme coin released on Base. Personally I am very careful with meme coins, because I don’t have enough knowledge about their dynamics. I was attracted by the name, the design and the rapid growth of the channel subscribers.

The Ticker PFP represent 3 green ticks, which we see in crypto price charts indicating a constant upward movement (which is a worth a meme itself ).

THE TICKERS

Attracted by the design and the green color (0, 255, 0) I created a 24x24px Ticker template including an Ear, inspired by the CryptoPunks , to make a reference to a pfp.

Seeing the rapid growth I set my the limit to finish a 100 hand drawn pixel art collection in 24 hours. For simplicity and constraint I chose to work in a simple 1 Bit format.

While creating the artworks I started to incorporate 3 main characteristic elements:

• The classic PFP with a mouth, eyes, ear trait…

• Electronic parts like, keyboards, screen, electronic circuits…

• Crypto related elements like, arrows, checks, charts, money…

The collection is available on Zora minted on the Base Layer with a price of 0.001 eth. The 100 unique artworks are a memorial to the first big rug pull on Warpcaster and are part of the RGB Trilogy.

nft://8453/0x11Add0602684c15C434e13f006b7048aE5147ef8/?showBuying=true&showMeta=true

THE RGB TRILOGY

Creative thoughts often come after you finished the work, seeing in out on-chain ready for others to collect and enjoy. After releasing THE TICKERS collection I came up with the idea to build a 1 Bit RGB Trilogy. A set of 3 collections that are connected though the RGB color space minted on 3 different L2 chains.

• R (255,0,0) BRAIN OP on Optimism

• G (0,255,0) THE TICKERS on Base

• B (0,0,255) t.b.a on Zora

BRAIN OP

BRAIN OP represents the first collection of the trilogy with the color RED. It is a free collection of 1337 Brains created on Optimism one day after the epic airdrop for all L2 creators.

It is inspired by Brains a CC0 collection of the amazing 1337-Skull collective. I created a 1 Bit version with new traits using the color code RGB code 255,0,0.

nft://10/0x73b83837AC091C59BbbBD3FC41b92033dC431814/?showBuying=true&showMeta=true

TRUST IN REAL PEOPLE

Although rugging people is not good, it happens over and over in the crypto space. I think we can learn and get inspired to create artworks around things happening to us. Good or bad.

Look for real people with real connections and reputation in the space no matter what they are building. Listen to the OG in the space, so we don’t do the same mistake again.

I love to collect and try to search for real people to buy art from. Sometimes it does not play out, but at least I got a piece of art in my wallet to enjoy.

There is no security for not nothing in this world. But one thing I believe is Karma.

Thanks for your time and interest in my art you can find more information about me and art on filter8.xyz.

find me on warpcaster or twitter and say hello.

Wish you a wonderful day.

Your Filter 💜

LIMITATION OF TIME

My creative journey began on the streets of my hometown and spread globally over time. This was thehe first time I experienced the limitation of time and space. It became part of my creative journey.

You often only have a time window of 10 to 15 minutes to create your masterpiece before you have to leave the spot. The challenge is to create something satisfying in such a short time within the limitation of the location and the colors you have brought with you that night.

LIMITATION OF STORAGE

Growing up also means more responsibility and I had to left my crazy graffiti life. What brought me back to create art was the blockchain technology. Storing my art permanently on-chain, being able to share and connect with people globally was overwhelming. But like everything in life, I also found limitation on the blockchain.

Storing art natively on-chain and making it immortal comes with the limitation of storage and style. The first no code solution I found was 8bidou, a bitmap minter on the tezos blockchain. To make minting affordable, the platform limited the size to 8x8 px and stores the art in a pixel array saved fully on-chain. Pixels become my new spray paint and FILTER8 my new alias.

LIMITATION OF SIZE

Limit storage means limited space. Working over a year with only 64 pixels deepen my understanding of expressing something meaningful within such a small canvas. I was getting obsessed on how small i can get.

January this year I released the Weeping Pixels collection with the limitation of 6 colors on a 6x6 canvas. Weeping Pixels originated from Pivs “that feel when” exhibition on foundation. This taught me how important colors are, when reducing it to the limit.

LIMITATION OF COLORS

Limiting yourself to certain size is one thing, but limiting yourself to colors is the next step. When researching about bitmap images I came across the 16 color palette used in the first windows machines. Caught by the nostalgic feel, the strong colors and the reference to something life changing become my go to colors for my pixel projects.

LIMITATION OF STYLE

When Jack approached me to make an Opepen set I was honored and accepted the challenge to work within the next limitation. The limitation of style. Opepen follows certain rules of aesthetic and making my style merge within such a strong iconic image set the bar high.

My starting point was the most limiting design I was able to make with my style. The 1- Bit 8x8 Opepen. Being so reduced I felt they needed some description to make them even recognizable.

In the seconds iteration I increased the canvas size to 16x16 and introduced my signature color scheme. Having learned from the my previews projects, I knew that the colors are going to play a crucial role in the final artworks. The reference to the Windows NT systems is an important factor for the set, representing the 3 DECADES OF MAGIC, merging the old designs with the NEW TECHNOLOGIES.

When exploring the old Windows Icons, one style element that stuck out, where the lines that cut each other out, creating the 3d effect you see on nearly every windows icon. This was the starting point for each edition and set the framework to work with.

NEW TECHNOLOGY

A deeper look into the editions with its Windows Icon counter part. Also check out Jacks twitter post with his view on the collection.

TIME

The Edition of 1 represents time. The the most valuable asset we all have in our life!

FLOPPY

The Edition of 4 represents the Limitation of Storage we face in every phase of technology.

FILE

The Edition of 5 represents the FILE system where all the data is saved.

FOLDER

Edition of 10 is an homage to the legendary yellow folder to maintain your files organized.

DRIVE

The Edition of 20 represents the drive. The disc where all the data is pulled from.

PC

The Edition of 40 represents the Personal computer which makes all the beautiful things visible, from the screens to browser windows to artworks. This set was the most challenging to create, because it required a dive deep into the visual components of all old icons.

Constraints can seem like the last thing you’d want for a creative project, but they’re actually beneficial when it comes to create good work. They force you to be on point in a short and powerful way and create unique art.

THE FUTURE IS UNWRITTEN

I wrote this article to give a deeper inside about my art and the Opepen Collection I created with love and intention. Thanks to Luke for taking his time to write his advice for me and future unknown artist to release an Opepen Set.

At this given time the outcome of the set 30 is uncertain. The link to the collection gonna be this one or maybe another one. The future is unwritten.

Thanks for your time and interest in my art you can find more information about me and art on filter8.xyz.

Wish you a wonderful day.

Your Filter

1. CREATE YOUR ARTWORK

To keep the collection interesting and challenge your creativity we crafted THE FARCASTERS APP on p5.js to create the art uploaded to the contract.

• the canvas has a size of 10x10 px and comes with the original FARCASTERS Template. Feel free to contribute your own version to the collection, though it is not a must. You can create channel icons, pfps or just nice little 100px artworks.

• The App uses the 16 colors from the 4-bit RGBI palette found in win95 plus Farcasters PURPLE signature color.

• To preview your artwork how it will look as PFP we added a nice little overlay button

• Finally you can save your artwork as .png. The App saves the artwork in the size of 1000x1000px

2. UPLOAD YOUR ARTWORK

THE FARCASTERS Collection is minted on the Zora Network using the handy collaborators option on the platform, where different wallets can collaborate together on the same contract. Minting your artwork to the contract will add it to the collection.

MINTING WITH WARPS

THE FARCASTERS collection was designed being Warpcaster native, meaning you should be able to collect artworks using your warps within the app. As this feature is pretty new, you have to follow some guidelines to make the button available in the warpcaster app.

SET UP MINTING PAGE

1. UPLOAD: Once your artwork is ready start adding your awesome artwork.

2. COLLECTION: Be sure you select THE FARCASTERS to be uploaded in that collection

3. PRICE: set price to 0. Setting your price to ZERO does not mean your artwork is free. You will be rewarded according to Zoras Reward Protocol. Read more about here .

4. MINT DURATION: How long your artwork can be collected is a fun way to play. Make 24 hours or 1 year. It’s all up to you!

5. MINT FIRST EDITION: minting your first edition will put the contract on chain and activate your artwork for wraps.

6. MINT START: make it available now is recommended.

7. EDITION SIZE: Keeping your edition open will make it available as long as mint duration is active. 1 of 1 will not activate the wrap button as the artwork contract is not created on the blockchain yet. Fixed Edition are a nice way to limit the artworks and make it more special.

8. MINT LIMIT PER ADDRESS: If you don’t want your artwork be collected more than one time per wallet set Custom to 1.

9. ATTRIBUTES: Attributes are saved within the metadata of your token and can be useful to filter the collection grows it grows over time. We recommend using at least : Colors (1-17) , Artist ( your name) , Style ( Character, font, …) …

10. 10. Press CREATE !

3. SHARE YOUR ARTWORK

Nice your artwork is now part of THE FARCASTERS collection.

Once your minting page is online and running don’t forget to share your creation on our warpcast channel:

https://warpcast.com/~/channel/farcasters

4. SIGN UP

If you are curious and want to join THE FARCASTERS CREW submit your entry using the form below. We are looking forward to have you on board!

https://tally.so/r/3EW5EL

Thanks for reading. Farcaster is more than a new social network. It is a movement.

You can find all our important links on our linktree THE FARCASTERS