NFTs, or non-fungible tokens, enable artists to register their work on a blockchain, which creates a unique digital asset. 

Essentially it is slowly but (almost) surely enabling artists to decentralise the giants and reclaim their financial power over their work. They also offer access to new revenue streams. If you’ve always wanted to create your own video game, make a movie, or even set up an art school, NFTs can offer a way to do this. 

Due to the popularity of freelance creatives producing NFTs, many platforms are even offering funding for smaller artists to help launch their NFT projects. 

Here are some ways in which NFTs are benefitting and empowering independent creatives. 

A more diverse metaverse

NFTs are a great way to tell personal and individual stories and are thus offering a platform for new voices, for example TheBlkChain, promotes the work of women, BIPOC and LGBTQ artists.

Equal opportunities major brands want in, and the possibility of the metaverse being a place to visit a Nike or Apple store is real. And there’s a place for this too, and these brands are going to need artists to create the assets to run their part of the metaverse.   

Revolutionising the VFX industry

VFX artists can be at the forefront of NFT art. This means they can be empowered to negotiate new contracts that give them greater control over the work they are producing. VFX companies probably now have an opportunity if they have visual effects supervisors, or creatives that are interested in storytelling, or interested in directing, to utilise their resources as a visual effects company to create content and transform themselves from vendors to their own content creators. Why spend months creating VFX scenes for Marvel movies when the same team could use NFTs to raise funds to create visual effects for their own Marvel-quality films, using the best NFT marketplaces to raise investment? 

Artists have more control 

We’re now in a place where artists are being empowered to use this digital art to create art and find audiences through the internet without having to go through art galleries or streaming platforms which give so little payback to the creator themself. 

NFT art can power this important shift in the VFX industry and the art industry as a whole. Artists embracing NFTs can find new audiences and markets without the need to go to traditional studios or companies for commissions or short-term or freelance contracts. Creating NFT art and using NFT drops artists can take control of their work and help create new revenue streams. This is already happening. Oscar- and Golden Globe-winning VFX artists Leo Krajden and Abel Vargas have created the Cactus Seed NFT to fund their Cactus World TV show, video game and metaverse. These are artists who adapted their skills from creating VFX for Black Panther, Spider-man: Into the Spiderverse, and Aquaman to create their own world and community. 

Growing a tight knit community

Outside of creating art for art’s sake, NFT art is a great way to create communities. Web spaces are bringing like minded individuals together from all over the world to educate each other on creativity and NFT minting. Great friends can be made and great art can be inspired.