I am still working on this, but decided to publish it hoping that it can help others.

What is this guide?

The purpose of this guide to teach anyone, even if you have no knowledge of coding, to create and generate a collection of NFTs and upload them for people to mint them on your own website.

Important

I did this on MacOs, but you can use this guide and follow similar steps if you're on Linux or Windows.

How to navigate

I will have five main sections here to make navigation easier:

Quick Navigation

1. Create a Collection The first one will cover everything from how to make your images all the way to generating thousands of images with their json files.
2. Upload to Website: The second will teach you everything about uploading that collection to the blockchain and be able to mint your NFT.
3. Website Appearance: Edit the appearance of your website.
4. Host WebsiteThe third will teach you how to host this website.
5. ResourcesInformation about costs, importing wallet to phantom and other resources.

Create a Collection

(Back to Quick Navigation)
Here you will learn how to make images, json files and generate thousands of them.

Artwork

To generate hundreds or thousands of NFTs you will want use layers. You can make these images using any software you like. This includes: Photoshop, Procreate, MSPaint and many more.
A popular type of NFT is the pfp (profile picture) such as the one below.

To do this you will need to use layers. For a pfp type NFT, you can begin by creating the body of your character and then other things such as clothing and accessories.

Free Pngs to use for testing

I created a file with examples and you can download them from to test out NFT generation.
Now that you have your layers ready let's generate a few NFTs.

Generate NFTs

Here you'll learn how to generate images and their json files.
Install:

1. Visual Studio Code
2. Node.js(I suggest the "current" version)

We will now use the Haslips Art Egine. Open Visual Studio Code. Click Terminal->New Terminal:

git clone https://github.com/HashLips/hashlips_art_engine.git

In Visual Studio click open folder and open the hashlips art engine folder. Click Terminal->New Terminal. Click the config.js folder

Here we will change several things:

1. Description - The description of your collection.
2. I suggest changing this line:

const baseUri = "image.png";

1. growEditionSizeTo - The number of NFTs you want. (For testing I suggest starting with 10-100 max)
2. layerOrders - Here you will choose the properties of you NFT. The name of each property should match the folder created for each one. Like this: You can always add more layers with this line

{ name: "Name of you layer" }

Upload to Website

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Installing Dependencies

Once you have your collection of images and json files you can now upload them to your own website and mint them for free on the devnet (to test out everything) or the mainnet-beta (to allow others to mint them).

We will begin by installing the following:

Visual Studio Code

Visual Studio (This will facilitate viewing some files.)

Node.js

Node.js (I suggest dowloading the "Current" version)

To check you did it: open Visual Studio Code and click on Terminal followed by New Terminal. Type in the following:

node -v

Solana Cli

Solana Cli (If you're not on MacOs click on the link and follow the steps there)
For Mac users type the following into you terminal.

sh -c "$(curl -sSfL https://release.solana.com/v1.8.0/install)"

To confirm you did it right type the following into you terminal and click enter.

solana --version

Metaplex

Open Visual Studio Code and click Terminal->New Terminal.
Here is the link to their github page: Metaplex
In your terminal type the following a click enter:

git clone https://github.com/metaplex-foundation/metaplex.git

If you are in Visual Studio Code, click on File->Open Folder and choose the Metaplex folder.
Click on Terminal->New Terminal.

yarn install

We want to change directory so in the terminal type the following:

cd js/packages/cli

Inside the cli folder we will do two things. Click enter after each line:

yarn build

We are done with this part.

Solana File System Wallet

Open a new terminal. Now we will change to the Solana devnet.

solana config set --url https://api.devnet.solana.com

Then make a file system wallet

solana-keygen new --outfile ~/config/solana/devnet.json

Copy and save the pubkey and seedphrase somewhere safe.
Now set a keypair

solana config set --keypair ~/config/solana/devnet.json

Check your balance

solana balance

It should be 0Sol. Let's add some:

solana airdrop 3

How to upload

Uploading to Devnet

We are now ready to upload our collection to the devnet. If this is your first time I suggest starting with just two NFTs to test everything.
If you followed the guide you should have some images and json files ready. Create a folder called "assets". Insert two images and their respective json files. The image and json file names should start with 0 and count upwards. For example: 0.png, 0.json, 1.png, 1.json and so on. Move this folder into the Metaplex folder.
Now lets upload everything. Open a New Terminal:

~/metaplex/js/packages/cli/src/candy-machine-cli.ts upload ~/metaplex/assets --env devnet --keypair ~/config/solana/devnet.json

Copy and save the numbers and letters after "started at:" and "initialized config for a candy machine with publickey: "
You should now have a file name .cache. Copy the contents, create a new file in visual studio code and paste. Right click and choose formate document.

Website Creation

For this part we will use the Exiled Apes Candy Machine
Open a new terminal type in the following and click enter:

git clone https://github.com/exiled-apes/candy-machine-mint.git

You should now have a folder called "candy-machine-mint"
Install yarn:

cd candy-machine-mintyarn install

Open the candy-machine-mint folder with Visual Studio Code. Rename the .env.example folder to .env Inside the .env file you should see this

REACT_APP_CANDY_MACHINE_CONFIG=__PLACEHOLDER__REACT_APP_CANDY_MACHINE_ID=__PLACEHOLDER__REACT_APP_TREASURY_ADDRESS=__PLACEHOLDER__REACT_APP_CANDY_START_DATE=__PLACEHOLDER__REACT_APP_SOLANA_NETWORK=devnetREACT_APP_SOLANA_RPC_HOST=https://explorer-api.devnet.solana.com

We will replace the four "PLACEHOLDER" with the following in this order:

You will now click Terminal->New Terminal:

yarn start

A website should open here: localhost:3000/
Connect to Phantom, change to devenet in your wallet, and mint your NFT. (If you don't have Sol you can airdrop for free here. Just copy/paste your phantom wallet address)
If you succeeded it should you up in your collectibles.

Website Appearance

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//I will be adding this later

Host Website

(Back to Quick Navigation)
We are now ready to host the website.

Costs and other resources

Costs

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To put your NFTs on arweave, which is what we are using, you can calculate the costs in this calculator

Importing Wallets

If you want to use your File System Wallet with phantom you can check out this link

Resources

Here are some useful videos:

1. Generate 10,000NFTs: Freedom Fishies (This is a very complete guide)
2. Mint Website Creation (This is a good guide, but it doesn't mention a few things. I suggest watching it as a video guide to accompany this written one)
3. Spanish guide: Coleccin de NFTs
4. Metaplex Discord
5. Solana Discord
6. Levi Cook Metaplex Guide(Some things in this guide will be different for you. If you use it, I suggest reading the comments)
7. Metadata Standard
8. Solana and Metaplex FAQ