2BitBros

serGMI.eth
4 min readJun 28, 2023

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We’re all bros. Always have been.

A generative pixel art PFP-NFT collection by serGMI.eth

NOTE — FLIPPED TO FREE MINT on December 2nd, 2023, but left original text below.

Yes, it’s about freaking time — this is just after my 2-year crypto/NFT/ENS/ethereum blockchain anniversary. I have aged no more than 11 years. Spring 2023 was it, and we are just getting into 2BitBro Summer now. Feels good, bro. So, I finally decided to run this calculation:

(to-date blockchain learnin’) X (creative itch) = giant generative PFP NFT project entitled “2BitBros”

“2BitBros” — the name explained in revealing detail:

***2 bits = 25 cents (minting for ~$0.25 USD/ “cheap”). Also alludes to low resolution imagery. Inspired by the term “2 bit punk”, but everybody knows the blockchain is no place for punks. Beside that — we are all bros (always have been).

Bros = the plural form of bro.

…That’s about it, bro.

Oh ya — it’s art (bro).

Always learning, trying new stuff. I’ve been a photoshop bro since 1995 (doxxing my old ass here) — that was grade 10 “Computer Graphics” class. Holy shit — that’s 28 freaking years, bro… oh god. This entire collection was made from scratch using only photoshop to create every single layer manually, then the generative art layer combo engine provided for free by heymint.xyz. Not bragging — pixel art isn’t rocket surgery, but it sure is fun!

I specifically tried to avoid directly copying traits from other collections on the chain, but there is inevitably a bit of familiar overlap that creeps in. Obvious things like certain sun glasses are definitely universally similar when working with limited pixels. I didn’t reference or intentionally study any collections directly while designing traits other than to make sure certain designs weren’t ending up being an exact copy.

FYI zombies are played out, vampires are cool (and look rare 👀).

Speaking of pixels, I opted for a 32 x 32 dimension limit. Famous PFP collections like CryptoPunks and Nakamigos are both 24 x 24 pixels. Obviously I’m not the only one, but I’ve worked with 32 x 32 in the past on smaller initial work like 80s a-holes (animated, 13 — 1/1 manual gifs) and I really like the tiny bit extra freedom those extra 8 pixels give. That said, any relatively small limit is a larger challenge than most might realize when trying to make imagery that is both recognizable and as original as possible.

Issue of RACE

What am I a bit anxious about? Not too much. Oh ya — except that I named all the 10 regular human skin colors/genders after the fastest A-list celebrities I could google 😆. 5 bros, 5 girl-bros. Not full names, just short versions. And not from every single “definable race” either, so this could be interesting. I just wanted to represent a general full range of natural skin colors without making waaaay too many and found this to be a fun way to do it.

I would guess that many creators before me have struggled a bit with how to handle being race inclusive, or avoided the topic all together. We saw with Nakamigos the “type” trait being named after foods that sort of matched the skin shade (ie. “Type: Human Pumpkin Spice”). Obviously many have opted for ZERO real skin color representation at all by using 1 generic skin color, or lots of fake ones, etc.

I sampled 5 colors each for both men and women directly from googled pictures, so there are 2 slightly differing sets of about the same general skin-tone range used for all these bros. I have just labelled the trait “body”.

Real/working (ruff, bro) documented sample results right here:

…and just registered 2bitbros.eth (June 23, 2023), so it’s official now.

…and just “stealth” launched the mint June 27th around mid-day.

Ya — You’re welcome 😆

I’ve got to say I’ve never had so much just pure FUN making art. Was always so excited to sit down and start flipping colored squares on and off, with completely endless possibilities at my finger tips and ZERO specific plan set about what traits had to be done, or what to copy, or pressure to meet a certain expectation. Just pure fun right to the end! Not to say there weren’t MAJOR challenges along the way regardless — but those were expected and came together just fine, almost all having to do with how to make multiple cross-over trait exceptions WORK for generating 8,888 unique PFPs process to the end without critical errors that kyboshed to whole thing causing a TON of work to be undone, rethought, redone, all without being 100% sure that the process would NOW FINALLY make it to the end. So happy I stuck it out! SO WORTH IT!

Hope you guys like them. We’re all Bros, always have been.

🤜💥🤛

Mint link (primary sale): https://launchpad.heymint.xyz/mint/2bitbros

Open Sea link (secondary sales): https://opensea.io/collection/2bitbros

…and i’m @serGMI_eth on Twitter.

gm, and gn

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serGMI.eth
serGMI.eth

Written by serGMI.eth

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