A small xmas Dies Natalis Solis Invicti gift for you, my friends. The first of many lists of places where you can gather those all important free resources you’ve been hearing about, so you don’t go being all thief-like and such. So here I present resources for a variety of different media, use some of these, use all of these, whatever you want. Some of you may already know of these sites, mainly because these are well-known sites, but hey, because I’m listing so many different places, maybe there’s even something new for you. Besides that, this is my first free resources list, my following lists will contain slightly more obscure places even you might not know about. If you think I missed something or have something to add yourself, then by all means use that little commenting system thingy I have down there. Use my thingy!
Note: Some of these places require you to sign up (for free) and all that, but if I post the site here, it’s worth it.
I’d like to start the unwrapping with a deliciously large collection of free high quality Photoshop brushes, courtesy of Qbrushes.
Some examples for you:
- Some crazy high resolution Watercolour Brushes
- Because digital art imitates non-digital art: Pencil Traces
- And because we all like to get dirty now and then, good old fashioned Splatters
Next up under the tree for you is my favorite stock photography site, stock.xchng. They sometimes show paid-for images alongside the free stuff. This is always labeled, so keep your eyes open so you don’t fall into the trap! Also, make sure to read and adhere to the author’s rights.
Hey look, specific examples once more:
- Snowboarding!
- You can sit on it, and you can take it with you, but it would be a bit awkward to carry.
- And for those whore are feeling a little morbid…
And now it’s time for… Textures! Useful for both the image manipulators and the 3d fans among us. You can find a ton of great textures at CG Textures. I’m not a fan of the design of the site, but content is king, and this site is even used by large game development studios. To keep their bandwidth from being completely eaten up you get a 15MB per 24 hours quota, but as long as you’re not going texture crazy that shouldn’t be a problem.
So, want some examples?
- Let’s continue the morbidity with a rather large stack of bones.
- If you’re feeling a little bit more alive, here’s some fresh green grass.
- And last but not least, let us get oxidized with some less fresh rust.
For those who like to use their ears more than their eyes, here’s some free sound effects and such brought to you by The Freesound Project.
Here’s a sample (get it? HAH!) of what they have to offer:
- Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it’s a helicopter!
- Close your eyes and relax, because it’s time for a relaxing evening in the forest…
- …and after that it’s time for WAR!
That’s it for now, because I have to keep you guys hungry for more!
As always, honor the creators of these works who give it to you for free, and pay good mind to the licenses and rights of the the works and authors, it’s only fair.
Also, if you use any of these particular resources in any of your work and you’d like to show it off, give me a heads up, I love to share.
5 Comments
Hi! I’m reading all of the series posts of ‘You suck’ and bla bla.. I disagree with you in this post… Since I’ve working with the computer in digital creations, i feel that the ‘free resources’ are the same that the tutorials, i mean, you can do your own Photoshop textures, you can do your own Photoshop brushes, patterns, etc, and by the way you can (if you have a good Camera) learn to take your own photographs for that incredible photo manipulations around the web. My point here is, incentivate the people to do his own art with all the tools possible. I often feel like this form of art doesn’t belong to anybody, don’t misunderstand me, there are INCREDIBLE and AMAZING and TALENT people out there… but what for Leo DaVinci write his books of color theories, and Andrew Loomis his excelent books to draw the human figure?
Peace
GABO
Hah.. sorry about my fucked up English, it’s not my first tongue
@GABO You make a very, very good point. I usually try to create everything myself as well. The problem is that not everyone has the ability or the time to create everything themselves, and this blog especially focused on amateurs, for whom that is pretty likely. Also, people might just not have access to certain things to be able to do everything themselves, like not being able to afford a camera, for example. I still agree with you though that at the very least people shouldn’t rely on free resources too much, and at the very most you should make everything yourself. Thanks a lot for replying, I appreciate the input.
Yes Jeremy, the thing here is, not to be so much time hooked up with the free resources. I’ve been hooked with the PS Brushes in the beginning, but when i discover that the brushes aren’t a thing out of this planet, that is something anyone can do, i left the PS Brushes. And the most important: The PhotoShop engine brush are a VERY POWERFUL and CUSTOMIZABLE, even with the default brushes.
And i think that affirmation-positive-thought works for everything in the life. People usually says, when looking a good piece, ‘i can’t do that thing ever in my life’. It’s not true. If a human can do that, you can do that. But yes, i forget the crucial, most important thing in our lives: TIME..
Well, for that problem nobody has a cure, the only thing here to do is, learn, read, practice as much as you can, read the same thing from differents places and from differents points of view, that can helps a lot… And be your best critic, think that when you have finished your job, you are just starting it…
GABO
Oh, we’re on the same page there buddy. In fact, I don’t think I’ll be doing much free resource stuff anymore. The web is saturated with that enough as it is, and I want my blog to be different.