My Freebies #7 – Image Textures – Misc.
Here is group #7 of seamless / tile-able image textures for your own use, from myself.
#1, stone tile floor, 2K
#2, aged painted metal, 2K
#3, concrete chess board, 1K
#4 billiard table felt, 1K
#5, human skin sample, 1K
Feel free to use these for your personal or commercial projects, whatever you want.
Enjoy!
My Freebies #6 – Image Textures – Pavement
Here is group #6 of seamless / tile-able image textures for your own use, from myself (concrete, asphalt). All image textures here are 2K in size.
Feel free to use these for your personal or commercial projects, whatever you want.
Enjoy!
Offsite Resources – Free Vectors – Site List
What is a Vector? The short-ish answer is, it is an image that doesn’t have pixels like pretty much every other image but uses basic shapes such as points, lines, curves, and shapes or polygons, to represent images.
It’s kinda the same thing when you are reading text in a text editor (ms word, notepad, etc), those letters are not made out of pixels but shapes and those “shapes” can be very small or massively huge depending on what font size you choose, yet whether your letters are tiny or huge, the edges of the fonts look consistently good. It’s the same thing with image vectors, they are not (usually) as complex as a photograph, yet the vector image can be printed out small on a business card or gigantic on a roadside billboard and its quality will be the same.
Vectors are widely used in almost all types of print work that you see but they are also used a great deal in 2D art and even to a small extent in 3D as some 3D programs can import a vector and translate that into a outline mesh object. The artistic use of vectors can be simple or complex no matter whether they are for a postcard, a poster print or a t-shirt.
Programs for Vector work:
There are a few out there but imo, what it mainly comes down to is this;
The retail route – which would be Adobe Illustrator. It is the industry standard for Vector creation and editing. Yet, since anything Adobe costs quite a bit…
The freeware route – Imo, would be Inkscape, a great piece of free software for Vector work.
Below, I will list out some sites in which you can also download some free Vector files in which to load up and play around with;
Go Media : Arsenal – These guys have the cool factor down pat. They are an agency that creates vector art for companies, they also publicly sell inexpensive (and cool) vector packs and as the link I give you there will show you, they also give away various free items. Also, check out Go Media Tutorial Videos over at Vimeo, the link will lead to a handful of videos on vectors, but be sure to check out all of Go Media’s video’s, as they have nearly 70 video’s on various subjects.
Go Media : Zine – An even better, larger selection of free vectors from Go Media.
123vectors - Free Vectors
Vector 4 Free – Free Vectors
Free Vector - Free Vectors
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Specky Boy – Links to 20 sites that have free vectors.
Hongkiat- Links to 50 sites that have free vectors.
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Smashing Magazine – 20 Vector Editing programs reviewed. They review both free and retail programs, but there are more than a few freeware’s listed, along with versions for various operating systems. (Mac, Linux, Web Based, etc.)
When I find anymore applicable sites, I’ll link them in here. If you have any link suggestions, feel free to email them to me at kirkdunne@yahoo.com
My Freebies #5 – Image Textures – Ground
Here is group #5 of seamless / tile-able image textures for your own use, from myself. Image texture #4 is 1k and all the rest are 2k in size.
Feel free to use these for your personal or commercial projects, whatever you want.
Enjoy!
Offsite Resources – 3D Programs – Site List
This will be my repository for all my links to the various 3D software that is out there.
I’ll list as much freeware as possible but I’ll also list the retail software you should check out.
There are actually a ton of 3D freeware out there and a lot of it is pretty dated, I will try and list only the more modern, useful and/or unique programs.
Freeware:
Blender – Probably the most known and used of 3D freeware. It is a “full package” 3D program, meaning it can model, rig, shade, uv unwrap, texture, render and animate. Basically, everything, for free.
Studio – By Daz3D, it is the free posing program for their extensive library of various 3D models. Daz3D Freebie models available Right Here.
Wings – Popular subdivision polygonal modeling program.
Plant Studio – An older retail program that now has been made free to the public. Use it to create 3D models of grass, flowers, weeds, and herb plants.
Bryce 7 PLE (Personal Learning Edition) – Eternal Bryce, now in its seventh version!
I will be adding more links as I find them.
If you have any suggestions, feel free to email them to me at kirkdunne@yahoo.com
My Freebies #4 – Image Textures – Tree Bark
Here is group #4 of seamless / tile-able image textures for your own use, from myself. All image textures here are 2K in size.
Feel free to use these for your personal or commercial projects, whatever you want.
Enjoy!
Offsite Resources – Image Textures – Site List
Image textures! Sooner or later, almost no matter what you do in either 2D or 3D CGI, you will want to gather some image textures to use in your creations.
These are some of the sites I go to to grab textures, some are huge sites, others are small but just keep looking until you find what you need.
I have NO doubt that I have way more links backed up elsewhere. As I sift through them and find more, I’ll add them into this post.
Now, in no particular order (Order? Who needs order?), are my links, copied right out of my Firefox faves;
*Those entries in bold are must-see collections.
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Google Image Search – Man, have I ever embraced this as a starting point to find image textures. Especially after visiting all the other sites, this is a great way
to find new textures you’ve never seen before or when you are looking for something obscure that most sites don’t have (cracked glass, circuit board, etc).
- 3D Total – Very worthwhile and large collection.
- Mayang’s Free Texture Library – When looking for a texture, I always check here.
- CG Textures – They now require registration and only allow 15mb of downloads a day but still worth it, they have great quality textures.
- High Resolution Textures – blog format site with unique textures.
- Textures Forrest CZ : Textures Library – Don’t let the url fool you, they have many types of textures, not just “forests”.
- Texture Online
- Texture King
- My Photoshop Textures
- Design Mag : 2,000 Absolutely Free Textures
- Browsing Textures on deviantART
- Текстуры / фактуры – Russian site with some cool textures and a lot more links to more texture sites at the bottom of the page.
- Zen Textures
- Texture Lovers
- Trójmiasto- Scans of older maps.
- luGher Texture
- Photoshop Textures
- Lune Rouge
- Smashing Apps : 21 Collections Of Free Textures
- Psdtuts+ : Free Textures
- Best Design Options
- PSD Graphics
- Design Shard : Freebies
- Texture Warehouse
- Amazing Textures – Download medium resolution immediately or grab hi-res versions after a free registration.
- Davegh - Artist that created textures for a video game and after he never got paid, he is offering them all online (these are not photo textures, but hand-painted ones)
- Texture Bin 342
- Mega-Tex
- Smashing Magazine : 100 Free Textures
- Lost and Taken
More to come as I find them in my piles of favorites!
If you have any link suggestions, feel free to email them to me at kirkdunne@yahoo.com
My Freebies #3 – Image Textures – Metal
Here is group #3 of seamless / tile-able image textures for your own use, from myself.
Textures #1 – #3, all 2k in size.
Textures #3 (1k) and #4 (2k) were created solely in Photoshop.
Color/Diffuse map and Transparency/Alpha map.
Feel free to use these for your personal or commercial projects, whatever you want.
Enjoy!
Offsite Resources – 2D Programs – Site List
What I’m mainly going to do here is start listing any freeware 2D programs.
I’ll also make a list of retail 2D programs here, yet my main goal is to list those programs that would help out the 2D artist that doesn’t have much or anything to spend.
Lets begin;
Gimp – This is the main piece of freeware that rivals Photoshop. It actually does pretty much whatever you need, for free. Photoshop obviously has more advanced
abilities but Gimp does all the basics and a lot more than you would think, especially for being freeware. If you can’t afford Photoshop, Gimp is an absolute must-have, period.
Inkscape – Imo, this is the main freeware that rivals Illustrator for vector creation/editing. Must-have if you want to work in vector’s and you don’t have Illustrator.
Irfanview – This is the one and only image viewer I have used on all my computers for the last 15 years!
I’ve tried other image viewers but Irfanview is light, quick, and does way, WAY more than just displaying images.
Context Free – This is a cool little program that will create various code-generated images. There are tons of code presets to download and use. It’s kinda hard to explain, better to go look for yourself.
Freeware programs that work with HDRI (High Dynamic Range Images)
*While HDRI’s have been for use inside of 3D programs for creating lighting schemes, they are worth mentioning in this post. Here are a few that I believe to be a must-have.
HDRShop – This program will perform a number of operations to HDRI’s, most importantly converting to a different layout.
HDRView – A quick and lightweight HDRI viewer. Allows you to bring up an HDRI with just a double-click in explorer.
XnView – One of the few programs that can make thumbnails of your HDRI’s for easier reference and management.
I would highly recommend this as a great freeware program not only for your HDRI’s but for cataloging any and all of your images.
Retail 2D Programs – Check individual sites for demo’s (at this time, they all do)
Adobe Photoshop – The standard in 2D image editing programs.
Adobe Illustrator – The standard in Vector creation and editing programs.
Corel Painter – Can imitate very realistic looking traditional media (paint, pencils) It has been the king of painting for years yet it does have a bit of a steep price at $430.00
Artrage – The rival to Corel Painter and its version 3.0 is a very worthy contender, especially priced at only $80.00 – They even have a version for your iPad.
Thumbsplus – This is the cataloging and management software I have used for absolutely all my images for the past 15 years, love it.
ACDSee – Another great image cataloging and management program, widely used.
As always, if I ever think of any more or find new programs I’ll update this list.
If you have any suggestions, feel free to email them to me at kirkdunne@yahoo.com
My Freebies #2 – Image Textures – Nature
Here is group #2 of seamless / tile-able image textures for your own use, from myself.
Texture #1 is a leafy ground cover and the textures #2 – #5 are grass. All are 2k each in size.
Leaf #1 is off a tree outside my place. Yup, its from a tree even though it looks like a fern. 2K in size.
Color/Diffuse map and Transparency/Alpha map.
Leaf #2 is a scan of a Skeleton Leaf.
*Warning, these are BIG images! Both are 4k in size. (4,096 x 4,096 – 4.7mb each)
Color/Diffuse map and Transparency/Alpha map.
Feel free to use these for your personal or commercial projects, whatever you want.
Enjoy!
Offsite Resources – Free Stock Images – Site List
In creating either 2D or 3D CGI artwork, one must collect a number of resources images in which to reference the real world. If you want to paint or model say Machu Picchu, you are going to need to know what it looks like.
These are the free sites I use for finding reference photos. Not image textures per-say but photos to use as inspiration on a starting point.
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Google Image – Get imaginative with your keywords that you use in your search, the whole world is out there.
Deviant Art – This will take you to their Stock Images section, use the subcategories or the search option.
*Note: Using Deviant Art’s search option will only show up to 1,000 results, maximum. (no way around this, not even with a paid membership).
Flickr – Awesomely huge searchable database but as with all these sites, do mind any copyright wishes the photographers request.
Freerange – Free stock image site, requires free registration (worth it).
Stockvault – Free stock image site, requires free registration (worth it).
Stock.chng – Free stock image site, requires free registration (worth it).
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This list is a preliminary one, as I remember more useful sites or run across any new ones I will come back to this post and add them on.
If you have any suggestions, feel free to email them to me at kirkdunne@yahoo.com
My Freebies #1 – Image Textures – Stone
Here are five seamless / tileable image textures for your own use from myself.
Stone textures #’s 1, 4 and 5 are 2K, and #’s 1 and 3 are 1K in size.
Feel free to use these for your personal or commercial projects, whatever you want.
Enjoy!
