Links
Links
Hi and welcome to the Goodtextures links page. The idea for creating this page derives partly from my experiences gained over the years working as an Environment artist, and partly as a means of helping people who are perhaps new to the world of CG by showing some of the mainstream programs currently available.
This list will only display "Free no strings attached" links to various resources, tutorials and websites covering a small glimpse of the many different disciplines out there.
I have personally checked all of the links listed below, and to the best of my knowledge all offer free services. Some of the websites listed require you to register beforehand, but there are no hidden costs or bills involved.
Games Engines and Editors
Unreal Engine and Editor
Unreal Engine is a suite of integrated tools for game developers to design and build games, simulations, and visualizations.
Unity Engine and Editor
Unity is a cross-platform game engine developed by Unity technologies and used to develop video games for PC, console, mobile devices and websites.
Job Exchange
Jooble
Jooble is a job search engine and aggregator. It`s like a Google or Yahoo search engine, but only for jobs. This search engine enables you to look for jobs on the major job boards and career sites across the United States all in one place. Jooble automatically filters out duplicated jobs, so similar jobs, posted on several career sites, are shown as a single one. Its primary goal is to help people find the right job in minutes and save their time and energy. With this search engine, you can find absolutely any job, including Graphic Designer jobs.
HDRI / Environment Maps
HDRI Haven
HDRI Haven is a great website which offers 100% free environment maps up to 16k to anyone who wants them. The site is very well laid out with a huge selection of different maps to choose from ranging from indoor, skies and outdoor scenes. Definitely worth taking a look.
3D Modeling Scripts / Plugins
Highend 3D
Highend 3D is an amazing website I discovered from watching a tutorial on hard surface modeling recently. There you can find and download a great number of Maya, 3ds Max and other program related scripts and plugins free of charge. These scripts and plugins are really great and I have found some of them to be extremely useful in helping to speed up my work flow ( I work with Maya). The site also has a large tutorial section which is also very good. You will have to signup for an account before being able to download anything. I can definitely recommend taking a look.
Concept / 2D Resource Sites
Art Station
This is a really fantastic site and one of my all time favourite places to visit. It is jammed pack with extremely talented and creative artists. If you are just looking for inspiration or want to post your own work here, then I can definitely recommend taking a look.
Deviant Art
I don't think there are many people left who have not heard about DeviantArt. This site is absolutely gigantic and offers everyone the opportunity of uploading and showcasing their image based work. There must literally be millions of images to search through. Highly recommended site.
CG Society
CG Society is a platform for Artists of all levels wishing to upload and showcase their work. The community here is without a doubt fantastic and is more than helpful and willing to give good objective advice. CG Society is an excellent site and comes highly recommended.
Good Tutorials
Back in the day when I first began working as a texture artist, I would frequently visit good-tutorials in search of tutorials to help me improve my Photoshop skills. Since then the site has drastically expanded and now offers a vast amount of tutorials ranging from Maya to Photoshop and HTML. All in all a great site well worth taking a look.
Fonts / Brushes
Brushlovers
Brushlovers as the title suggests, offers a huge selection of high quality brushes. You can also find a great number of different patterns, styles, gradients, and vectors. The site is very easy to navigate through and definitely gets a thumbs up from me.
1001 Free Downloads
1001freedownloads offers a gigantic number of great brushes, fonts, wallpapers, vectors, patterns and much more. Everything listed here is free to download and use and this site is well worth taking a peek.
1001 Fonts
1001fonts.com is a very nice, clean and professional site. The site is very easy to navigate through and it has got a lot of high quality fonts to offer.
Simply The Best
Simply the best offer a wide range of different fonts. There is not too much one can say about it really, apart that it is an excellent source for fonts. As the saying goes "Does what it says on the tin"
Game Related Media
Gamasutra
Gamasutra is a great site offering a great insight into the world of game development. There are a myriad of articles ranging from studio developers to artists, programmers and audio designers. There is also a job listing section as well as an in depth section on Indie game development. Basically a must for everyone working in or interested in computer games.
Polycount
Polycount is a jolly good forum for anyone interested in computer graphics or computer games. There is a massive selection of different topics to choose from. It is also possible to showcase your 3D / 2D work or just discuss technical problems. All in all, Polycount is a very professional and well thought out platform.
Sketchfab - The Place to be for 3D
Sketchfab is a very impressive platform for anyone wishing to showcase his or her CG related work. The great thing is, you can upload and view your 3D work in realtime. The site is very well designed and an absolute pleasure to use.
3D Modeling / Sculpting
Blender
Blender is a free and open source creation suite. It supports the whole 3D pipeline from modeling to rigging, animation, rendering, compositing and motion tracking.
CG Masters - Free Tutorials
CG Masters is a wonderful site offering lots of free tutorials. The tutorials cover a wide range of topics but mostly using Blender. Although I have never used Blender before, I have however looked at some of their tutorials and was very impressed with the quality.
Texturing / Mapping
Allegorithmic - Substance Painter / Designer
I know this list should contain links only to free software and resourses. Allegorithmic I feel is an exception to the rule. Substance Painter and Designer are without a doubt fantastic programs. These programs are quickly becoming the industry standard with regards to texture creation of computer game assets. They use a PBR pipeline which, with a bit of practise can be utilized to quickly create gorgeous looking surfaces. They currently have very good offers for their various packages.
Web and Design Resources
Freestock - Free web and design resources to supply your projects
Freestock is a very handy site containing lots of links to other resource sites. The categories listed range from textures to code and pretty much everything that could be of interest to any budding artist or coder. The website is fairly new and as such is constantly being updated.
