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Top 10 places for free textures and cut out people

Like free textures? Here we're going to take a look at a load of great providers that are giving away quality textures...

Like free textures? Here we're going to take a look at a load of great providers that are giving away quality textures...

There are tonnes of free resource repositories out there. It's worth checking them relatively regularly in case they have
posted new stuff

Creating a library of assets is absolutely essential for every 3D artist. You'll find that the bigger your library of material assets are, the more diverse you will be able to be when visualising. Also, the higher resolution that your texture assets are as well will enable you to yield much better quality results in your renderings. This is especially true for bump maps where you need that extra detail. 4k maps will stand up to scrutiny whereas less than 2k will rarely do the job. Obviously the better assets you want the more likely you will have to pay for them, but we'll hopefully explore a few places that can at least help us get started.

Textures

This is the updated version of cgtextures which has been a long standing stalwart in the textures market. They have a simple set of categories which make finding what you want quick and simple. The free versions are lower res than the paid for equivalents but often they are good enough. And if you need that extra detail then you can buy credits.

The interface is driven by a set of categories

All CG Textures

This is very similar to textures.com although the interface is quite a bit more dated, and the quality of textures is not quite as high. This wouldn't be the first place I would check but sometimes it comes up trumps and provides exactly what is required.

The navigation is a little clunky but it's fairly easy to understand

Mayang

I've used Mayang since I started in the industry over a decade ago. I've probably downloaded all of the textures at some point! They have well over 4,000 textures to download. There is a limit of 20 textures download per day but that's usually plenty if you download what you need when you need them.

Ignoring the ridiculously dated website, this is a fantastic resource

Architextur

This is a resource that I came across relatively recently but I've been incredibly impressed. They give away both textures and cut out people and the resolution and attention to detail is excellent. These are textures that you can truly trust and know they'll serve you well in your visualisation projects.

The menu gives you access to both standard textures and cut out people

Free stock textures

This website has a fantastic search feature which is great if you know what you're looking for. If you just want to browse through then this website leaves a lot to be desired! They do however have a strong range of imagery which you'll no doubt find incredibly beneficial.

Their search results show results from Shutterstock which is annoying, but it is a free resource after all!

Swtextures

This is more of a blog style repository that is worth checking every so often for new content. There are categories on the RHS for easier navigation. The actual textures are high resolution and perfect for architectural visualisation.

This website is blog based although they haven't seemingly posted any content since 2013

Tony Textures

This is quite a random website although it's well worth a look for the range of high resolution imagery that it provides. They even have a grunge and dirt category which is perfect for creating those blend maps to add variation into your materials.

Navigate to the 4,000 free textures and have your fill of photographs!

Skalgubbar

This is an absolutely brilliant resource for cut out people. I love stumbling across these sort of resources because they are absolutely top notch. They have a wide range of cut out people which are perfect for dropping into your visualisation projects. They seem to have everything including a woman climbing on top of an elephant. Random!

This beautifully simple website is a joy to navigate round

Vizpeople

Vizpeople don't have a huge amount of stuff but what they lack in quantity they most definitely make up for in quality. They've got some brilliant cut out people that I've used in many visualisation projects. They've even got a free cut out kid's collection which definitely comes in handy.

Navigate to their free stuff section to see what cut out people they've got

Cut out people

This website is horrible but it does have some really good cut out people available for download. If you can put up with being on a horrible website to navigate then you'll most definitely find this website helpful. I'm not entirely sure why they've made it so difficult to get around but the necessary content is there all the same.

They even have cut out animals which are well worth a look!

Placing cut out people

Cut out people can either make or break a visual. If they are done badly then oh my gosh, they ruin the visual. Unfortunately, so many people do them badly! There are some fantastic tutorials out there which are worth checking out for integrating cut out people into visuals. One word of advice I'll give right now is to render out a separate pass with boxes that represent people at the correct height. You can then simply use this render pass as a guide for placing your cut out people in Photoshop.

Related links

Top 10 places for free 3D models
Free textures on 3dtotal
Need more textures? Check out our repository in the shop

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