Software - Free 3d Textures

This is by no means a
complete list .

As I run across others
I'll add them to the list.

If you have a favourite
that isn't here, please
feel free to submit the
link using our Contact
Page.

Website Links

This site has a licensed
software for free every
day - the licenses are
provided by the
manufacturers, but
you must download,
install and register it
on the day it is listed.

Pac's Portal

A site that lists .exe
files found on your
computer, and whether
or not they are useful,
not necessary, or
malware.

Essential for any
security minded users.

Free Security Software

Antivirus

MALWARE REMOVERS

Emergency Antimalware Kit

HijackThis! by TrendMicro

Malwarebytes Malware Removal

Spybot Search & Destroy

ZONE ALARM FIREWALL

A range of free portable apps
that run from a thumb-drive!

Sourceforge - a huge
database of open source
software for users and
developers.

As with anything, PLEASE READ THE TERMS OF USE and Licensing for each thing you download. Just because it is free that doesn’t always mean you can use it for commercial outputs. I have not tried all of these personally, so I can’t give you recommendations on their functionality; the graphic/paint programs which I have used (some I still use for certain things) may have notations of my opinion on them, but it is just that, my own personal opinion.

Many of these are available for both Mac and PC, but you’ll have to go check at the link site yourself. Make sure you check the system requirements before you install anything (many older programs may not be compatible with WindowsXP or Vista), and be sure you have an up-to-date antivirus. I have accessed all of these links and downloads with no warnings, but it pays to be safe.

One last thing…if you use free software and find it useful, please donate to the creators (or upgrade to the paid version if they have one at reasonable cost) when you are able. Donations are how we can encourage free software makers to continue making the software free.

MINI ANIMATORS FOR ANIGIFS

Unfreez2 I have been using this since the days of “blinkies” – this is probably one of the tiniest programs – takes up no space and almost no memory and creates an animated gif. You need to have all your files ready to go when you use this. There is no time line, and not much in the way of control, so it’s not for those who use more sophisticated programs. It will, however, make a decent animated avatar.

Pivot by Peter Bone. A stick-figure animator. There is a sample on the homepage. Another very simple program to create small anigifs and and avatars. The first time I ever Tried this program it was called "Stickman". It's quite different than Unfreez in that you can animate the joints of the stick figures or other drawings and it's still rather simple to use. This is NOT like modern animators, but this little program is probably still worth trying cause it's just simple and quick to use. Click the software link to go to the download page.

GRAPHICS & PHOTO Editing

PaintStar – supports 30+ file formats, image morphing, full editing/graphic tools, supports layers and multiple paths, create brushes, and supports larger images. It's somewhat similar to Paint.Net but appears to have a few different capabilities. This is one of the programs I haven't tried or even downloaded, but it looks pretty similar to most software that does this sort of thing with a selection of brush styles and shapes and colour palettes. Freeware.

GimPhoto & GimPad GimPhoto is a GIMP modification with a new menu layout, a great selection of plugins, and many additional resources for a more professional look and feel in a digital photo retouching and image editing application package. It more closely resembles the look of Photoshop. Those interested mainly in photo editing and retouching might find this open source software fits their needs as well any paid program. At a cost of zero dollars, it's probably worth trying it out.

Portable Gimp You can run this version of GimpShop from a thumb drive, or cd/dvd instead of installing it. Be sure to read the installation info – you will need to download at least one other file if you want the interface to look like Photoshop. There is a third file that gives you the PS background window, however, I did not download this. I recently got this Portable Gimp for my new laptop (already own two versions of CS (2 & 3) for different computers, so I can’t afford another version for a travel computer (particularly when I don’t plan to do much editing on it). The laptop has Vista Home Premium on it, and this portable version with PS GUI file installed seems to work just fine.

For anyone interested in other “portable” applications, the “PortableApps”: site has a goodly number. You can find the page here. These are all freeware or open source, and it includes the Mac OS (an older version – see Mac-on-a-stick).

Photobie and Photobie Studio - Both versions are free. There are also helpful forums and tutorials on the site, as well as a vast array of resources for using this. Truly worth a look for anyone interested in something different and with a reasonable amount of good features. At one point I did download this one to try it out, but with limited time I haven't really given it a good trial, but I have recommended it to a few people to try and they seemed to be reasonably happy with it.

Ivy Generator – not really an editing program, but it generates fairly realistic ivy for use in your 3D rendering - it exports .obj files that you can import to your 3D renderer, and once you render the ivy you can export a .jpg file for use with collages or other imaging software. The very first version I found of this ivy generator seemed to be a lot simpler to use than this current version, but I would think that this would be an excellent addition to the software-stable for anyone who does 3D work. The results can be excellent from this.

Artrage2 (free version & paid version is only $25 – freeware version is somewhat limited but good for basic art) If you find you like it, then you can upgrade to the Studio or Pro versions later. And it looks like they're working on a version to use on iPad. I haven't used this program in a long time, but some time back in it's earlier stages I did try it - while it wasn't what I was looking for at the time, since I've moved into doing more work in the digital painting arena, I might try to find the time to take another look at this one.

Artweaver (decent simple painting program with variety of drawing styles and supports layers and transparency – good for creating patterns and texture). This one has a upgrade to ARtweaver Plus, which also allows you to install filters created for PHotoshop - at 29 euros, that's not a bad if you really like the program. This is another one that I tried in it's early stages and haven't revisited in a long time. It's interface looks much like the older versions of Photoshop, and just about every other similar program - the benefit here of course is that they have a free version. The freeware version is free, but if you want to try the plus version there is a 14 day free trial.

Cenon for mac or linux (haven’t used this since it won’t work on PC, but it looks interesting and I’d love to try it)

Gimp (one of the most powerful open source image editors with an interface and functions similar to Photoshop). The is probably one of THE most popular free alternatives to Photoshop and many who have used both this and photoshop actually prefer Gimp. I personally do not, but to give it a fair shake, I'd have to say that I haven't really used this since it's early days. Back then the interface was sort of non-intuitive and not very user friendly, and the tool sets were a little clunky. Since then, it has evolved many times over into being a pretty close match to Adobe's Photoshop. It probably has the most potential of all other software to meet or exceed the number of users that Photoshop draws.

ImageMagick - this is another one I have never used, but looks as though it could be useful once you've got the hang of it.

Inkscape Vector Graphics program (a bit of a learning curve with this; similar in function to Adobe Illustrator) Anyone just starting out in vector-based graphics who doesn't want to spend the exhorbitant sum for Illustrator will find this program somewhat useful for providing a decent learning experience. After learning the ins and outs of vector design, you may decide to spend the money for illustrator, but for a free program that will teach a lot about vectors, this one isn't too bad.

Paint.net (drawing and paint program; supports layers) This software has won numerous awards and is pretty full-bodied for a fee software. You'll also find forums and tutorials available for using it. For a long time now, paint.net has been the "go-to" alternative for Microsoft Paint (which comes with windows and is extremely basic) and for those who have difficulty with Gimp and can't or won't pay for Adobe Photoshop. I personally haven't used this one, but I know hundreds of people (and even a couple of artists and designers) who rely on this program.

Pixarra’s Twisted Brush Free Edition - this in an art program rather an a photo editing type program, but it's got some interestesting features. When you get to the download page, make sure you pick the "Open Studio" version - that's the free one.

Pixia Drawing & Painting - Pixia is a pixel based graphics program that was originally created in Japanese, but is available in English or German Versions. There are also downloads available for additional filters, a plugin for photoshop filters and even a download for creating your filters for pixia. There are other versions of Pixia available in Korean, Spanish, Hungarian, Chinese, French and Police, but according to the website these other language versions won't be updated any longer. As well, Pixia has a "brother" software called Phierha, though there is very little information available on the site.

Photofiltre – this version is free and does not support layers, the studio version is 29 euros (the studio version supports layers and transparency and has many functions similar to Photoshop). I have used both of these versions and actually paid out the fees for the studio version. While I use photoshop almost exclusively now, PhotoFiltre Studio's low price and high functionality made it a reasonable choice when back when I was starting out. It has a few built in functions that are similar to Photoshop Elements - adding photo frames and masks is made pretty simple in this editor, and you can do almost as much as you can with an older version of Photoshop. They also have many plug-ins and add-ons available for this software, so you'll find this a rather complete software, even though it's free.

The creators of PhotoFiltre also offer some other fun freeware programs - Photo Black & Color is a small program that allows you to desaturate parts of an image while keeping other parts in color (selective desaturation); Reflet allows you to animate a photo with water effect waves - very simple with only this one purpose, but for those who just gotta have a moving picture, you might find this one handy. Photo Mosaique is another of their offerings which is simple to use and listed under their freeware section. It creates a true mosaic type image from your photo - nicely done, but since mosaic style images should be viewed at a distance and printed fairly large, you'll really have to try it and print one for yourself.

Project Dogwaffle Free Version - a rather interesting freeware program for graphics drawing and creation with some unique "hoses" or "brushes" - anyone looking for a little fun might try this one out. I have upgraded to some of the paid versions available from these guys. Their particle programs are simply fun to use and create interesting textures and backgrounds, and for me...well the fun part is why I bought it.

Serif DrawPlus - drawing and graphics. I personally haven't used this program, but I know of a few folks who do, so while it is probably a pretty basic vector program, it appears to be somewhat easier (so I've been told) to use than some of the other free vector softwares. One thing I'll note - Serif offers previous versions of many of their softwares for free, but I've never had any reall success using them.

Skencil Vector Graphics- vector graphics creator

Smooth Draw Nx - this is a drawing program for free-hand drawing and painting and can use many types of brush files. It does include some retouching tools, and has the capability to support layers and will work with graphic tablets as well. That's one thing for artists to beware of with free drawing and editing programs - if you use a tablet and pen you'll want to check the specifications before you download and install the program. Not all free software has the capability of working with your tablet, so take a few minutes and check that before you install the software.

MobaPhoto – not an image editor or paint program, but useful to create image galleries for websites. It does have some image editing capabilities, but is not really full-bodied or feature rich for editing photos or drawing. It's chief interest for me is the simple gallery functions, and the fact that you can run it from a USB stick if you choose the portable version.

Irfanview - is really designed is an image viewer, but is also a simple editor without a lot of fuss, but it can batch process images in a snap if you need to do something simple like resize all the images in a folder. I've seen this program resize 200 images from 3000 pixels on it's longest side to 500 pixels on it's longest side in less than a minute. That's a lot quicker than photoshop can do it using actions. You can also batch ad framing to images by selecting the number of pixels around each side (all four sides can be set the same number of pixels, or different ones) and selecting the color you want, and it will run through a folder of images adding the framing. It's basic framing, but fast and good for presentation. Irfan view has a simple set of filters you can apply to your images and very minimal image editing functions like cropping, gamma corrections, sharpening, etc. The tool set is minimal as well, but this is my second most used piece of imaging software for a number of reasons. The batch processing is one reason, but this software will also play swf files, mp3 files, and can open almost more image formats than any other software. You can also use it to set any image as desktop wallpaper, create a slideshow on your computer, view the images in folders using the slideshow...on and on. For a freeware program it has a lot of utility functions - just not a ton of editing functions. It will, however, use many 8bF filters, and there are a lot of 8bF filters out there in web-world that are free. It's definitely worth the download. Make sure you download all the additional plugins to make the most of this software. On the site, they also have a fairly long list of other imaging websites that you might find interesting and a list of freeware sites.

Virtual Photographer & Virtual Photographer Studio - this is an awesome plugin for photoshop, but there's also a stand-alone studio version. Both are free. The plugin for photoshop contains virtually the same set of filters that come in Tiffin's DfX filters (quite expensive) - although Tiffin's has a great deal more than just effects, in their special effects section many of the filters are almost identical to these filters. I have been using virtual photographer since I started editing digital images and wouldn't hesitate to recommend it to anyone. One really intersting thing is that this software will run on older operating systems like Windows 98, ME or Win2000, and it runs on Windows XP and Vista (32-bit). This is truly one of the best sets of filters you can find for free in one package - whether you use the stand-alone studio, or grab the plugin for photoshop (only compatible with PS CS4 and OLDER - anyone using newer version of photoshop will need to use the stand-alone version). Oh - and don't forget to grab all the extra free filter packs for it, and be sure to check their examples page to see what you can do with this.