Free Knowledge

2dartist

To counter balance the gumroad thread I thought it'd be nice to have a repository of free resources and articles. If you have specific requests for reference I wouldn't be surprised if I could locate that for you too, then again it'd be better if you fostered your own ability to use google.

While videos and tutorials are nice the onus is on you to put the time in. No amount of lecture will supplement the act of doing.



///PROCESS VIDEOS

Tomscholes / idiotapathy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQyWwuFxjsA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=23_y60Gi8Jk

Redhong
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63Rg-KxTnK8

Fabien Mense
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-CGeEey144

MrJack
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fy84TKDIcIs

Artur Gimaldinov
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9JJe4WflqI

FoxOrion
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eePRkpt3c9s

Mikhail
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YORAu180GtI

Yakunosuke
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hol4w3m90vA

Christian
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BfDbNKvfw4U

Yoshikazu (Tsugumomo Mangaka)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yqqj07WnQqs

Sense Collective
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XmTklAeuT_4

Daniel Conway
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WAWbrDPTDnM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVpGQ0I8Clc

Florian
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLJrh2Qo1M0

Kawayoo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gO0L0803wpQ

Daniel C
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9TtgcWjrN4

Ben Mauro
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CPf1V-_Z6E8

Ryusuke Hamamoto
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBzWXo1LD4U

Kan Liu
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lCVtJO2hxVk

REIQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1EU5Kh9Y1A

Tuomas Korpi


Arrimus3D
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGxefHa-0Pc

Sergey Kolesov
https://vimeo.com/user4910584

Leventep
https://vimeo.com/user441775

West Studio (Various)
https://vimeo.com/weststudio


///ARTICLES & BLOGS

Animation Principles & Reference

• http://www.anitoonjapan.com/
• http://www.animatorisland.com/51-great-animation-exercises-to-master/
• http://www.anitoonjapan.com/
• http://www.rhinohouse.com/
• http://www.floobynooby.com/comp1.html
• http://listeningside.net/a_side00.html
• https://vimeo.com/groups/aniref

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQgODTeDBek

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-KtwW6eptM

Game design discussion and breakdowns
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FzOCkXsyIqo

Art / Level design - Awesomenauts
http://oogst3d.net/

Pixel art introduction & principles

• http://pixeljoint.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=11299
• http://www.pixel.schlet.net/
• http://gas13.ru/v3/tutorials/sywtbapa_almighty_grass_tile.php
• https://simonm-hunter.squarespace.com/tutorial/
• http://art-eater.com/2010/07/test-1-darkstalkers/

Fighting game spritesheets
http://www.fightersgeneration.com/main.htm

Roguelike Articles
http://www.roguebasin.com/index.php?title=Articles

General 3D / Leveldesign introductions
http://www.worldofleveldesign.com/

Paul Richards - High concept art discussion
http://www.autodestruct.com/

ArtCenter - Variety of art topics
http://www.theartcenter.blogspot.co.uk/

Perspective
http://www.handprint.com/HP/WCL/tech10.html

Visual Storytelling
http://visuallanguagelab.com/papers.html

Master Notes

• http://www.explore-drawing-and-painting.com/Sargent-John-Singer.html
• http://www.openculture.com/2015/03/moebius-gives-18-wisdom-filled-tips-to-aspiring-artists-1996.html

///GENERAL REFERENCE

Poses / Anatomy

• http://nakedmoondance.tumblr.com/
• http://senshistock.com/
• http://artmodelsphoto.tumblr.com/
• http://www.quickposes.com/
• http://www.doctormacro.com/Galleries.htm
• http://bryoncaldwell.blogspot.de/2008/04/hand-poses-galore.html
• http://portraitsfordrawing.tumblr.com/
• http://figuresfordrawing.tumblr.com/
• https://secure2.pbase.com/gohlool/candid
• http://www.referencereference.com/index.html
  

Architecture / Environment

• http://photos4artists.co.uk/
• http://www.stahlseite.de/
• http://www.thecoolhunter.co.uk/architecture
• http://www.castlesontheweb.com/photoarchive/
  

Props / Misc

Assorted Stock

• http://makerbook.net/
• https://unsplash.com/

Swords
https://imgur.com/gallery/pu7Rc

Book Archive
https://www.flickr.com/photos/internetarchivebookimages/

Skills / Blacksmithing
http://www.earthineer.com/blog/8906/blacksmithing-primer-diy

Various items.
http://ancientpoint.com/

365 Portraits
http://365parisiens.tumblr.com/

Animation Maquettes
http://animationmaquette.tumblr.com/

Space Shuttle
http://mydarksky.org/2008/03/27/fantastic-images-from-sts-123-shuttle-mission/

Cinematography

• http://mattscottvisuals.com/blog/2014/1/10/-what-are-you-looking-at-disecting-the-work-of-a-master
• http://evanerichards.com/posts
• http://www.artofthetitle.com/
  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wsI8UES59TM

Film Behind the Scenes

• Blade Runner  https://imgur.com/a/mv8qf
• Dr. No  https://imgur.com/a/d4HGA

Textures

• http://episcura.com/textures/
• http://mayang.com/textures/index.htm
• http://lostandtaken.com/
  

Talk & Tutorial aggregator
http://tutilation.tumblr.com/

Fashion
http://www.tokyofaces.com/

Animation / Sakuga
http://sakuga.yshi.org/

How things work / Blueprints

• http://animagraffs.com/
• http://www.the-blueprints.com/

Machines / Military

• http://rocketumbl.tumblr.com/
• http://www.defencetalk.com/pictures/
• http://germanmilitary.tumblr.com/
• http://www.forgottenweapons.com/
• Strange Aircraft https://imgur.com/a/I6ob7/
  

Tech

• http://sink00.tumblr.com/
• http://hardsurface.tumblr.com/

News in Pictures
http://www.bostonglobe.com/news/bigpicture

Drifting / Cars
http://noriyaro.com/

Gem Stones

• https://imgur.com/a/94fZh
• http://www.gemselect.com
• https://www.gemsociety.org/article/fundamentals-of-lapidary-part-1-introduction/

Animation Backgrounds

• http://anime-backgrounds.tumblr.com/
• http://animescenes.wordpress.com/
• http://animationbackgrounds.blogspot.co.uk/

2dartist

.

RN

Hello, I haven't read the first post properly yet.
Some formatting tips inside the spoiler.

If it helps with formatting, you can put a lot of related links inside the Spoiler tag. You can find it in the Format button in the toolbox, when posting. Select the links then apply the Spoiler formatting.
You can directly edit the HTML of your post with the "Toggle HTML view" button (it looks like this </>), also in the toolbox. To add a spoiler this way, you use this:

<div class="Spoiler">bunch of related links here</div>

Note that the "Spoiler" class needs to be capitalised like that. Then you can toggle back from HTML view and continue adding stuff to the Spoiler block more easily.

2dartist

.

mr_

Interesting idea! Knowing the fact that not many can afford to pay for tutorials, it's nice to see your contribution to encounter them. Are you planning on expanding the variety of fields (like adding technical, software oriented links; or art related essentials: like colours) as well?

On the side note, I wonder why so little attention is paid to foster polycount's wiki page?

2dartist

.

RN

Looking nice, I like the orange. Thank you for listing all this stuff (but given the lack of replies I imagine this forum is not the place for a list like this).
That 'perspective' article by Handprint that you listed is by far the most thorough material I've seen on the subject. That website also has other sections on colour theory and traditional painting: http://handprint.com/HP/WCL/water.html

Some more bookmarks:

There's a nice tutorial on 'composition' at CGSociety (using a Web Archive link since the original has some broken images):
- http://web.archive.org/web/20141221110725/http://www.cgsociety.org/index.php/CGSFeatures/CGSFeatureSpecial/phil_straub_composition_tutorial

Some anime-style digital painting tutorials:
- http://www.mclelun.com/p/tutorial.html

- http://gurneyjourney.blogspot.com.br/2013/03/highlights-and-specularity-part-1.html (A lot of interesting theory posts in this blog, the user comments after the articles are also good.)
- http://www.itchy-animation.co.uk/light.htm (Basics of light.)

General digital painting theory:
- http://vesner.deviantart.com/journal/Tutorials-and-techniques-2-327697232 (A curated list of DeviantArt user tutorials -- but note that DeviantArt is the most informal place on the web for theory.)

Pixel Art:
- http://2dwillneverdie.com/tutorial/ (Some advanced pixel art tutorials.)

Game photo references:
- http://www.vgmuseum.com/ (Tons of photo reference and screengrabs from classic games.)
- http://vgmaps.com/ (Videogame "cartography" site with levels as big images or schematics.)

Animation:
- http://www.awn.com/tooninstitute/lessonplan/lesson.htm (A simple free course on traditional animation.)

Jonas Ronnegard

Trying to learn how to draw, so big help, thanks.

FourtyNights

Arrimus 3D's YT channel is a great resource mostly for hard surface modeling. And he starts from the very beginning of the use of 3ds Max. 

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSLLdTBwLMfTKWS56tOiQpw

Eric Chadwick

Great thread! If there's anything I can do to help you get things like this onto the wiki, let me know.
http://wiki.polycount.com/wiki/Tutorials

mr_ said:

On the side note, I wonder why so little attention is paid to foster polycount's wiki page?

I think people find a wiki intimidating in general, though they really shouldn't. The formatting maybe? Personally I find it really easy to use.

I think of it as a bookmarking system, kind of like this thread is being used. Except it's a bit more searchable, easier to find things, easier to organize. Also doesn't just slip into oblivion like threads do.

mr_

Eric Chadwick said:

Great thread! If there's anything I can do to help you get things like this onto the wiki, let me know.
http://wiki.polycount.com/wiki/Tutorials

mr_ said:

On the side note, I wonder why so little attention is paid to foster polycount's wiki page?

I think people find a wiki intimidating in general, though they really shouldn't. The formatting maybe? Personally I find it really easy to use.

I think of it as a bookmarking system, kind of like this thread is being used. Except it's a bit more searchable, easier to find things, easier to organize. Also doesn't just slip into oblivion like threads do.

Funny thing, I've never use the built in search, I prefer google. Tho' I do miss the white bg, black text for ease of reading (same goes for here :P ).

Speaking of oblivion: sadly I often find empty threads, missing attachments or closed sites especially when finding old content, whereas a wiki page could counter balance this? (I guess)

If you need something to figure out, you can extract it from what ever source you find, it's another thing how fast and efficiently can you manage that (e.g.: reading through nonsense blabbering, or having to watch a 20-40 minute long video). On the other hand its not easy to teach in the first place, nor constantly keep everything in order/up to date; but that's another topic.

Eric Chadwick

If you prefer a wiki with dark text on a light background, log in, go to Preferences, and change the skin. For example:
http://wiki.polycount.com/w/index.php?title=Polycount&useskin=modern

mr_

good call! never thought of that!

RN

A couple more process videos:

REIQ (Reinaldo Quintero):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1EU5Kh9Y1A

League of Legends login screens speedpaints (don't know who the artist(s) is(are)):
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXuhdetOEPfj6S3QC4mdGU8r9Kp8dm67M

2dartist

Updated OP and Software Videos

• Added process videos
• Added animation reference and information
• Added AfterFX introduction videos

mr_

So, as I'm constantly think about collecting and managing my own resources, I came across a somewhat  interesting website to collect information, if you're interested: www.zeef.com, and an example: https://game-design-tutorials.zeef.com/nathan.lovato

xvampire

wow , Yoshikadu! , never knew he had official youtube account, been searching his stuff since ustream days.. thx

2dartist

.

Eric Chadwick

The frontpage is not designed to be sticky like this. It's more of a heartbeat of the site, what's at the top is very current.

I do agree however that this thread is valuable and deserves to be promoted. So I've added it to several places:

• Information About Polycount & New Member Introductions
• Where Did The Stickies Go?!
• Polycount Wiki - Tutorials Page

Eric Chadwick

Well, that was really unfortunate. The OP decided to delete their posts. I restored the content of the first post, which is still a bunch of good info for the Polycount community. However that means this thread now has to be closed, to prevent further vandalism.