THUNDEER'S 3D LEARNING RESOURCES
🧰 OTHER RESOURCES
Complementary resources for your 3D projects. Software, assets, references, stores, blogs & addons.
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Other Resources
Software, assets, references, stores, blogs & books
Other Resources
Software, assets, references, stores, blogs & books
🔧 COMPLEMENTARY SOFTWARE
⭐PureRef
Idyllic Pixel
Essential tool in any digital artist's toolkit! Gather references in a moodboard that can be fixed on top of your art software. Surprising amount of functionality!
PureRef, the simple reference image viewer.
https://www.pureref.com/
⭐Allusion
allusion.app
I love this software so much! Software for browsing through your reference folder. Has a fantastic tagging tool for filtering images. Not a replacement for PureRef, but rather a way to quickly kickstart your PureRef board at the start of a new project.
Unfortunately the software doesn't seem to be receiving any more updates. There are forks being updated, but the regular Allusion works just fine.
Allusion is a tool built for artists, aimed to help you organize your Visual Library – A single place that contains your entire collection of references, inspiration and any other kinds of images.
https://allusion-app.github.io/
A free and open source desktop application for managing your visual library - RafaUC/Allusion
https://github.com/RafaUC/Allusion
Mixamo
Adobe
Mixamo creates a rough rig automatically, then you can select a animation or pose from a library. Results aren't always great but it can be useful in a hurry!
TW: Adobe
https://www.mixamo.com/#/
Generate a control rig from Mixamo Fbx skeleton
https://extensions.blender.org/add-ons/mixamo-rig/
🎨TEXTURES & ASSETS
Poly Haven
Free & Public Domain (CC0) Textures, HDRI and Models
The Public 3D Asset Library
https://polyhaven.com/
AmbientCG
Free & Public Domain (CC0) Textures, HDRI and Models
Free 3D Assets Never Looked This Good! Get 2000+ PBR Materials, HDRIs and more for free under the CC0 Public Domain license.
https://ambientcg.com/
LIMITED FREE, PAID VERSION ($107/YEAR, $16/MONTH)
BlendKit
Convenient 3D asset library, with an no-AI policy. Drag & drop models & textures through a Blender addon. A decent collection of free assets (all textures are free), though a lot of the value comes from the subscription
Paid and FREE 3D models, materials, brushes and HDRs for Blender. Create beautiful 3D artworks and visualizations with ease. Explore now or download directly in Blender.
https://www.blendkit.com/
📦 FREE CHARACTER MODELS
Practice animation/rigging with these free models!
Agora.community Assets
Make sure to check out both Official and Contributors models!
Checkout high quality assets from both Agora Studio and community members. Our library of Agora Original characters and props offers a variety of free studio-level rigs created by Agora Studio. Our Contributor Assets library features a large collection of characters, props, and environments created by community members independently or in collaboration with Agora Studio.
https://agora.community/store/assets?software[0]=blender
Blender Studio Characters
Blender Studio rigs. Free models are mixed together with paid subscription models, but there's plenty available for free!
Follow the latest updates from the Blender Cloud.
https://studio.blender.org/characters/
P2Design Academy Free Rigs
Free character rigs to be used in Blender
https://www.p2design-academy.com/p/free-rigs
The Models Resource
Browse Assets & Games - Archiving and preserving video game media since 2003!
https://models.spriters-resource.com/browse/
📸 ART REFERENCES
⭐Animal Photo Art References Search
References for animal heads from all angles, lots of species to pick from!
https://x6ud.github.io/
Angle Ref
Human head references alternative
Find portrait references by head direction and share the artwork you make from them.
https://angleref.com/
PAID ($100/YEAR, $13/MONTH)
Shotdeck
The price is steep, but the vast library of references and excellent tagging is worth the price if you can afford it!
https://shotdeck.com/welcome/home
Unsplash
AI-free stock images for references
https://unsplash.com/
Animal Photo References
AI-free animal references
Artists creating derivative or transformative works without Generative AI have blanket permission to reference these photos.
https://www.animal-photo-references.com/
⭐ Dreamstime
Some AI-slop (which can be toggled), but the sheer quantity and quality of the references is unmatched. Animal reference, niche poses... so many good refs!
367 Million stock photos, unlimited prints, lifetime, worldwide rights: ✓ Free photos for commercial use. ✓ Model-released, ✓ Safe to use ✓ Free trial. World`s largest stock photo community. Join for free.
https://www.dreamstime.com/
🛒 MARKETPLACES
⭐FlippedNormals
Some of the highest quality 3D assets & online courses you can find! Check out the Flipboxes, which are bundles rich with resources for a pretty good price!
Tutorials for Artists and Game Developers
https://flippednormals.com/
Superhive
Great addons & assets store for Blender
A Unique Market for Creators that love Blender
https://superhivemarket.com/
TrueRef
Well curated store for human pose references. Contains a free section
Real, unretouched figure and pose reference photos for artists. Never AI. Browse packs by aesthetic, model, and style.
https://trueref.io/
TrueRef delivers both free and premium monthly references for artists. No retouching and never AI-generated.
https://community.trueref.io/free_references
Adorka Stock
Pose references with a wide range of models! Contains free references & paid packs
AdorkaStock provides safe-for-work pose references for artists of all ages. We include a diverse range of body types.
https://www.adorkastock.com/
AdorkaStock is Creative Commons. Its license is Attribution 3.0 Unported License (CC BY 3.0). This means you can share, modify and make commercial use of the work as long as you attribute the work with a credit back to AdorkaStock. If the stock is used solely for pose reference then the requirement for attribution is appreciated but not required. You may not use these resources for LLMs/AI and/or NFTs. Read More >>
https://www.adorkastock.com/pose/
🛒 COURSES MARKETPLACES
Raf Grassetti's Online Store
Bring your characters to life in 3D Innovative character creation tutorials for beginners to advanced artists
https://grassettiart.gumroad.com/?recommended_by=search
Abe Leal 3D
Welcome to the 3D World. We provide Top Quality Courses to give you the tools that will make you an amazing artist. Always Learning, Always Improving.
https://www.abeleal3d.com/collections
FlippedNormals
Tutorials for Artists and Game Developers
https://flippednormals.com/
💻 BLOGS
⭐Pablander Academy
Incredible blog full of educational 3D tips!
A simple cube can become a fully textured sci-fi prop without sculpting brushes, manual retopology, or UV work. This workflow uses Substance 3D Modeler for flexible primitive-based modeling, Substance 3D Painter for materials and decals, and Marmoset Toolbag 5 for the final presentation.
https://www.pablander.academy/tutorials
Here you'll find all the best tips and tricks from our newsletter.
https://www.pablander.academy/newsletter
Artstation Blogs - Tutorials
Worth scrolling for a while, bunch of nicely written tutorial by professionals!
https://www.artstation.com/blogs/tutorial/trending
❤️ MY FAVORITE ADDONS
PAID ($60)
⭐Retopoflow 4
You might be able to live without it...I can't. Excellent Blender extension including a bunch of retopology tools.
RetopoFlow is a powerful retopology add-on for Blender that helps make quick work of creating custom, clean, mid or low poly meshes on top of high resolution sculpts. The tools in RetopoFlow mode are designed to be used by artists and makes the retopology process more like quick sketching and less like monotonous pointing and clicking and make good topology practices like evenly spaced quads the default rather than the exception.
https://superhivemarket.com/products/retopoflow
PAID ($13)
Adjust Vertex Weights
I greatly dislike weight painting. This one makes the process a bit more tolerable.
This intuitive tool lets you easily adjust the weights of selected vertices by dragging the mouse up and down. The weights are automatically normalized while adjusting, so you can preview what your mesh will look like.
https://superhivemarket.com/products/adjust-vertex-weights?search_id=49374455
⭐ GoB
Really important extension if you're using both Zbrush and Blender. Quickly transfer models between both software.
Right now the extension is broken on the Zbrush side of things, so I use this fix on Hithub made by JoseConseco
Fork of original GoB script (I just added some fixes) - JoseConseco/GoB
https://github.com/JoseConseco/GoB
🌀 MISC
PAID
Substance 3D Assets
If you're paying for a Substance Painter subscription, you might as well check out the assets...
Browse thousands of fully-customizable 3D assets for your creative projects. Explore and use models, lights, and materials created by specialists and world-class guest artists. Access over 20,000 premium 3D assets on demand as part of the Adobe Substance 3D Collection plan.
https://substance3d.adobe.com/assets/
This thread will be constantly updating.
(Last updated: 07/09/2026)