www.artist-reference.com

This review is for all CG artists dealing with everyday seeking for the right material, whether for their work or just for use in leisure time. If you belong to such kind of people, please feel free to read.

I ran into this site while browsing the internet in order to find some interesting textures and designs which I started to collect for my further works. The one thing about this site, that I need to mention right at the beginning, is diversity of its content in terms of products provided. Assist CG offers not only textures but also designs, backgrounds, video transitions and also software for video composition and texture modification. This site is a great place for getting ideas and good stuff.

It has to be admitted that in spite of its modest collection in terms of the number of textures in each category, Assist CG is pretty impressive and has lots to give. The website’s collection boasts of many interesting, quality photos, a few of them are hard to find anywhere else. Some of the eye catchy textures that caught my attention were for example Wood, Lawns and Paving sets. Most photos in Wood section may seem common, but some of them are very rare in its genre. Among the ordinary textures from Paving Sets, one can find intriguing photos of the Roman roadways, too. Above all, I would highlight remarkable designs offered in Tiles and Mosaic section, which are very rare and impressive. These great sets are one of the reasons, why artists definitely should visit this website. Since most of the textures represent different surfaces of the terrain and various kinds of walls and roofing, this site could be helpful for game developers in process of creating surroundings in games or for architects while presenting their architectural projects.

Textures are offered in the resolution ranging from 512×512 to 2048×2048 pixels, some even higher. Those in resolution of 512×512 pixels can be downloaded for free without having a membership. All you need to do is get registered and you can enjoy free downloads. Although free photos are in quite small resolution, still it’s a nice gesture from the website like this, which can also persuade artists to subscribe. Nevertheless, to get the original resolution of the images, you have to become a member.

Except textures, you can find a lot of more. The site provides Blender 2.49 which is software for creating video composition with different visual effects. Such video composition can be used in the presentation of your project. One can also find various transitions and animated video backgrounds ready for use in this video. Moreover, the site has a tutorial section in which a user gets information of how to use the provided software with some examples and tips. A new user, just like me, who is interested in making creative videos, can really get some help out of this. The basic version of the software is available for free download once you registered, but the full version which enables to use sources from the library is open only to members exclusively. There is also workstation section on the site, which provides software that helps you modify and make textures.

Assist CG offers a membership in length of three months for which one needs to pay only 10 USD. For such a small price one gets access to download all the textures and videos on the site in full resolution. The software is available in its full version, too. Although there is part of the website’s content which can be downloaded for free, for a price this low, I would better become a member and enjoy the full capacity of the site.

The license agreement of the site has very simple policies. The first being that one cannot put the textures and other material from the site directly on his/her own web for sale. If you want to do so, significant modification would be needed. Otherwise, all content is royalty free and can be used anywhere one wish to use.

The only defect of the site I noticed is its small collection. Assist CG holds very few categories with low number of textures in each category, when compared with sites like www.environment-textures.com, which has three times more categories and subcategories and which with the total number of more than 99,000 photos is one of the largest resources of high resolution textures.

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On the other hand, the site has a good search engine which helps to find any video, texture or software one needs quickly and easily. The site is also very well designed, too. I found it very intuitive and uncomplicated to use. Also, all the textures are very clearly divided into categories. That makes browsing simple compared to other bulky websites where it becomes difficult to get to a desired texture.

This review should provide the relevant information about Assist CG and I hope it has helped you get the idea of the site and its content. Please, note the summary below.

Summary

+ Intriguing and rare textures in good resolution and high-definition videos. Software is really helpful plus tutorials make it easier to use.

- Quite few categories of textures as compared to similar websites. It holds a small collection of textures in each category as well.

Popularity: 8% [?]

I came upon the site of Marlin Studios while I was searching for good designs I needed to build into my presentation. I won’t say I found all the textures that I needed but I certainly got the most of them. Actually, I was pleasantly surprised by finding more, other than needed right at that moment. In addition to different variety of textures, they offer great animations in terms of videos which are very helpful, e. g. in game development. Marlin Studios claims to have been in the texture business longer than any texture publisher and with the number of over 70,000 images, this site definitely deserves at least a glance from the game developers, architects and artists who are engaged in daily designing.

On opening, the site doesn’t really look too tech-savvy to be honest. It is actually very moderate and simple in view. At first glance, I didn’t find it to be impressive. The website might seem little perplexing and incomprehensible. There is also no search engine available on this site which makes it a bit of task to search for the texture desired. Although the designs are divided into many galleries and categories, it does take a while to get to the exact image we have in mind. Lots of confusion plus no search engine rendered the website tough to surf and the searching time-consuming. This could discourage potential customers.

However, the Marlin Studio’s strength lies in variety and voluminousness of the provided content. This site consists of lots of 2D and 3D images included in 25 libraries. These are divided into sub galleries such as seamless textures, specialty gallery, 3D gallery and money saver gallery. Textures given on the site include various basic ones like tiles, wood, stone, skies and such patterns. Apart from these, one will also find animated people and different 3D models of buildings or vehicles. Surely, it is worth noting the specialty gallery and its special libraries like the People N Motion with animated people in both business and casual attire, Panoramas, Tree palms, Traffic etc. The 3D section gives a number of images which can be used to make 3 dimensional structures or models in game development. The samples shown here are full built modern houses with yards and also various other images which might be of use for corporate presentations. There is also a section for free samples to download available on the site as well. One can see through the list and get a look at some of them.

All libraries are filled with numerous images and textures to work with, yet it displays only a few best textures which represent the other samples in the category. This could be little disheartening as the user might want to see all the textures he is buying. One option given by the website is to try free samples before buying, which nevertheless are in half of the actual size. The full size images can only be seen after the user has bought it. The resolutions of the images that I happened to look at were mostly 1024 X 1024 pixels, but it varies according to type of image. This is good resolution but in contrast with environment-textures.com, where most photos are 4992×3360 pixels, it´s quite a difference.  Free samples are provided in half of actual size, as already mentioned.

Textures and models available on this site are offered at a low cost as compared to the other sites I have visited in the past. The charges given are on the basis of the resolution and type of the file. Some images are available for prices as low as 35 cents. Good quality images or most 3D models can be as much as 2 USD each. In addition there is a separate section in the galleries which offers special saver packs that include 2D and 3D images depending on the pack. This gives the buyer an opportunity to save some money. It is worth to mention the amount of money one can save – it ranges from 89 USD to about 1000 USD.

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In comparison to the other sites, which usually offer membership subscriptions, this one provides only pay and download option and does not put forward any membership plans. While buying textures and 3D models, one has to buy the whole package even if he wants to use only a few textures from the package. It means single image download is not possible over here. On the other hand, possibility of availing the whole package at discounts can be considered as an advantage.

Ordering the designs is really simple. There are some options for ordering. You can either download the design online or order a CD/DVD of the same. There are also different ways of paying for the same – you can use your online PayPal account for the transfer as well as pay by using your debit/credit card (debit in case if it is a US card).

However, it was quite difficult to get to the license policy information, whereas there is no section dedicated to this. I managed to find out that all the model & texture libraries offered by website should be royalty free and one could use them in their commercial artworks. But the content of the libraries cannot be distributed in any way, shape or form. The user would receive one license per order, with the option to make a backup copy. Nevertheless, I would recommend you to contact the provider and inquire before using bought images.

Overall, the website obviously has its pros and cons and it is up to the artist to reconsider expectations he is having from this type of site and decide.

Summary

+    great amount of textures and animations; money saver packages

-     no search engine available; perplexing and difficult to browse the website

Popularity: 19% [?]

Apart from being an artist, I am a tech-savvy person and picking out outstanding websites offering attractive textures remains an integral part of my work schedule. This hobby of mine led me to the homepage of iSourcetextures. And one of the several things that caught my attention was its varied inimitable designs. Artists who are in the field of game development can avail great textures from this site. I am a collector of good textures myself so I logged onto this site in order to find out as much information as possible so I can share it with you and give you some vision. I am not here to say you that it is the best in the business but I can say it is surely a great place to get creative. Game developers and 3D software engineers should consider visiting this place on the web at least once.

The site boasts of about 11,000 designs in its store with more then 200 textures made available free. In my opinion it is a very impressive and a rather massive collection. Designs are all divided into various sections as per category. Each of these sections contains about 10 to 40 textures in them. With such a massive collection, one cannot miss getting great textures for his work over here. Each design that is put onto the site is available with its properties, resolution and price information stated beside it. The zoom option is given for a better view of the picture, too.

The quality of the images that I used was very good. The resolutions offered by them are in the range from 2000 to 3500×3000 pixels. Some images are also available in 5000+ pixel size. Different resolutions are available on the site from which the artist can choose his pick. The user gets the option to download each texture in two different sizes of L and XL. The free textures are specially put into a different section in which free textures are available exclusively in the resloution size of 600 pixels.

Downloading images is chargeable except the free ones. The site offers no membership fee. The charges are levied on per download basis only, ranging from 1 USD to 2 USD depending on the chosen image size. I would rather prefer this over monthly or 6 monthly memberships for people who do not download a large amount of textures every day. But if you are someone who use up photos in bulk, it´s more convenient for you to pay some flat membership fee on a website like environment-textures.com e.g. and you will pay several times less for one photo. On the other hand, there is no restriction on the number of downloads at the iSourceTextures! Unlimited downloading of textures is one of the things I found remarkable.

The search engine integrated into the site is a really great one, enabling artists to easily find the textures required. Another great feature which can be used to make the user’s search for the perfect texture quick is ‘Find Similar Images’. This feature enables the user to quickly browse through the entire collection of the website in just a few seconds and get back with some similar textures to the one that the user is looking for.

The website has a license which allows free distribution and commercial use of the designs. This is one of the few texture resources which allow such liberty like selling modified textures, keeping in mind the minimum modification policy as mentioned in the website license. The company has also provided free textures which are still available for some commercial usage (except of selling as textures). The use and distribution is allowed in lots of other cases, just make sure you read the usage conditions.

One of the greatest aspects of the site is that one can sell one’s own textures too. They have provided a tool for uploading your own designs and ideas on their site, and they might put them up for sale on their site. What’s more – they pay you for your designs in form of compensation when someone buys the design. The company offers 50% royalty, which I would say is good enough for it provides free hosting of your design.

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One thing I marked about the site is that it is a little slow in opening up its designs and loading all the 3D textures. The large collection of the site might hamper its loading speed to certain extent. We all know that this can be overcome with a simple fast internet connection. But, when I’m writing a genuine review I could not miss on this one.

On the whole, the website offers a good resource of new and unique themes and textures. Looking at the pros and cons, well there are more pros than cons and in my opinion it is a great place on the web to get great designs for your work and also to make some money out of your own creativity. This website is surely a good one to visit.

Summary:

+    massive collection of designs in good resolution, offering unlimited downloads and possibility of selling your own textures

-    slower loading of textures compared to other sites

Popularity: 4% [?]