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: 11% [?]

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: 27% [?]

Most web designers, 3D and computer graphic artists, whose  job demands extensive use of photos, acknowledge that sourcing for the photos needed for their design works or projects can be quite challenging. If you are a graphic artist who wants to get instant access to extensive and reliable source of photos, you should consider www.environment-textures.com.

This website represents a great online photo database that provides pictures of high quality and free of all copyright issues. These photos cover all needs and demands of an artist, who is looking for environment textures references. Website focuses on photos needed for modeling surroundings. It provides photos of textures (water, paper, fields etc.) and both exteriors and interiors with its details (buildings, furniture, vehicles etc.). You can also find 3D models and wide choice of background photos of exotic countries.

Let´s mention some interesting features of environment-textures.com. One of its strongpoints lies in simple and intuitive use. Searching by categories or keywords allows you to find what you need in very short time (as far as it is part of website´s offer). If you miss something among photos or if you have just some idea how to improve services, there is possibility to write your suggestions which will be taken to consideration in the future. Quite nice way how to show that customers and their needs are important.

The website offers also wide collection of free samples in high resolution, so customers can check the quality before buying. There are 20 free samples you can download. As advantage definitely should be considered fact that there are also free samples of premium content. Good opportunity to check and decide if it is worth to subscribe more expensive membership for lots of additional photos.

In terms of cost, subscriptions are not expensive. Regardless if you are an individual or company, there are membership plans that would definitely match your budget. The subscription fee depends on the sort of subscription that you intend buying. It is possible to get pictures for free just by subscribing a free membership, but you should keep in mind you might be limited or restricted from having access to certain pictures and that there is a download limit of 3 photos per day. Besides free membership plan, there are two other kinds that you can choose from – hobby and commercial membership plan. Both come in one, three, six months and one year recurring membership plans and special one year premium membership plan. Hobby membership starts at 13,85 EUR per month and allows usage of downloaded photos only for non-commercial purposes. With daily download limit of 250 photos per day you will pay 1 EUR for 541 photos, that´s about 0,002 EUR for 1 photo . On contrary if you want to use the pictures for commercial projects and repeatedly without any additional fee, you can subscribe commercial membership plan, which costs from 27,85 EUR per month. Daily download limit ranges between 250 and 3000 photos per day according to lenght of subscribed membership. Buying a premium commercial membership ensures you unrestricted access to all pictures, including special content (panoramas, seamless textures, HDRs etc.) that you might come across on the website. Premium membership is available at both, hobby and commercial plans, for the price 199 EUR and 325 EUR and download is limited by 12 000 photos per day.

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Speaking about quality, most photos are 4992×3360 pixels. This resolution ensures enough detailed photos, which means they are really good for texture paniters or other artists working with environment textures and references.

Summary:

+ more than 100 500 photos of hi-res textures, backgrounds, exotic locations or detailed objects

- relatively a lot of references compared with textures

Popularity: 23% [?]