A Large Compendium of Resources and Useful Links

The Doctor

Great and Devious
Staff member
Super Moderator
Well, I thought this could be a useful little topic to have, since people are asking what GIMP is and where to download Brushes and the like. Before I begin I just want everyone to know that they are free to add whatever links they'd like, as long as there is use to them. Just remember to include a description of whatever it is and why it could be good.

Programs

GIMP

http://www.gimp.org/

GIMP is the most famous/infamous free graphics program out there. It can be useful if you have no money/don't want to be a criminal for Photoshop. I find it very hard to use, but TPP has made some good GIMP sig-making tutorials and Stinger's sigs are coming out nicely as well. I suppose it just takes practice. Anyway, to download this, click on the "Downloads" link on the right of the main page.

Paint.net
http://www.getpaint.net/

I've never used it, but people seem to like it. Paint.net is apparently a pretty good free image editing program. Thriller uses it and it seems to work for him, so maybe it will work for you too.

Brushes

deviantART
http://www.deviantart.com/

deviantART is a great place for brushes. Just type in "brushes" and see what pops up. Fire brushes, abstract brushes, any brushes you can imagine, they have it all. It's also a great place for stocks and images and textures. You can even use it like I do, to showcase your best works!

Brusheezy
http://www.brusheezy.com/

Brusheezy is a good place for brushes. A lot of times they take brushes from deviantART, but that's OK because sometimes you're not quite sure what to look for on deviantART. It makes looking for brushes easy and quick, and has some great sets on there. It also has a section for vectors/custom shapes, so that's useful too.

Renders

PSD-Dreams (Registration Required)
http://psd-dreams.de/home.php

THE best render site, hands down. An absolutely essential site for a graphic maker. PSD Dreams offers tons and tons of pre-cut images that are well-organized. anything from models to wrestling to TV shows to logos can be found here. Bookmark it.

Planet Renders (Registration Required)
http://planetrenders.net/renders/index.php

While Planet Renders may not be as well-organized as PSD-Dreams, it has some great things to offer, especially because it offers C4Ds and Fractals, which are great for adding effects to sigs, or for making backgrounds. While this site isn't as essential as PSD Dreams, it has some great renders not found on the other site. However, the search box is your friend.

Tutorials

SigTutorials.com

http://www.sigtutorials.com/

An extremely useful site that made me take the next step as a graphic artist. It contains GREAT techniques, resources, and tutorials that you can use for your graphics. Definitely read all tutorials here.

This should be a good start, now let's hear some more!
 
Great thread, Doc. At the moment for fonts I use this:

http://www.1001freefonts.com/

It's OK and organised fairly well into catergories like 'celtic', 'retro', etc. My only gripe is the number of fonts that there are. It says 1001 fonts but there seems to be less than that. There is one called 'SF Collegiate' which I like and will try to make a Jack Swagger sig with (as he's a collegiate athlete). Other than that, TurnTablz is good and 'funky'. My favourite, however is 'Birth Of A Hero', I recommend the site just for that.

But, does anyone know any others? As for tutorials, the site you suggested is excellent.
 
The font site I use is DaFont.
http://www.dafont.com/

Tons of fonts are there, ranging from famous fonts to band logos to cursive to handwriting to grunge to EVERYTHING. New ones are added often, and it's hands down the best place to get fonts. An essential font that is available for download there is "Visitor". It's that blocky text you see me use often, like in this sig:

danielson-1.png


I usually use the Visitor -BRK- font that is included in the install, and turn the anti-aliasing to "None". It's simple, but very effective.

Other good fonts at dafont are Just Act Casual, St. Andrew, Street Soul, 28 Days Later, and SoulMission. Just explore the site; it's great.
 
Here are a few good links that i personally use besides the above mentioned dafont and deviantart

Renders:

http://animerenders.com (registration required)
very similar to planet renders but focused mainly on anime related material - highly recommended if you do anime work

http://gamerenders.com/ (registration required)
Great resource for game renders, site currently down but they have a community set up where you can get renders from

Tutorials:

http://photoshoptutorials.ws/
Extremely well written, easy to navigate site with alot of useful information, this site has helped me alot when i was starting and gave me some nice pointers.

http://www.userbars.com/
THE one stop shop for userbars, tutorials, tips, tricks, fonts, showcase everything you need to become an effective userbar maker.

Brushes:

http://getbrushes.com/
large well organized site of some of the best free brushes ive found yet (besides deviantart)
 
Sometimes stock photos are needed. And at those times I go here: http://www.sxc.hu/?f=view&id=146670

Sign up is required but its not the end of the world. Categories range from food to architecture to business. Stock photos are helpful for when tutorials require random images (that's how I came across the site). Overall, very good for when Google just won't do.
 
Here's another great site to find renders. It's new, but they already have a decent collection, I know the guy that runs it and he's completely legit.

Hope you guys can find it useful!

iRenders
 

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