Resources

Welcome to the  SketchUpArtists resource section where you will find some great links for sites with tutorials and free resources which will help enhance your image editing skills and post-processing techniques. There are also some useful SketchUp ad-dons, unique free software, materials, 3D models  and other useful official SketchUp related off-site  links.

Official SketchUp Sites

• SketchUp Home – Trimble homepage
• SketchUp – Download Free or Pro version and older versions
• Official SketchUp Blog – Blog for their news
• SketchUp on Twitter – Tweet on Twitter
• SketchUp Facebook Page – Exactly what it says
• Building Maker – Make 3D buildings for Google Earth (Free)
• 3D Warehouse – Free 3D Models
• SketchUp Sage – Links to other great SketchUp resources

Forums and Communities

• Google Help groups – Current Google SketchUp help forum
• PushPullBar - Architecture and design forum
• SketchUcation – Great resourceful SketchUp forum

Forums and Communities Non – English

• SketchUp Vray Resources Nomer Adona’s excellent tutorial Blog
• ronenbeckerman Arch ViZ Blog
• CGPinoy Network Philipines
• SUVN.net Vietnam
• Midgard Forum Germany
• Het SketchUpforum Holland
• Sublog.net China
• Biblio3d.com France
• Sketchando Spain
• SketchUpBBS China

Google SketchUp Plugins

• Popular SketchUp Plugins – Most popular SketchUp plugins list, updated 2010
• Google SketchUp Plugins – Extend the functionality of SketchUp with this list of sites
• Visual Index of Popular Plugins – List of reference images and how the plugins work
• SketchUp Tips – SketchUp plugins Blog by Jim Foltz
• Ruby Library Depot – Loads of plugins for SketchUp on Didier Bur’s site

Free Image Editing Software

• normalmap –  GIMP plugin to convert images into RGB normal maps
• NDo – Free software for creating advanced normal maps in Photoshop, pretty cool! (CS2-CS5)
• Cinepaint – Easy to use and similar to Photoshop
• Splashup – Web application, offering multiple image editing, pixel-level control and layers
• Picnic – Auto-correct your photographs, as well crop and resize them
• Pixia – Painting and retouching software for full color graphics
• Krita – Create digital painting files from scratch
• ChocoFlop – Free image editing on your Mac
• Aviary Tools – Suite of powerful free creative editing applications that you can use right in your web browser
• Active Pixels 2 – Free photo editing software
• Paint.Net - Free image and photo editing software for computers that run Windows. It features an intuitive and innovative user interface with support for layers, unlimited undo, special effects, and a wide variety of useful and powerful tools.
• Sumo Paint – Free image editor and painter software, really cool.
• Pixlr – This free plugin turns Firefox into a full featured Photoshop like image editor using the excellent pixlr without having to visit the site.
• Little Ink Pot – The Sketcher Plugin was created to provide illustrative effects to computer images, whether photographs, computer drawn pictures or 3D renderings. It can render smooth artistic pencil sketches, pen and ink illustrations, and a number of different halftone/threshold effects.
• FotoSketcher – FotoSketcher is a 100% free program which can help you convert your digital photos into art, automatically. If you want to turn a portrait, the photograph of your house or a beautiful landscape into a painting, a sketch or a drawing then look no further.
• Gimp – The world famous free image editing software.
• 3DPaysage – This free software creates 3D terrain (or something else) from a picture. The mesh can be exported to different formats including .obj.
• FastStone – A collection of free image editing and viewing software.
• Photoscape – Free photo editing software that enables you to fix and enhance photos.

Free Vector Editing Software

• Inkscape – Vector graphics editor with similar capabilities to professional pieces of software such as Adobe Illustrator, CorelDraw and Xara X
• Alchemy – Vector-based editing application that makes use of a handful of interesting features

Free 3D Models and Textures

• Krost Office Furniture – Free collection of SketchUp models
• SketchUpTexture – Growing collection of free good quality models and textures
• Knoll Office Furniture – Free SketchUp models…100′s of them
• 3drender.co.uk – Some free samples and models
• Textures Forrest – High resolution free textures
• DesignBeep – Collection of high quality and free brick textures
• High Resolution Textures – Free Textures, game textures, 3D textures, design resources
• Texturemate – Free textures, brushes and patterns
• carbodydesign.com – Free 3D car models various formats, some SketchUp models
• BIMstop.com – Free models, but you need to register first
• SteelSelect.com – Free SketchUp Component library for eaves guttering
• Landscapeforms – SketchUp library of 3D models
• CadTutor – Free collection of images, trees, people, skies and more
• Cut Out People – Free cut out people, animals, transport, nature and objects
• Render Textures – Seamless diffuse, bump and displacement maps
• OpenFootage – HDRI panorama’s and more
• CG Tuts – Loads of free high quality texture packs
• Graphic Mania – High quality old paper Photoshop textures
• Grunge Textures – High quality textures, metal, brick, concrete, stone, asphalt, wood and more
• Smartibl – Some HDRI’s and other goodies
• Naldzgraphics – Free high quality wood textures,200+
• Designmoo – Free PSDs, vectors, textures, patterns, fonts, and more
• LeMog – Free texture library (French)
• CadYou – Free 3D models (SketchUp) textures and Cad Blocks
• Frecle – Nice little free tree generator and a few other goodies that may be of interest
• Vyonyx – Cutout people, trees, textures and tutorials
• Archiforge – Textures and CAD library
• Google 3D Warehouse – Free 3D SketchUp Models
• Appiani – Free 3D library and textures
• 3D Filter – Search hundreds of thousands of 3D models and textures
• Archive 3D – Large collection of free 3D models
• 3Dup.com – Free Grasses and weed models in 3ds, very useful!
• Bricks’n'Tiles – Design Photo-realistic textures for high quality 3D content
• Amazing 3D Graphics – Various models from vehicles to tools and buildings
• CGDigest – Selection of models from furniture to transport and electronics
• D Legend – Good quality free furniture models
• Turbosquid Free – Loads of good quality free models
• Designfreebies – Free high resolution photos of skies, clouds, sunsets and much more
• CG Textures – The worlds largest free texture site
• Archi-Vision Studio – Watercolor entourage images (skies,trees, bushes, people and cars)
• Paul Bourke – Texture library
• 3dmd.net – Free textures for 3D artists
• 3Dmodelsharing – Free library once you register, various file types
• Archweb – Free cad blocks and textures

Popular Photoshop sites with tutorials and freebies!!

• Xero Graphics – Collection of 40+ free Photoshop filters (Windows only)
• The Plugin Site – Free Photoshop plug-ins
• Obsidian Dawn – Loads of free Photoshop stuff
• Free 4 Photoshop – Free Photoshop brushes, styles, patterns, shapes, psd and more
• PSD tuts+ – The mother of all PS sites for tuts and freebies
• Tutorial 9 – Tutorials (check out School of Photoshop)
• PSDFAN – New kid on the block, with great tutorials
• PSHERO – Great set of unique tutorials and tips and tricks
• PhotoshopStar – More tutorials and resources
• Smashing apps – Free hand drawn style icons, brushes, textures and fonts
• Vintage Pistols – Free pack of vector illustrations

Brushes for  post-production work

• carbodydesign – Collection of  Photoshop brushes including some colored pencils
• Creattica – High resolution marker pen brushes
• Premium Pixels – Some high resolution oil pastel brushes
• DesignM.ag – 500+ watercolor brushes for Photoshop
• Naldz Graphics – Free vintage brush sets
• Bittbox – Great brushes and tutorials
• PS Brushes – 500+ high-quality brushes classified by categories
• Get Brushes – 150+ brushes categorized
• Brushes 500ml – About 50 link-ware brushes
• Brusheezy – Cool Brushes
• Graphicxtras – Brushes, fonts, plugins and shapes….good selection of resources
• Blinding-Light – Free brushes and other useful content
• DeviantArt – Some great free tree brushes and much more
• Premium Pixels – High resolution acrylic sponge brushes
• Spyrestudios – 600+ light effect brushes

Software and other free goodies!

• LAlighting – 1000 IES files
• Evermotion – Forum, tutorials and downloads
• LuxRender – Free physically based and unbiased rendering engine
• Kerkythea – Is a free standalone good quality renderer, using physically accurate materials and lights
• Blender – Free open source 3D content creation suite, available for all major operating systems
• MyPaint – Free open-source graphics application for digital painters
• Artweaver Free – Free painting program which is suitable for beginners but also suitable for advanced users
• DraftSight – Free CAD software for your DWG files
• Meshmixer – Free tool for making as they say “crazy-ass 3D stuff” without too much hassle
• Hothouse 3D – System for creating, storing and organizing 3D models for a wide variety of plants, shrubs and trees
• ngPlant – Free plant modeling software suite
• WebInpaint Beta – Remove one or more objects or persons from your composition
• An Ivy Generator – A small tool allowing a virtual ivy to grow in your 3d world
• xNormal – An application to generate normal / ambient occlusion / displacement maps
• Color Palette Generator – Enter the URL of an image to get a color palette that matches the image
• Window Studio 10 software – Generate 3D Dynamic SketchUp models (Andersen windows and doors)
• GML Matting – Cutout tool to extract object from background
• GE Light*Beams 3.0 – Powerful lighting design aid for GE directional reflector lamps. Has a complete database of GE IES files
• 3D Canvas – Real-time 3D modeling/animation tool that incorporates an intuitive drag-and-drop approach to 3D modeling
• Great Buildings Online – 1000 great buildings with images, drawings and 3D models
• The Blueprints.com – Exactly what it says
• Wings 2 – Aircraft plans/drawings
• CB Model Pro – Free rapid 3D organic modeling software
• DoubleCad XT Free – Works like AutoCAD LT
• yED – Powerful free graph editor
• Sculptris – Free 3D organic modeler
• ShiftN – Automatic correction of distracting converging lines in your image

Social Networks – check us out

• Twitter – News and Updates
• Facebook – News and Updates
• Youtube – Cool Videos
• tumblr – News and Updates
• The Daily Dispatch – Our Blogger site with more News!

If you know of anymore useful free resources for the SketchUp design community please contact us or comment below and we will add it to the list.