Resources
150 Free Sources
for digital production, graphics, video,
web design, photos, animation, fonts, software, tutorials, productivity apps, academic resources, and more.
Rock your digital life. These are the best resources I’ve found and tested for my students–updated continually. Let me know if you recommend an edit, as the best sources are constantly changing. DO NOT ask to advertise on this page. I do not do affiliate marketing or accept sponsorships or add links to this page for marketers out of the goodness of my heart. I only list FREE or super-valuable stuff for my students, and I research and test everything like a ferret. Thank you!
1. FREE Media Sources
The downsides of free media sources include the time it takes to find quality work and the licensing you have to sort through. Professionals generally pay for their media to save time, risk, and complications. But this is school. And you might be broke! So, cheers to the alternatives! Remember to read the licensing agreements for any media you use, keep a screenshot and a link for evidence. See my video on copyright considerations.
Photography
FREE Stock Photography
Unsplash
Pixabay
Pexels
Stockvault
Wikimedia Commons
Gratisography
Picjumbo
Pikwizard
Rawpixel
Reshot
Morguefile
FreeImages.com
StockXchng
FreeImages.co.uk
46 Best Stock Photography Websites
Cheap But Better Stock Photography
iStock
Dreamstime
VIdeo & Sound
Free Video Stock Footage
Videvo
Pexels
Pixabay
Videezy
Matzwai
MixKit
CuteStockFootage
Free Sound Tracks
MixKit
YouTube
Jamendo
www.mobygratis.com
Musopen (free classical)
Free Sound FX
Cheap But Better Sound Tracks
Take Tones (pay per track but good)
Audio Network (cheap per track)
Soundcloud (monthly fee)
Graphics & Fonts
FREE Vector Art
Clip Art
www.classroomclipart.com
www.clipartconnection.com
Fonts
Google Fonts
Adobe Typekit (need Adobe account)
“Fonts Guide for All Occasions”
(Thanks, Cynthia, Mia & Friends!)
Favicons
ICO Converter
Convert your .png to an .ico
Free ICO Icons
Site for icons to use as favicons, desktop icons, shortcuts, and folder icons.
Color Scheme Designers
www.kuler.adobe.com
www.colorschemedesigner.com
Color Theory Info
(recommended by Jackson Degroff)
2. FREE Production Software & Templates
Free production software can be great for small jobs, even if they lack the functionality of professional software and hinder the ability to collaborate with media teams using professional software. Templates for presentations, animations, video, social media, etc., can aid productivity but limit creativity (and some templates get “recognized” due to repeated use. Before you use any of the resources below, check with your professor to see what’s acceptable for use on a project.
Video, Graphics, & Animation Software
FREE Video Editing Software
OpenShot.org (Beginners)
Blender.org (Beginners)
iMovie (Beginners)
Lightworks (Advanced)
Adobe Premiere (free 30-day download)
FREE Animation Software
Animaker (beginner)
Blender (free, professional, open source)
Adobe Animate
(great but expensive; only free trial)
FREE Stop-Motion Animation
Stop Motion Studio (beginners)
FREE Audio Editing Software
GarageBand (Apple)
Audacity (PC)
FREE PhotoShop-like Software (GIMP)
www.gimp.org
FREE Vector Illustration Software
InkScape
FREE Layout Software
Scribus
Free Office Software
(compatible with MS)
OpenOffice.org
Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides
NOTE: MS Office is free to University of Tampa Students
Website Building
FREE Beginner Website Builders
Wix
Squarespace
Weebly
PROS: Easy to use, great templates
CONS: Creates amateur sites that are not scalable; no backend access, limited coding capabilities, expensive Pro versions to remove advertising and link to domain.
FREE Professional Website Builders
Word Press
(Most widely used)
PROS: Industry standard, free, scalable, backend access, lots of plug-ins.
CONS: Ugly free templates, difficult to use without a purchased builder (like Divi), substantial learning curve.
Best Visual Builders to Use with WordPress
FREE Elementor Builder
(Free but basic)
Divi Themes and Builder
(Free trial but expensive after that–
most widely used by pros)
Divi Tutorial (thorough): FerdyKorp
(get percentage off through Ferdy’s site)
Educational Web Building
Adobe Dreamweaver
Great educational tool for learning code and web, but not widely used otherwise; too difficult for beginners and too simple and cumbersome for developers. But it’s a good tool.
Advanced Platforms for Developers
www.drupal.org
www.joomla.org
Domains & Hosting
Godaddy (24/7 Phone Support)
Dreamhost (Cheap, Limited Support)
NOTE: You do not need hosting with beginner websites (they provide it for you). The downside is you can’t access it for backend work.
Templates for Animation, Video, Social Media, Presentations
Graphics & Social Media
Canva.com
Hashtag Generator
Google Key Word Planner Tool
Video / Animation / Effects
Animoto
Powtoon
FlipaClip
(Google Playstore or Apple Store)
Infographics
Canva.com
Piktochart
Visme
Presentation Software
Prezi.com
SlideRocket.com
PowToon.com
3. Tutorials, Productivity Software, & Academic Resources
These help you manage your business and your learning life. Productivity software is essential for professional practices such as cloud backup, team collaboration, and business communications. Academic resources can help you manage school responsibilities. Tutorials can keep you up to speed on your specialized skills.
Digital Tutorials
Adobe Tutorials
Social Media Training (Hubspot)
Google Analytics Academy
Hootsuite Academy
Screen Capture: Video
Screencast-o-matic
(Basic, does not capture internal sound from computer)
OBS: Open Broadcast
(High functionality, includes video editing, switcher, etc.; difficult to navigate, popular with Influencers)
Snagit
(highly ranked but only a free trial)
Zoom
(low quality recordings but captures internal sound as well as input sound)
Productivity Software
Cloud Servers
Dropbox
MS OneDrive (free for U.T. students)
Google Drive
Team Platforms for
Communication and Project Planning
MS Teams
(free for UT faculty/admin)
Slack.com
Trello.com
Lists (on Steroids)
Microsoft To Do
Web Conferencing
Zoom (through MyUtampa)
Zoom (free) www.zoom.us
Webex (free trial)
Adobe Connect (free trial)
Brainstorming /
Collaborative White Board
Evernote
Google Jamboard
(in Google Drive, click New>More>Google Jamboard)
Mural
Coordinate Schedules for Meetings
www.doodle.com
Online Sign-up Calendar
appointlet.com
(can synch w/ Google, Outlook, etc.)
Conference Calls
www.freeconferencecall.com
Academic Resources
Tutoring at UTampa
Saunders Writing Center
Center for Public Speaking
Academic Coaching
Peer Tutoring
Academic Exploration
Automatic Bibliographies (Quick)
www.bibme.com
Citing Sources
Perdue OWL Lab
UTampa Library Info
Free Test Preps for Grad School
GRE: Free Test Prep
LSAT: Free Test Prep
Best Free App
for Keeping Personal Journal
Penzu
(includes military encription)
The Pro version allows multiple journals, graphic customization, etc.
Web Page Markup
Diigo
(Collect web pages, highlight text, insert sticky notes, summarize, tag, keep private or share, create research groups.
Publish Your Essays and Art
Apollon:
The Undergraduate e-Journal
The Artifice
This online magazine covers a wide spectrum of art forms and has a following of 4 million.
Publication Platforms for
Academic and Research Publishing
www.openedition.org
Open Source
Organizations and Web Resources
Electronic Frontier Foundation: http://www.eff.org/
Free Software Foundation: http://www.fsf.org/
Creative Commons: http://creativecommons.org/
Open Source Foundation: http://www.opensource.org/
GrokLaw: http://www.groklaw.net
Graphics
GNU Image Manipulation Program (GIMP) : http://www.gimp.org
Inkscape : http://www.inkscape.org
Scribus : http://www.scribus.net
MyPaint: http://mypaint.intilinux.com/
Pencil: http://www.pencil-animation.org/
Video
Kdenlive : http://www.kdenlive.org
VLC: http://www.videolan.org/vlc/
FreeMix: http://freemix.forja.rediris.es/
ffmpeg: http://www.ffmpeg.org/
PiTiVi: http://www.pitivi.org/
Cinelerra: http://cinelerra.org/
Kino: http://www.kinodv.org/
Audio
Audacity : http://audacity.sourceforge.net
Ardour : http://ardour.org
Pure Data : http://puredata.info/
Mixxx: http://www.mixxx.org/
SuperCollider: http://supercollider.sourceforge.net/
Qtractor: http://qtractor.sourceforge.net/qtractor-index.html
LMMS: http://lmms.sourceforge.net/
Programming
Processing : http://www.processing.org
Arduino: http://www.arduino.cc
Cinder: http://libcinder.org/
OpenFrameworks: http://www.openframeworks.cc
Eclipse: http://www.eclipse.org
3D
Blender : http://www.blender.org
Wings3D: http://www.wings3d.com/
K3D: http://www.k-3d.org/wiki/Main_Page
BRLCad: http://sourceforge.net/projects/brlcad/
FreeCad: http://www.ar-cad.com/freecad/index.html
Art of Illusion: http://www.artofillusion.org/
Game Engines
Panda3D: http://www.panda3d.org
PyGame: http://www.pygame.org
Alice: http://www.alice.org
Cocos2D: http://www.cocos2d-iphone.org/, http://www.cocos2d.org
CrystalSpace: http://www.crystalspace3d.org/
OGRE: http://www.ogre3d.org/
Irrlicht: http://irrlicht.sourceforge.net/
Delta3D: http://www.delta3d.org/
Other
LibreOffice : http://www.libreoffice.org/
Firefox : http://www.mozilla.com
Gnome Desktop: http://www.gnome.org/
KDE Desktop: http://kde.org/
Linux Kernel: http://www.kernel.org/
Linux Distributions
Ubuntu: http://www.ubuntu.com
Linux Mint: http://www.linuxmint.com
Fedora: http://www.fedoraproject.org
Debian: http://www.debian.org
OpenSuse: http://www.opensuse.org
ArtistX: http://www.artistx.org
PureDyne: http://www.puredyne.org
DistroWatch: http://distrowatch.com/
Vector images by Vecteezy.com