The Greatest Free Texture Library on the Net

If you don't use CG Textures you are missing out. There are tons of reference images here. Most of them are not tileable, but any of them can be made tileable if your any good. Plus, there are skies, HDRIs, etc. Basically, there is all sorts of material here for creating textures. Check it out.

A Bunch of Free Textures, Models, HDRIs, Etc.

Accustudio Exchange offers a bunch of free stuff. It is not top quality, but it is a good starting point for a lot of different objects and textures. I actually really like the free HDRIs too. They have worked out good for me.

HERE IS OUR ENTIRE LIST OF FREE MODEL RESOURCES.

HDRI in Vray - Tutorial

This is a basic HDRI setup for Vray users. If you haven't tried the technique yet, you are falling behind. This is definitely the way to go if you are looking for photorealism. This tutorial is offered by Aversis, a great resource for this software.

Light an Interior Scene with One Exterior Light

CG Arena offers this lighting tutorial:

"When it comes to lighting a 3D-scene, the light-setup can either make or
break the scene’s believability and realism. Many artists lack the knowledge of
lighting techniques. There are three concerns you have to consider during your
lighting-setup: Is there enough light? Is the light source believable? And, how
does the lighting affect the mood of the scene? In this tutorial, we will
illuminate the scene with the help of one light source and one HDRI. This is a
step by step tutorial, with images to grasp the general workflow idea
easily."

Extremely Informative HDRI + Vray Tutorial

This is a tutorial for an architectural illustration project. The author offers some amazing technical tips for lighting this project. Especially when it comes to HDRI. If you don't know how to integrate HDRI's into your Vray renderer you must read this. Also, if you need some more technical advice on using those HDRI's this can help. In this tutorial you can see the amazing difference an HDRI can make. Overall, this is a very informative tutorial that is essential for Vray / 3d Studio Max users.

How To Apply Those HDRI's to Your Image

We have posted links to lots of free HDRI's on this site, and lots of vray tutorials. This tutorial links them together and shows you how to get amazing results using these HDRI's with Vray. As you have probably seen, the results are amazing. This combination for lighting can create the most realistic of renders. The tutorial is here.

Another Amazing 3d Studio Max + Vray Tutorial

Original image from CGArena. Paco Morales.

This is another tutorial that walks you through the process of creating an amazing image step by step. In addition, the artist offers his HDRI for free download. It's another nice one to add to your collection. Enjoy the tutorial here.

P.S. Click the HDRI label below to find more great HDRIs to add to your library.

More Free HDRI's

A site with a bunch of free HDRI's. They are a little more specific then others we have posted, but still high quality. Plenty of stuff to have fun with.

http://debevec.org/Probes/

New To HDRI's - Learn about them here

Here is a good explanation of what HDRI's are. If you need to see them at work, there are some beautiful examples on this website as well. Check it out:

http://www.spectralogue.com/HDRI/learnhdri.html

More Free HDRI's!

Evermotion.org is just a great site. You always find something great there. Here is their generous offering of FREE HDRI'S. There is probably 30 of them or so, all of which look really good. They are all of nice clean skies so they can be used pretty universally for any project. Thanks Evermotion!

http://www.evermotion.org/index.php?unfold_exclusive=84&unfold=exclusive

Free HDRI's For All

Cgarchitect.com just posted a link to some more free HDRI's this morning. If you have never used these before...you have to try it. Search this site for other links to Free HDRI's and tutorials on how to use them. Check out the HDRI catergory in the sidebar.

These new HDRI's look great as well...definitely professional quality. Keep in mind that to buy nice HDRI's like this is not cheap, so it's nice to collect a few for free. The link is here:

http://www.hdrmill.com/Freebies.htm

Great HDRIs For Free

It's amazing that these are offered for free. Aversis is a great page with lots of great resources (particularly for Vray users, but it works for everybody). Here is the link:

http://www.aversis.be/extra_hdri/00.htm

Keep in mind that there are also a few really high resolution textures here.

http://www.aversis.be/extra_textures/textures.htm

Thanks Aversis for some great resources!