Not everyone who wants to use Blender does so with the intention of creating 3D models from scratch every single time. In fact, there are lots of 3D artists who won’t create any actual objects themselves. Instead, they will find pre-existing 3D models and then create scenes using those models.
Below is a list of common sources for downloading 3D models for use in Blender...
- BlendSwap
- CGTrader
- TurboSquid
- SketchFab
- BlenderKit
- BlenderMarket
- FlippedNormals
- Free3D
There were even more options than the ones listed above that will allow you to access 3D models that you can import into your projects in Blender, but keep in mind that not all of these models will be available for free. There is also the issue of licensing on a per-model basis.
The Best Place For Acquiring 3D Models Is…
The best place for acquiring 3D models to use in your projects is all about personal preference and experience. You have to try each one to see which platform has the best assets for your projects.
The platform itself is just that. It’s where pretty artists will upload their assets for you to access and use in your projects. So for us, the best place for acquiring 3D models is where we find it easiest to locate the types of models we’re looking for.
First is Blend swap, which is probably the most commonly used platform for downloading 3D assets in blender projects. This is mainly because blend swap has uploaded models that were created in Blender in the first place.
You do require a logon and to register your details before you can start downloading 3D models, but this is true for nearly every platform where you can access these models.
One aspect of blend swap that we really like is how easy it is to see what license is attributed to each model, as this will be an important step when deciding which models you will use.
Why Would We Acquire Other Artists’ Models?
With Blender, we can create any 3D objects that we want. We can create a single object or hundreds of objects and construct a highly detailed scene. The possibilities are endless with the blender software, so why would we bother looking for assets that other 3D artists have made?
The only answer that matters here is time. If you are working on a project, you may not have time to model every single asset associated with that project. For example, you may be asked to model something specific, but then place that model in various scenes so the client can feud that object within each scene.
While you would, of course, need to create that 3D model yourself, the assets used for the scene don’t need to be created by you; they just need to exist. So to save time, you could download these models from a platform such as Blend swap.
Sticking with the premise of saving time, even if you are creating scenes for yourself for your own personal projects, you may still want to download models that are used as environmental assets.
For example. Let’s say you were looking to create an interior scene. You could start modeling everything you would expect in a living room, such as the sofa, a television, cupboards, desks, drawers, et cetera. However, these are relatively simple models to create for the most part, so why bother creating these types of models again and again when we can access them on a third-party platform?
The Difference Between Free And Paid Sites
Some of the websites on the list mentioned above are free sites where you can access and download any of the models you wish. Your only requirement is going to be to register with the site itself.
However, there are other websites, such as Turbosquid, that allow artists to sell their assets and allow them to do so at any price that the artist wishes.
These assets can range into thousands of dollars very easily, and you will find these types of assets very quickly if you go to the Turbosquid homepage.
But why would you bother paying for an asset when you know you can get it for free? The key difference here is going to be quality. The assets that you find on websites like Turbo squid that you would have to pay a premium for will be extremely highly detailed models for the most part.
Even if you could create these models yourself, it would take hours to do so. And if you’re working as part of a larger project, it may be worth the investment because time is often equated to money.
An example is the availability of both the male and female anatomy that you can purchase on turbo squid for $2400. That’s a lot of money, but to get the human anatomy correct, it’s going to take a lot of research before you even take the time to begin modeling.
While you may certainly get human character models for free on websites like Blend Swap, they won’t match this level of detail.
Make Sure The License Allows You To Use The Asset
A key consideration, regardless of the website you choose to download your models from, is the license attributed to that model. Different licenses allow you to do different things with the model you choose to download.
Some licenses, for example, will permit the use of a model in commercial projects. Others may permit use for these projects but require you to credit the original artist of that asset if it is used. And then some licenses will forbid you from using an asset for professional or commercial use.
You want to ensure that the license associated with the model is a Creative Commons license, which will often give you the most freedom for downloaded assets. But there are different types of Creative Commons licenses.
For example, a common one that you will find is CC-BY. This license will allow you to use the model in any shape or form, even in a commercial project. However, if you use it commercially, the assets will require you to give credit to the original artist.
Another one that we make how many find is the CC-BY-NC license. The additional NC you see at the end of this license stands for noncommercial. This means that the assets attributed to this license cannot be used for any commercial purposes, but they can be used for anything that is not considered commercial.
A third license type that you will often see is CC-0, and this stands for no copyrights reserved. This is the best one you can look for because it relinquishes all rights from the original artist. You can use the asset for any purpose, and she won’t even have to credit the original artist when you used it.
The Best Free Sites For Downloading Blender Assets
To finish things off, we have a few free sites that we recommend taking a look at if you want to download assets for your blender projects.
In addition to the top sites that we’ve listed above, you are probably going to want to try as many of the free sites as you can. So all the options on this list allow you to download your models for free. Just make sure to look at the license before downloading.
- Blendswap
- Thangs
- Free3D
- BlenderKit
- Clara.io
- 3Dsky
Thanks For Reading The Article
We appreciate you taking the time to read through this article, and we hope you found the information that you were looking for and can now begin downloading some assets from our favourite websites.
There is a lot to learn concerning acquiring and distributing assets on these sites, so we’ve gathered some other articles listed below to help you along the way.
