5 Best Sites for Free 3D Textures

In 3D modeling, texturing is when you assign textures or materials to the faces of the model you’re working on. Thus, a texture is a bitmap that adds information to the object where it is applied, such as color, brightness, or roughness. The higher the quality of the image, the better the texture will be.

Unlike 2D textures, 3D textures contain layered info in three dimensions – depth, width, and height – to the material you want to represent in a 3D model. All this info is very useful when you’re trying to achieve a more realistic look in your renderings, since it helps to get closer to the appearance of the material in real life.

We’ve collected a list of websites where you can get some quality 3D textures for free. Learn all about them in the following!

Free PBR offers 2K resolution textures completely free. According to the creator of the site, the idea is to support indie game developers and the 3D design community with free content. You can download each texture with its respective normal, albedo, roughness, and ambient occlusion maps just by clicking on the texture. New content is uploaded monthly and you can support the site by buying one of the 3D model packs they offer.

Website: Free PBR

Pricing: 2K resolution materials for free

Support: Free PBR

Mihn Tran is a designer and YouTube creator who shares his ArchViz knowledge on his channel Architecture Inspirations, making tutorial videos where he primarily uses SketchUp and V-Ray for his workflow.

On his website, you can download different 3D models and textures in high resolution (1K) for free. These are the same assets he uses to make his tutorials, so you can expect good quality. However, if you’re looking for even better quality, you can support Mihn via Patreon to get access to his full material library in 4K resolution or V-Ray materials ready to use. New textures are uploaded every month.

Website: Architecture Inspirations

Pricing: 1K resolution materials for free, 4K resolution materials with support

Support: Patreon

3D Textures is a platform where you can find seamless free textures with high quality, made by the 3D artist Joao Paulo with the software Substance. All the textures have their diffuse, normal, specularity, roughness, occlusion, and displacement maps.

There’s a huge pack of textures available with 1K resolution for free. And if you support Joao’s work on Patreon or Ko-Fi, you’ll be able to access his 4K resolution collection as well as his low poly 3D models.

Website: 3D Textures

Pricing: 1K resolution materials for free, 4K resolution materials with support

Support: Patreon, Ko-Fi

Textures.com, previously known as CGtextures.com, it’s a digital picture library with more than 130,000 images available for download. In order to have access to the textures and their respective maps, you have to register an account, which will give you 15 credits per day towards downloading 1K resolution images (otherwise free).

If you need a higher resolution, you can purchase one of the credit packs they offer, having the possibility to download images in up to 32K resolution. Small credit packs start at $22, and yearly subscription plans at $179.

Website: Textures.com

Pricing: 1K resolution textures for free, up to 32K resolution textures with premium access

Premium Access: Textures.com

Poliigon is a website created by 3D artist Andrew Price. Though it’s mostly price-based, some 50 6K resolution features are available for free. All textures include their diffuse, reflection, normal, bump and occlusion maps.

Meanwhile, more than 3,000 great quality textures are available via various subscription and credit plans. These include a hobby license for $144 per year, a freelancer license for $216 per year, and a production license for $35 per month.

Website: Poliigon

Pricing: 54 free textures,over 3,000 more with premium access

Premium Access: Poliigon

Whether for your personal projects or your daily work, there are a lot of resources available to search for free 3D textures. Though this list represents what we feel are the best sources, they represent only a small example of what’s out there.

As you can see, many of these websites are created by indie texture developers and 3D artists, so if you find their work helpful, it might be worthwhile to support them. Whatever your choice, you’ll be sure to find some solid textures for your renders.

Feature image source: 80.lv