1. Design & Illustration

Design & Illustration Learning Guides

Discover our selections of the best free design tutorials on a range of topics, all in one place. If you want to brush up your Photoshop skills or learn a new piece of software like Adobe XD, you’ll find learning guides here to help you do that. Or maybe you want something more specialised, like learning how to draw textures or how to paint hair. We’ve got guides to help you with that too.

Just browse through the list and click on a topic that interests you to discover more and to find links to our hand-picked selection of free tutorials, designed to teach you that new skill or software as easily and enjoyably as possible.

  1. Create an Animated Fish Swarm in Blender Using Particles

    2 Posts
    In this two part tutorial from Frederik Steinmetz, you'll learn how to create a truly unique fish swarm animation using Blender. Frederik will guide you through the entire process of Modeling, Texturing, Rigging and Animating a realistic school of mackerels, which you'll then render using Blender's new cycles engine.
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  2. An Introduction To UVMapping In 3d Studio Max

    2 Posts
    So UVMapping... you hate it, I hate it. But unfortunately it's a necessary step in the process of completing most CG projects. In this tutorial, we'll look at creating UVs using the Unwrap UVW modifier in 3D Studio Max, and discuss what UVMapping is, why it's necessary and some ways to approach it.
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  3. SpeedTree To UDK: The Complete Workflow

    2 Posts
    In this two part series, artist Madhan Mohan will get you up to speed on working with Speedtree, and show you how to not only create an great looking optimized Pine tree, but how to get the model up and running inside of Unreal Development kit as well.
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  4. Low Poly T-Rex In Blender

    2 Posts
    In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to create an awesome low-poly T-Rex using Blender and Gimp. Artist Karan Shah will walk you through the entire process of Modeling, UVMapping and Texturing the T-Rex, and show you how to create an optimized model suitable for use in any game engine.
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  5. Model, Map and Texture a Ballistic Shield with 3D Studio Max

    3 Posts
    In this tutorial series, you’ll Model, UVMap and Texture a high poly Ballistic Shield in 3d Studio Max 2012. Throughout the project you’ll make extensive use of many of Max’s built in modeling tools and modifiers to create the shield. Once you have the high-res model constructed, you’ll go through a manual optimization process to significantly reduce the poly count before moving onto uvmapping and texturing.
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