Poly Haven vs Texturelabs

Poly Haven is a curated public library of HDRIs, textures, and 3D models for visual effects artists and game designers. Its assets use a CC0 license and can be used commercially. The library describes its HDRIs as 16k+ resolution and unclipped, and its photoscanned seamless PBR textures as at least 8k. The public collection costs nothing, with no paywall or signup required. A Blender add-on brings assets into the software's asset browser and provides organized catalogs, resolution switching, automatic texture scaling, and one-click displacement setup. Poly Haven also offers an API whose default endpoints are free for personal, academic, and commercial use without login or an API key. Live API users must provide clear attribution and a unique User-Agent header. The organization says its assets are made by humans, avoiding generative AI and overreliance on procedural methods. Optional paid offerings include Vault access for $3 a month, a Blender add-on via Patreon for $5 a month, or an identical add-on via Superhive for $49, paid once.

Texturelabs is an online source of free original textures, tutorials, and custom tools for art and design. Its library spans subjects such as brick, concrete, fabric, glass, paper, stone, water, and wood, alongside atmosphere, film, grunge, and ink and paint. Tutorials cover Photoshop and After Effects. The Tools section includes Photoshop actions, brushes, gradient maps, patterns, and plugins, plus After Effects templates, bulk downloads, and lossless textures. Retratone offers print-style halftones, pattern styles, custom inks, and 100 built-in presets that users can save. Distressor is a Photoshop panel with 14 distress styles based on real-world samples. Textures can be used in personal and commercial work, including film, advertising, print, apparel, and video games, subject to restrictions against resale, redistribution, repackaging as competing design products, and AI training use. The plugins require Adobe Photoshop and Creative Cloud installation. Free textures and tutorials cost nothing; plugins and downloads are one-time purchases.