LibGuides: Online Resources: Visual Arts

Animation Resources

Read daily news and insights regarding the subject of Animation & Visual Effects. This includes Informative Websites that will be handy throughout your school experience at LAFS.

Animation World Network
A free website with Animation news from around the world, jobs, blogs and events.
Animator's Resource Kit
An animation website that allows ease of access to useful assets and resources such as links to forums, communities, competitions, rigs, tools and places to submit work. Some resources are free and some have links to purchase.
Canadian Animation Resources
Free resource website to animation jobs, news, and more with a Canadian focus.
Cartoon Brew
A comprehensive animation news site. Also has links to free trials to animation software such as Harmony20.
Concept Art Empire
A free animation website with links to free tutorials, resources and even rigs. Concept Art Empire is to share helpful tips, quality info, and valuable resources for artists who love entertainment art.
Curious Refuge
A animation website you can shop for lighting, textures and more resources.
Free Sound
A free collaborative database of audio samples that are free to use and remix.
Game Textures
Our simple idea was to build a massive library of beautiful materials – and have a team of the happiest artists we could possibly find. Free game textures section and there is also a shop section.
Lester Banks
Lester banks.com is meant as a Free daily resource for 3D Artists, Motion Designers, VFX Artists, and people who love their craft and love to share techniques and tips.
Ottawa International Animation Festival
A free website with information to register to one of the world's premier animation festivals.
Storyboard Blog
A website for subscription purchase to create dynamic and powerful media. With features that go beyond moving text and images, you can build character-driven stories or compelling data visualizations that engage audiences and deliver results.
Tuts Plus
A subscription purchase website that helps you learn creative skills and shape the life you want.
Woman in Animation
WIA is a free website and one of the only organization dedicated to advancing women in the field of animation. We envision a world where women share equally in the creation, production and rewards of animation, and we provide resources and connections to make it happen.
Webtoons Site/App
A new way to create stories and opened it up to anyone with a story to tell.We’re home to thousands of creator-owned content with amazing, diverse visions from all over the world.Get in on the latest original romance, comedy, action, fantasy, horror, and more from big names and big names to be - made just for WEBTOON.We’re available anywhere, anytime, and always for free.

Magazines

Read Magazine daily news and insights regarding the subject of Animation & Visual Effects.

Flipster Magazines (EBSCOhost)
Log in with your LAFS username & password to gain access.
Animation Magazine
CGW Magazine
Cinefex
Computer Graphics World (CGW)
Juxatpoz
Post
Skwigly Online Magazine
Skywigly
VFXWorld Magazine
Covering areas as diverse as animator profiles, independent film distribution, commercial studio activities, licensing, CGI and other animation technologies, as well as in-depth coverage of current events in all fields of animation, AWN gives its readers an easy to navigate, visually and intellectually creative mechanism to electronically access a wealth of information previously unavailable anywhere in the world.

Animation & Visual Effects

Read daily news and insights regarding the subject of Animation & Visual Effects. This includes Blogs, Magazines, Forums, and Informative Websites that will be handy throughout your school experience at LAFS.

INFORMATIVE WEBSITES

Animation World Network
A free website with Animation news from around the world, jobs, blogs and events.
Animator's Resource Kit
An animation website that allows ease of access to useful assets and resources such as links to forums, communities, competitions, rigs, tools and places to submit work. Some resources are free and some have links to purchase.
Canadian Animation Resources
Free resource website to animation jobs, news, and more with a Canadian focus.
Cartoon Brew
A comprehensive animation news site. Also has links to free trials to animation software such as Harmony20.
Concept Art Empire
A free animation website with links to free tutorials, resources and even rigs. Concept Art Empire is to share helpful tips, quality info, and valuable resources for artists who love entertainment art.
Curious Refuge
A animation website you can shop for lighting, textures and more resources.
Free Sound
A free collaborative database of audio samples that are free to use and remix.
Game Textures
Our simple idea was to build a massive library of beautiful materials – and have a team of the happiest artists we could possibly find. Free game textures section and there is also a shop section.
Lester Banks
Lester banks.com is meant as a Free daily resource for 3D Artists, Motion Designers, VFX Artists, and people who love their craft and love to share techniques and tips.
Ottawa International Animation Festival
A free website with information to register to one of the world's premier animation festivals.
Storyboard Blog
A website for subscription purchase to create dynamic and powerful media. With features that go beyond moving text and images, you can build character-driven stories or compelling data visualizations that engage audiences and deliver results.
Tuts Plus
A subscription purchase website that helps you learn creative skills and shape the life you want.
Woman in Animation
WIA is a free website and one of the only organization dedicated to advancing women in the field of animation. We envision a world where women share equally in the creation, production and rewards of animation, and we provide resources and connections to make it happen.
Webtoons Site/App
A new way to create stories and opened it up to anyone with a story to tell.We’re home to thousands of creator-owned content with amazing, diverse visions from all over the world.Get in on the latest original romance, comedy, action, fantasy, horror, and more from big names and big names to be - made just for WEBTOON.We’re available anywhere, anytime, and always for free.
Flipster Magazines (EBSCOhost)
Log in with your LAFS username & password to gain access.
Animation Magazine
CGW Magazine
Cinefex
Computer Graphics World (CGW)
Juxatpoz
Post
Skwigly Online Magazine
Skywigly
VFXWorld Magazine
Covering areas as diverse as animator profiles, independent film distribution, commercial studio activities, licensing, CGI and other animation technologies, as well as in-depth coverage of current events in all fields of animation, AWN gives its readers an easy to navigate, visually and intellectually creative mechanism to electronically access a wealth of information previously unavailable anywhere in the world.

FORUMS / BLOGS

NationMaster
Statistics website blog. (TBD)
Animation Nation
A free animation industry site with articles, forums, resource links, and more!
Edge of Frame
A free blog about experimental animation.
Keyframe
A free site that features over 1500 animation project profiles and thousands of user-submitted reviews.
Recipes for Disaster: A Handcrafted Film Cookbooklet
A free long-form zine will walk you through cameraless animation, handprocessing film, and other tasty treats.

Published Journals

A Database is a searchable collection of information. You may find databases that the Library is subscribed to, which you will need to access them with your LAFS username and password. Other databases or informational sites listed are public and can be used as open-sourced. Find related and useful material on Animation & Visual Effects here!

Academic Search Elite (EBSCOhost)
Designed to meet every academic researcher's needs, Academic Search Elite provides access to acclaimed full-text scholarly journals and magazines. Log in with your LAFS username & password to gain access.
Business Source Elite (EBSCOhost)
This database provides full-text coverage of top business, management, and economics journals and periodicals. Log in with your LAFS username & password to gain access.bLog in with your LAFS username & password to gain access.
Directory of Open Access Journals
DOAJ is an online directory that indexes and provides access to quality open access, peer-reviewed journals. Access for FREE here!
ERIC (EBSCOhost)
The Education Resources Information Center (ERIC) is an online digital library of education research and information. Log in with your LAFS username & password to gain access.
Film & Television Literature Index (EBSCOhost)
Film & Television Literature Index is a database of all types of writing on film and television, including academic journals, industry and trade papers, news journalism, and popular magazines. Log in with your LAFS username & password to gain access.
HathiTrust Digital Library
HathiTrust Digital Library is a large-scale collaborative repository of digital content from research libraries including content digitized via Google Books and the Internet Archive digitization initiatives, as well as content digitized locally by libraries. FREE open access to journals, books, and other digitized Items that are readily available here!
Henry Stewart Marketing Journals Collection
HS Talks offers access to peer-reviewed vocational journals containing articles and case studies suitable for inclusion in courses, to support projects, and to enhance employability and preparation for the world of work. Log in with your LAFS username & password to gain access.
Hit Songs Deconstructed
Hit Songs Deconstructed provides creatives and music industry professionals with powerful interactive tools, data, and analysis to support their creative process, stay in tune with how today’s hits are evolving, and make strategic songwriting, production, and business decisions. Log in with your LAFS username & password to gain access.
IMDb
IMDb is an online database of information related to films, television programs, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew, and personal biographies, plot summaries, trivia, ratings, and fan & critical reviews. Free for non-commercial use. Upgrade to Pro for a price per month/year to get more features.
International Journal of Sport Management, Recreation & Tourism
IJSMaRT aims to present current practice and research in the area of sport management and marketing, recreation, and sports tourism. FREE open access journals available here.
International Music Score Library Project
A subscription-based project for the creation of a virtual library of public-domain music scores. Users can exchange musical ideas through the site, submit their own compositions, or listen to other people's compositions.
Regional Business News (EBSCOhost)
Regional Business News provides full-text regional business publications for the United States and Canadian provinces. Users can search for newspapers, magazines, and other resources from trusted news sources. Log in with your LAFS username & password to gain access. Log in with your LAFS username & password to gain access.
Smithsonian Open Access
Download, share and reuse millions of the Smithsonian's images. This includes images and data from across the Smithsonian's 19 museums, nine research centers, libraries, archives, and the National Zoo. FREE open access journals available here.
Variety Insight
Variety Insight is the leading entertainment data solution that provides verified, timely, and accurate metadata around people, projects, and companies that work in the global entertainment business. Log in with your LAFS username & password to gain access. *Limit only 50 concurrent users at one time while using the platform.

Software Tools

https://www.oberlo.com/blog/free-animation-software

Animate.CSS
Compiled by Dan Eden, this library includes almost every CSS animation you could need, from the basics (bounce, fade in) to something more exciting (Jack in the Box, Jello).
These 77 animations are all created in CSS and ready to use for FREE. Simply reference the CSS file, and when you add classes to an element, the animation happens. This works best when adding or removing classes using JavaScript.
Blender
Blender is the FREE and open source 3D creation suite. It supports the entirety of the 3D pipeline—modeling, rigging, animation, simulation, rendering, compositing and motion tracking, video editing and 2D animation pipeline.
CSS3 Animation Cheat Sheets
This helpful project offers a set of preset, plug-and-play animations for you to use in your web projects for FREE. Just add the stylesheet to your website and apply the premade CSS classes to the elements you want to animate. This cheat sheet uses CSS3 keyframes, which means you don't need to worry about positioning the element to make room for the animations.
DaVince Resolve
DaVinci Resolve is a color correction and non-linear video editing application for macOS, Windows, and Linux, originally developed by da Vinci Systems, and now developed by Blackmagic Design. You can download it from the official website for FREE.
Krita
Krita is a FREE and open-source raster graphics editor designed primarily for digital painting and 2D animation. It runs on Windows, macOS, Linux, Android and Chrome OS.
OpenToonz
Opentoonz is most certainly an amazing FREE 2D animation suite if you want to get into REAL 2D (frame by frame) animation. It can be used free of charge for both commercial and non-commercial projects. Available as an open-source so that anyone can modify its source code freely.

Animation Resources

Adobe After Effects
Start a fire, make it rain, or do anything else you can imagine. It’s easier than you think to add amazing visual effects and motion graphics. Adobe programs are free for most of LAFS students.
Adobe Animate
Adobe offers animation apps that work with all your ideas — and each other. Animate in real time with Character Animator, or use Animate to create interactive vector animations. Create intros, transitions, and more with After Effects. And move seamlessly between them all. Adobe programs are free for most of LAFS students.
Adobe Character Animator
Character Animator uses your expressions and movements to animate characters in real time. It’s so fast, you can livestream while you work to wow audiences every step of the way. Using your webcam and microphone, Character Animator revolutionizes live-performance animation with automatic lip sync and face and body tracking, powered by Adobe Sensei AI. Adobe programs are free for most of LAFS students.
Animaker
Its primary function is making videos and animated GIFs using an HTML5 engine. The app makes it easy for beginners with templates, auto lip-sync, and a library of facial expressions. The site also has an extensive image library with music and sound effects to create high-quality videos. You can even do voiceovers with your choice of voice. Has a free option but limited resources on the free account, but you can pick which subscription is better for you $ wise.
Autodesk 3D Animation (Maya)
Maya is professional 3D software for creating realistic characters and blockbuster-worthy effects. Bring believable characters to life with engaging animation tools. Shape 3D objects and scenes with intuitive modeling tools. Create realistic effects—from explosions to cloth simulation. It is subscription based, but it has a free trial.
Blender
Blender is the free and open source 3D creation suite. It supports the entirety of the 3D pipeline—modeling, rigging, animation, simulation, rendering, compositing and motion tracking, even video editing and game creation. They are free but you can donate to them.
Cartoon Animator 4
To get a professional finished look in CTA projects, here we provide a seamless workflow to After Effects. Through the AE Script, you can reconstruct exported CTA projects as AE layers , while keeping the keyframes and Z-depth of all objects, along with the sound and camera movements. The new CTA to AE pipeline gives the highest flexibility on final compositing and VFX editing in After Effects. It is subscription based, but it has a free trial.
Moho Animation Software
Technology designed for 2D animation. Moho Animation Software provides professional, powerful and easy to use rigging and animation tools. Just draw directly in Moho or import your artwork from any other app. Moho will give you easier and faster results with the quality you are looking for. It is a one time purchase for whichever subscription you want.
OpenToonz
Based on the software "Toonz", developed by Digital Video S.p.A. in Italy, OpenToonz has been customized by Studio Ghibli, and used for the creation of its works for many years. We aim to develop a new platform for connecting the academic research with cutting edge animation production. Also free and open sourced.
Pencil2D
This is a basic program for beginner animators with 2D designs. It works with both raster and vector workflows, giving you optimal flexibility. A free, open-source program.
Powtoon
Powtoon is a FREE leading video and visual communication platform. Powtoon's mission is to empower individuals, teams, and companies to achieve measurable results by transforming communications into visual experiences that get their audience to care, connect, and act. Subscription models for a price.
Sidefx (Houdini)
For over thirty years, SideFX has been providing artists with procedural 3D animation and visual effects tools designed to create the highest-quality cinematic results. We are passionate about what our customers do because our roots are in production, both as artists and as pioneering technical innovators.Houdini Apprentice is the free version of Houdini fx for everybody.
Stykz
It is a 2D animation program that makes it easy to bring stick figures to life. It’s a frame-based software to give you optimal control over your work using onion skins to make sure everything works seamlessly. Completely free!!
Synfig
Synfig is a powerful, industrial-strength vector-based 2D animation software package, designed from the ground-up for producing feature-film quality 2D animation with fewer people and resources. Completely free!!