The biggest buzz I get out of making things is sharing the custom assets I create that make them possible - with no price tags attached.
Aside from my personal projects, I run the Dead Letter Library, a growing stash of royalty-free assets built specifically for indie creators, from game devs and filmmakers to digital artists and producers. The assets are hand crafted with zero AI.
Whether you are after custom LUTs, collage art, textured overlays, or atmospheric soundscapes, it is all up for grabs. I spent way too many years surviving on cup noodles and scavenging for usable, restriction-free tools (without having to lift them off uni hard drives). Now that I have finally figured a few things out, I just want to make the journey a little easier for anyone else grinding it out.
All of the Dead Letter Library asset packs are free to download and 100% royalty-free to use (Donations are never expected but always deeply appreciated). You can download a copy of the usage license here.
FREE DIGITAL SOFTWARE TOOLS
While there are plenty of fantastic paid options out there in the digital art, film & music space, you don’t need a massive budget or a commercial studio workstation to be creative - just a computer, laptop, or tablet, and a willingness to think outside the box - "How can I do this?" not "I wish I could do this..".
Affinity is my creative workstation of choice for visual art; it easily rivals heavyweights like Photoshop, and following its acquisition by Canva, the full core software is entirely free to download and use.
Alongside Affinity, I dabble with Krita, Blender, and DaVinci Resolve across my design, recording, and production work. While tools like Davinci Resolve offer optional paid upgrades, open-source powerhouses like Krita, Audacity, GIMP, and Blender require no payment at all. These are ballsy and capable standalone programs which provide everything you need to bring your creative visions to life.
There are plenty of other awesome artists, volunteer collectives and organisations also releasing art tools and content, either under a Creative Commons or royalty free license.
Copyright can be a murky swamp to wade in sometimes, if ever in doubt with a source - Just play it safe and assume the content cannot be reused without permission, or simply reach out to them! You might be surprised to find your favourite artists and musicians (may) be open to helping you out.
Some of the creative resources I use myself can be found below.
Wikimedia Commons is a media file repository making available public domain and freely licensed educational media content (images, sound and video clips) to everyone, in their own language. It acts as a common repository for the various projects of the Wikimedia Foundation, but you do not need to belong to one of those projects to use media hosted here. The repository is created and maintained not by paid archivists, but by volunteers.
The Heritage Library is a curated archive of restored vintage illustrations, completely free for both personal and commercial creative projects. Each historical asset is carefully researched and edited to make it instantly usable, offering high-quality illustration bundles designed to inspire everything from packaging design to physical prints and digital art.
THE PUBLIC DOMAIN IMAGE LIBRARY (PDA)
The Public Domain Image Archive is a curated collection of more than 10,000 out-of-copyright historical images, free for all to explore and reuse. With the aim to offer a platform that serves both as a practical resource and a place to simply explore an ever-growing portal of more than 2000 years of visual culture.
The creators of League of Legends and Valorant have worked to create expansive creator-safe playlists that are consistently updated as new music becomes available. The playlists are meant to give you freedom and peace of mind to use the music in your content on streaming and social platforms, as long as you follow the pretty relaxed guidelines.
Pexels is a popular free stock photo and video website that provides high-quality, copyright-free visual media for personal and commercial use. Founded in 2014, the platform allows creators, designers, and businesses to download and use media without needing to pay or credit the original creator.
Smithsonian Open Access allows creators to download, share, and reuse millions of 2D and 3D digital assets spanning science, history, and art collections. All assets released under this initiative are dedicated to the public domain under Creative Commons Zero (CC0), offering high-resolution artifacts, scientific specimens, and cultural imagery that can be adapted for any creative or commercial work.
