FREE creator tools - graphics edition
It helps to have a friend who can search in a different language
Hello Scientist Gamers!
My writing schedule is all over the place this month, thrown off by the massive list of games (Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3) that I am looking forward to this year. Of course, since its publication, there have been more games that were announced or that came onto my radar that I’m excited about; my wallet, not so much.
Today, I wanted to share some of my favourite free resources for creating content, whether it be for streaming, videos, or a newsletter. Most of the resources that I will be sharing today will be in Japanese - but fear not, with today’s advances in browser-based translation, it shouldn’t be too difficult and I can always provide support if you need it.
Speech bubbles
Fukidashi Design
License: free
Attribution: not required if using less than 20; if using more, they ask that you give them a shoutout
Use: not for resale (altered or not), license to assets cannot be transferred to a third party
File types: .jpg, .png, .svg, .ai
There are over 1000 speech bubbles of all sorts to choose from. Each bubble comes with some options like shadow and colour options controlled by a hex code so you can customize the bubbles in the browser before downloading.
The different types of speech bubbles are clearly indicated by the iconography just below the search bar, so it should make searching for the one you want a breeze. The only word in that menu option is at the end, which just reads “Other”.
I’ve used many of these for content creation and they are great fun to give your creative content that extra pizzazz.
Thumbnails
Okumono
License: free
Attribution: not required
Use: not for resale (altered or not), license to assets cannot be transferred to a third party, cannot be used to train AI
File types: .png
If you’re looking for some inspiration or a background to help frame your next thumbnail, this site has loads of backgrounds that you can use for free, in 1920 x 1080 resolution. In my experience, they’ve upscaled well to 2560 x 1440 resolution, so you can use it for all of your HD content.
This site is a bit more difficult to navigate as the options and categories are all in Japanese. The first drop down lists the current categories of backgrounds such as food, animals, and sci-fi/fantasy. These options are likely to change so it is probably worth clicking through them to find what might be useful for you.
The last text box is a keyword search, which you could use by getting Google to translate your keyword search into Japanese and copying and pasting the result into this keyword box.
Once you’ve picked an image you like, right-click and save as to the folder of your choice.
Okumono +F
License: free
Attribution: not required
Use: not for resale (altered or not), license to assets cannot be transferred to a third party, cannot be used to train AI
File types: .png
This is a related site but focused on borders and frames. If you wanted to add some interesting visuals to frame your content, this would be the place to look.
The icons along the top give you an indication of the style of frame you might expect to find: the first one from the left will be rectangular, followed by circular, followed by cloud-like graphics. The last three in this row, starting from the left, are specifically designed for subtitles, ribbons, and speech bubbles.
Once you’ve picked an image you like, right-click and save as to the folder of your choice.
All of these are fun to use both as part of thumbnails or in videos.
Illustrations
Irasuton
License: free
Attribution: not required
Use: not for resale (altered or not), license to assets cannot be transferred to a third party
File types: .jpg
If you’re going for a cute, hand drawn aesthetic, look no further than this site. There is a large collection of free to use illustrations, and you’ll find everything from toys to seasonal festivals.
The full list of categories is just below the two search bars on the left (why there are two of them, I’m not exactly sure). But the illustrated categories just below the banner will give you a good idea of what you can expect: for example, the middle graphic in the top row is for events (like weddings), while the one below that is for flowers and plants.
You can always see if you can find something specific by translating your request into Japanese and pasting it into the search bar.
Once you’ve picked your image, you can download it by right-clicking and selecting save as.
I realize that not all of these sites will be for everyone, especially if the aesthetics don’t match your brand, but I hope that you found something that would be useful to you. For part 2 of this series, I’ll provide some links to free sources of royalty-free music and sound effects so stay tuned!
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