Free Blender Addons that even the PROs USE!

Summary

This script offers an extensive list of free Blender addons, meticulously curated from various platforms to enhance users' 3D modeling and animation experience. It highlights tools for realistic car rigging, vegetation scattering, animation, and shading, among others. The speaker emphasizes the value of these addons, including RBC for car physics, Biome Reader for vegetation, and Real Sky for atmospheric effects, while also suggesting practical installation tips to maintain Blender's performance.

Takeaways

• 🛠️ The RBC addon is a physics-based car-rigging tool that is both effective and easy to set up, with the free version being sufficient for most daily car rigging needs.
• 🌿 The Biome Reader and Plant Library by bd3d offer over 170+ high-quality vegetation assets and a scattering addon, providing professional and realistic plant and vegetation options for free.
• 🎮 The Gscatter addon complements the Plant Library with additional high-quality grass assets and advanced scattering capabilities, all available at no cost.
• 🔄 The Wiggle Bones addon is essential for animators, simplifying the addition of secondary motion to rigs and also useful for rope and jiggle physics.
• 🌅 The Real Sky and Alt+Tab Ocean addons are designed to create realistic skies and oceans with various customization options and pre-made materials.
• 🌲 The Blender Mossify Addon is praised for its high-quality moss effects, being easy to use and free, despite being based on geometry nodes.
• 🦴 Blenrig6 is a rigging tool used in many Blender open movies, featuring an interactive Rigging Assistant Guide that automates over half of the rigging process.
• 🔗 Quicksnap is a handy alignment tool that allows for quick snapping of objects to faces, vertices, and edges without entering edit mode.
• 💥 The Cracks and Damage Maker addon enables the quick addition of cracks and damage to models with procedural noise generation.
• 🖌️ Grunge it adds procedural grunge and dirt to materials with adjustable nodes for custom dirt and imperfection effects.
• 🌐 Deep Bump is a crucial shading tool that generates normal and height maps for image textures lacking them, enhancing material realism.

Q & A

What is the purpose of the video?

The video aims to provide a comprehensive list of free Blender addons found on BlenderMarket, Gumroad, and ArtStation, which the creator found and compiled.

Why is the node wrangler addon not included in the list?

The node wrangler addon is not included because it is already a well-known and widely used addon, and the creator wanted to highlight other addons.

What is the RBC addon and what does it do?

The RBC addon is a physics-based car-rigging tool that allows users to rig 4-wheelers and control the car to follow the terrain's topology.

What are the features of the Biome Reader and Plant Library addons?

The Biome Reader and Plant Library addons provide over 170+ vegetation assets and a scattering addon with presets for adding realistic plants and vegetation to Blender scenes.

What is the Wiggle Bones addon used for?

The Wiggle Bones addon is used for adding secondary motion to rigs, rope physics, and jiggle physics, making animations more dynamic and realistic.

How does the Real Sky addon enhance Blender scenes?

The Real Sky addon allows users to create realistic skies with options to adjust the sun's position based on time, date, and location, as well as add different types of clouds.

What functionality does the Alt+Tab Ocean addon provide?

The Alt+Tab Ocean addon simplifies the ocean modifier, offering presets for creating oceans, lakes, and ponds, along with pre-made materials for ocean meshes.

What is the Blender Mossify addon and how is it used?

The Blender Mossify addon is a geometry nodes-based tool for adding high-quality moss to scenes. It is easy to use and functional, despite not being a traditional addon.

What benefits does the Blenrig6 addon offer for rigging in Blender?

The Blenrig6 addon provides an interactive rigging assistant guide that automates over 50% of the rigging process, making it easier to rig models for animation projects.

How does the ImagePaste addon improve workflow in Blender?

The ImagePaste addon allows users to paste images directly from the clipboard into Blender as planes, streamlining the process of adding image textures to scenes.

What does the 'Drop It' addon do?

The 'Drop It' addon allows users to easily place objects exactly above other objects without mesh clipping, ensuring accurate positioning with a single click.

What is the purpose of the EasyHDRi addon?

The EasyHDRi addon lets users quickly access and test different HDRI lighting setups from the N panel, making it easier to find the best lighting for a scene.

What are some of the materials libraries mentioned in the video?

The video mentions several material libraries, including the Substance 3D addon, Realtime Materials by Ducky3D, Sanctus Library, Poliigon addon, and BlenderKit addon.

What is the Geocables addon used for?

The Geocables addon is a geometry nodes-based tool for adding hanging cables or wires to scenes, with various sliders for customization.

Why should users install the Screenspace Global Illumination version of Blender?

The Screenspace Global Illumination version of Blender provides realistic environment-based bounce lighting, which is not available by default in Blender's Eevee renderer.

How does the Sketchfab addon simplify model importation?

The Sketchfab addon allows users to import models directly into Blender by pasting the model's link into the addon, saving time and effort in mapping textures manually.

What does the Camera Shakify addon provide?

The Camera Shakify addon offers various camera shake presets, making it easy to add dynamic camera movements to scenes.

What is the UV Squares addon used for?

The UV Squares addon helps users convert their UVs into perfect squares, making UV mapping more manageable and efficient.

What advice does the creator give about installing addons?

The creator advises installing addons on a separate older version of Blender to keep the main Blender version optimized, only keeping daily-used addons installed on the main version.

What is the purpose of the Quicksnap addon?

The Quicksnap addon allows users to quickly snap objects to faces, vertices, and edges of other objects in the scene, streamlining the alignment process.

Outlines

00:00

🚗 Introducing Free Blender Addons for Car Rigging and More

The script introduces a curated list of free Blender addons, starting with the RBC addon, a physics-based car-rigging tool that simplifies the setup process for realistic vehicle dynamics. It also mentions the Biome Reader and Plant Library by bd3d, offering over 170 realistic vegetation assets and a scattering addon. The Gscatter addon is recommended for additional vegetation needs. The Wiggle Bones addon is highlighted for adding secondary motion to animations, and the Real Sky and Alt+Tab Ocean addons are praised for their realistic sky and ocean creation capabilities. The Blender Mossify Addon is noted for its high-quality moss generation, while the Blenrig6 addon is recognized for its rigging assistance in animation projects.

05:00

🌿 Must-Have Addons for Animation and Material Enhancement

This paragraph delves into essential Blender addons for animators, including Quicksnap for object alignment, Cracks and Damage Maker for adding procedural damage to models, and Grunge it for applying dirt effects. Deep Bump is mentioned for generating normal and height maps, while the Anti-Seam addon is highlighted for seamless texturing. JREMESHER is recommended as a free remeshing tool, and the suggestion is made to install addons on a separate Blender version to keep the main one optimized. ImagePaste is introduced for direct image pasting from the clipboard, and 'Drop It' simplifies object placement. EasyHDRi and EASYPBR are praised for their ease of accessing HDRIs and materials, respectively. The Substance 3D addon is noted for its high-quality materials, and the free versions of Realtime Materials, Sanctus Library, and Poliigon are recommended for their procedural material offerings.

10:00

🔌 Exploring Addons for Environmental and Texturing Utilities

The final paragraph covers a range of addons for environmental effects and texturing. Geocables is an addon for integrating hanging cables or wires with customizable modifiers. Ivy Generator is another geometry nodes-based addon for adding ivy to scenes. The Screenspace Global Illumination addon is essential for Eevee users seeking realistic lighting. The Sketchfab addon streamlines the process of importing models from Sketchfab. The Camera Shakify addon offers camera shake presets, and the UV Squares addon is a solution for managing UVs. The script concludes by inviting viewers to share their favorite free addons and humorously warns against mentioning the Node Wrangler addon.

Keywords

💡Blender

Blender is a free and open-source 3D creation suite used for 3D modeling, animation, rendering, and more. It is the central theme of the video as the script discusses various Blender addons. For instance, the script mentions 'Blender addon video' and 'main blender version,' indicating that the addons discussed are designed to enhance the functionality of the Blender software.

💡Addons

Addons in the context of the video are additional tools or plugins that extend the functionality of the Blender software. The script discusses numerous free addons available for Blender, such as 'RBC addon' and 'Biome Reader,' which are used to improve the user experience and capabilities within the 3D creation process.

💡RBC Addon

The RBC addon is a physics-based car-rigging tool for Blender mentioned in the script. It allows users to easily set up car models with realistic physics by separating the tires and body, and marking them in the addon's UI. The script emphasizes its ease of use and the impressive results it provides for car rigging in Blender.

💡Biome Reader

Biome Reader is a scattering addon for Blender that comes with a pack of over 170+ vegetation assets, as mentioned in the script. It provides a professional and realistic look to plant and vegetation models in 3D scenes. The addon can scatter any assets, not just those from the included plant library, making it a versatile tool for enhancing 3D environments.

💡Wiggle Bones

Wiggle Bones is an animation addon for Blender that facilitates the addition of secondary motion to rigs, as described in the script. It is essential for animators as secondary motion is a key principle in creating realistic animations. The addon is highlighted for its utility in adding jiggle or rope physics to animations.

💡Real Sky

Real Sky is an addon that enables the creation of realistic skies in Blender scenes. The script mentions its capability to mimic the sun's location based on various parameters and includes options for the four most common types of clouds. It is one of the addons recommended for achieving a naturalistic look in 3D renderings.

💡Alt+Tab Ocean

The Alt+Tab Ocean addon is another tool mentioned in the script, designed to create realistic oceans in Blender. It simplifies the use of the ocean modifier and provides pre-made materials for ocean meshes. The addon is also versatile, allowing for the creation of lakes and ponds, in addition to oceans.

💡Mossify

Mossify is a Blender addon that generates high-quality moss textures, as noted in the script. Although it is based on geometry nodes, it is praised for its ease of use and functionality. The addon is recommended for users looking to add realistic moss effects to their 3D models.

💡Blenrig6

Blenrig6 is a rigging tool addon for Blender that has been used in several Blender open movies, as mentioned in the script. It features an interactive Rigging Assistant Guide that automates a significant portion of the rigging process and provides step-by-step instructions, making it a valuable tool for animation projects.

💡Quicksnap

Quicksnap is a Blender addon that simplifies the alignment and snapping of objects within a scene. The script describes its functionality, where users can select an object and snap it to faces, vertices, or edges of another object by using a shortcut and hovering over the target. This tool is highlighted for its convenience and efficiency in the 3D modeling process.

💡Cracks and Damage Maker

The Cracks and Damage Maker addon for Blender allows users to quickly add cracks and damage effects to models in their scenes, as described in the script. It provides presets and sliders for generating procedural noise, offering a way to create realistic damage textures on 3D models.

Highlights

A comprehensive list of free Blender addons has been curated for users.

The Node Wrangler addon is notably absent from the list, which is unexpected for a Blender addon video.

The RBC addon is a physics-based car-rigging tool that is both effective and easy to set up.

Biome Reader and Plant Library by bd3d offer over 170+ vegetation assets and a scattering addon for realistic plant rendering.

Gscatter addon provides high-quality grass assets and advanced scattering capabilities.

Wiggle bones addon is essential for adding secondary motion to animations, beneficial for rope and jiggle physics.

Real Sky and Alt+Tab Ocean addons offer realistic skies and oceans with various customization options.

Blender Mossify Addon provides high-quality moss effects easily through geometry nodes.

Blenrig6 addon is a rigging tool used in many Blender open movies with an interactive rigging assistant guide.

Quicksnap addon simplifies object alignment by snapping to faces, vertices, and edges with ease.

Cracks and Damage Maker addon allows for quick addition of cracks and damage to models with procedural noise.

Grunge it adds procedural dirt and imperfections to materials with adjustable nodes.

Deep Bump generates normal and height maps for image textures without them, enhancing material realism.

Anti-seam addon removes texture seams, creating seamless textures for a more polished look.

JREMESHER is a free remeshing addon that optimizes models effectively.

ImagePaste takes the Images to Plane addon further by allowing direct pasting from the clipboard.

Drop It simplifies placing objects above others without mesh clipping with a single click.

EasyHDRi provides quick access to a library of HDRIs for testing lighting setups.

EASYPBR and Substance 3D addons offer access to high-quality materials from AmbientCG and Substance libraries.

Realtime Materials by ducky3d and the Sanctus Library provide free versions of procedural materials with sliders.

Poliigon addon integrates with Blender to provide high-quality materials quickly.

Geocables and Ivy Generator are geometry nodes based addons for creating hanging cables and ivy with customization options.

Screenspace Global Illumination is essential for Eevee users to achieve realistic bounce lighting.

Sketchfab addon streamlines the process of importing models from Sketchfab into Blender.

Camera Shakify addon offers camera shake presets for an intuitive setup.

UV Squares addon corrects messy UVs by turning them into perfect squares for better manageability.

Transcripts

So i just sorted the main blendermarket page

by price: low to high and then went through 100s of pages of free addons listed there,

and then i did the same thing on gumroad and then the same thing on artstation and just

came up with this amazing list of free addons just for you guys. And guess what it does

not even include the node wrangler addon. Can you believe it, a blender addon video

that doesn’t include the node wrangler addon. That’s gotta be impressive. Right?

Now you’ve got to watch till the end, just out of respect. I think that’s a fair exchange, right?

Starting with–the RBC addon. This is a physics

based car-rigging tool. And i’m gonna be honest. It is mind blowing how well it works–and

how easy it is to set it up. All you gotta do is separate the 4-tyres and the body of

the car. Mark them appropriately here in the addon UI. and you’re good to go.

And because it is physics based, you can make any kind of terrain and the car will automatically

follow the topology of the floor. In the free version, you can only rig 4-wheelers and control

the car using only these text fields. But If you get the paid, version, you can control

the car using a controller–or a keyboard. Like a game, literally. It’s a crazy addon,

and the free version is more than capable of any daily car rigging needs you might have, so

definitely try it out. Next, i've gotta shout out the Biome Reader and

the Plant Library by bd3d - hands down the most professional and realistic looking plant

and vegetations addon i’ve ever seen made available for free. In it, you get a pack

with over 170+ vegetation assets. Not only that, you get a free scattering addon called

biome reader, that has a bunch of scattering presets included in it. And it’s not that

you HAVE to use these plant library assets with this addon. You can scatter anything

you want with it. So, Download it now, before they realize they’re giving away way too

much for free and then make it paid maybe. so go--download it now

But if that doesn’t suffice your vegetation and scattering needs, go ahead and install the Gscatter addon as well. It’s also got

some super-high quality grass assets available for free. Not to mention it’s world-class

scattering capabilities as well. All of this for absolutely no charge at all–and i have come across

very few situations where these two addons have not been enough for my vegetation needs.

So install them both, if you haven’t already. Now let’s talk about the wiggle bones addon–which

is Just an absolute necessity if you intend to make animations. Secondary motion is a

really important principle in animation and wiggle bone makes it a breeze to add secondary

motion to your rigs. Not just that, it’s also great for rope physics, or jiggle physics,

if you are into that. Who isn’t actually?. So wiggle bones, is kinda for everyone,

i guess. So, Install it immediately

Ok, now, let’s look at the real sky addon

and also the alt+tab ocean addon. As both their names suggest, they can be used to make

realistic skies and realistic oceans. Real sky has a ton of useful options. It can

mimic the location of the sun based on the month, day or time or latitude value you put

in these fields. Not just that, it also has the 4 most common types of clouds that you

can very easily add into your scene, with really handy location, coverage and density

sliders included in it. And the alt+tab ocean addon on the other hand

has a ton of presets for making oceans. It basically makes the ocean modifier more accessible

and simple to understand.It also gives you 9 pre-made materials you can apply on these

ocean meshes. And it’ not just limited to making oceans, you can use it to make lakes

or ponds as well. Both of them, really handy. Really useful addons. So, Try them out.

Next on the list is–this Blender Mossify Addon. And this is some high-quality moss,

if i’ve ever seen any. The best in the market right now, if you ask me. It’s not particularly

an addon tho, it’s a geometry nodes based thing–but who cares about that. It is easy

to use, functional as hell and above all–just absolutely free. So get your hands on it as

soon as you can. I also recently found out about the Blenrig6

addon - which is a rigging tool that has been extensively used to rig models for a lot of

blender open movies–agent 327 and spring to name a few. It now has a really Interactive

Rigging Assistant Guide that will navigate you through the entire rigging process, from

start to finish.This guide will not only tell you what to do in each step with text and

explanatory images, but will also automate more than 50% of the labor. So you’ve got

to try out for your next animation project. Allright, let’s quickly look at the ‘quicksnap’

addon now. All you gotta do to use it is–select an object, press the shortcut shift+ctrl+V,

and then hover any other object in the scene and select a face you wanna snap this object

on to and quicksnap will do it for you. Not just faces, it snaps to vertices and edges

as well. And what i really like about it is, it automatically detects the wireframe of

every object you hover over, without you manually having to go into the edit mode, which is

really neat. SO it;s a really useful snapping and alignment tool–and as blender users

we couldn’t appreciate it more. So go download it now

Next on the list is the cracks and damage maker addon, which obviously, helps you quickly

add cracks and damage to any model in your scene. The addon has two presets and a bunch

of sliders that you can adjust to generate any kind of procedural noise in your model.

So definitely check it out. Let’s also checkout Grunge it–which adds

procedural grunge and dirt to your materials. It just adds these two nodes to your material

setup which then you can adjust to get your preferred amount of dirt and imperfection

in your models–in merely seconds.

And while we’re talking about improving materials, let’s not forget about deep bump.

Which will generate a normal map and a height map for any image texture you don’t have

a normal map and height map for. A very very important tool in my opinion. So keep it installed

for any future usage. Another important shading tool would be the–anti-seam

addon. Which helps remove any kind of seams from your textures. And it does an impeccable

job in making any kind of texture truly seamless. So give it a try

Let’s now look at ‘JREMESHER’. Which is a free remeshing addon. Who doesn’t need

a free remeshing addon, right? It’s crazy how well it works, for the price it’s available

at. Which is free. SO if you’re looking to optimize some models in your scene, JREMESHER

is the perfect remeshing addon for you.

BTW, don’t install all these addons onto your main blender version. What i’d suggest

is, install it on a separate older version of blender, like i have most of my addons

on this older blender 3.3 version. And Only keep the addons you use almost daily, installed

on your main blender version. THis helps keep your main blender version pretty optimised. so yeah. do that

Talking off daily addons, you gotta checkout ImagePaste

We all know the Images to plane addon that comes prepacked in blender. ImagePaste takes

that addon to the next level and allows you to directly paste an image from your clipboard.

So just copy any image texture you want in your scene and just paste it into your scene using this

‘Paste from Clipboard as Plane’ option. A huge time-saver, in my opinion. And really

convenient. So go give it a try Now, Let’s look at another simple addon

called ‘drop it’.How many times have you come across situations where you’re just

trying to put an object exactly above another object so there’s no mesh clipping. But

With drop it, you’ll be able to just drop it . In a click of a button. And it will stick

right to the floor. Isn’t that convenient? So definitely go check out drop it.

This Next addon is one of my favorites. It’s

called easyHDRi. All you gotta do here, is define the path to wherever you save all your

HDRIs. And that’s it. now they are all accessible here in the N panel, in a click of a button.

I use it all the time, to test out a bunch of different lighting setups for my scene

and quickly find which lighting looks best for it. And it has a bunch of extra sliders

in here as well, which also come really handy in a lot of situations.. I cannot recommend

it enough. Please try it out. And from the same creator, we also have an

addon called ‘EASYPBR’, that directly links to the ambientcg.com website we all

know and love, so now you have access to all those materials right here in blender.

Don’t ignore the substance 3d addon for blender too. It opens up a whole new library

of really high quality materials for your projects, and there’s a ton of free substance

3d materials available online so, install it if you’re bored of your regular image

textures. A lot of the times, it gives a lot more procedural sliders than normal materials which is really fun

to play around with. Another amazing material library for you guys

is the free version of the realtime materials made by ducky3d. It has 40 really useful materials,

and each of them hve really handy procedural sliders, so don’t sleep on this free version

of the addon. The full version is even more feature packed, but the free version is no

less either. So, give it a try. .The Sanctus Library is another set of really

amazing procedural materials. This is again a limited free version of the full thing.

But still equally powerful if you ask me. It has a ton of really important material

categories available in the free pack. So install it and try it out for yourself

Same goes for the Poliigon addon. It also

has a ton of crazy free materials. And the addon is very well integrated with Blender,

so you get really high quality materials for your scenes in just a few clicks of a button

And if these weren’t enough, my favorite

addon to get some more free materials is the blenderkit addon. It is just packed with thousands

of high quality materials and a lot of other stuff as well, but i find myself primarily

using their shader library. And if you haven’t already tried it, I suggest you do as soon

as you can. Now, let’s cover Geocables. A geometry nodes

based addon that lets you integrate hanging cables or wires into your scene. With a lot

of sliders too here in the modifiers panel. So you check it out. I Cannot recommend it

enough. Same goes for the Ivy Generator. Another geometry

nodes based addon with a ton of handy sliders. All you gotta do here is select a target collection

and just adjust the size and shape of the ivy to your liking. And you’re done . Just

an instant way to level up any of your scenes with some ivies. so Try it out.

Now for all the eevee users out there.You have to install the Screenspace Global illumination

version of blender. There’s no Global Illumination there by default in blender’s eeve and if

you’re looking for realistic environment based bounce lighting, this extension is a

must for you. Let’s now talk about the sketchfab addon.

If you’re still downloading models directly from sketchfab and then manually importing

them into blender, and then mapping their textures yourself, you gotta stop and just

install this addon–copy the link to whatever model you want imported into your scene and

just paste it into the addon and you’re done. that's it. a huge time saver in my opinion. so just go and install it

Now you can’t make an addons list and not mention the camera shakify addon. It packs

a bunch of camera shake presets and is really intuitive and easy to setup. So, definitely

give it a try if you haven;t already. Now the last addon on this list is the UV

squares addon. If you always have screwed up UVs in your models, this addon will simply

turn them into perfect squares, hence making them much much more manageable. so a really important addon to have in your toolkit

And I guess that’s it. That’s my list. There are a lot of free addons out there in

the blender world, but these were the ones i found really useful.

How about we make this list even more comprehensive by commenting down below–what you’re favorite

free addon is in blender. And i swear to god if you cooment node wrangler

below–i’m going to wrangle your nodes–if you catch my drift. Okay! beware.

All right, that’s a nice note to finish the video on.

Thanks for watching till the end if you did. I’ll hopefully see you guys in the next video. So buh bye