NOTE: - This list is in no way exhausted. If you find a website that you’d like to add to list or if you have a website of your own that hosts CC0 content, please leave a comment! I’ll gladly add you to the list.
Providing beginners and long time Blender users with a list of 30 must-see websites that offers free to use models, HDR’s, textures, materials, these are my top picks for Public Domain content.
What is Public Domain?
According to Oxford Dictionary; Public Domain - or CC0 - is “the state of belonging or being available to the public as a whole, and therefore not subject to copyright.”
You can use these models, HDR’s, and textures for your projects any way you want without restrictions - including selling your renders or models without having to give credit to the original creator, however credit is much appreciated.
If you want a broader understanding of Public Domain, click here.
Before I begin, I would like to take a minute and say you will not find sites like BlendSwap (exception being Materials,) Pond5 or TurboSquid here. They require to create an account - which even though is free, creating accounts to download a couple models is just a hassle in my opinion and because of that, I disqualified them from this list. (Gumroad is also an exception considering it hosts a large amount of Public Domain content.)
If you find one of these sites helpful, please consider either donating to them or helping them out by spreading these websites amongst your friends. It took me a little under a week to create this list, show if you enjoy or found a site that helped you, please let me know below! I am also not endorsed in any way by any of the people on this list other than benefiting off their public domain material.
With that said, I also want to take a second and thank everyone who has released under the public domain, even if they’re not on this list. You guys are awesome! Some of my renders would’ve never seen the light of day if it wasn’t for some of these awesome people so thank you 
Some of these sites you might have heard of, some you may not but I have linked every website and recommendation for easy access so you can get back to your scene in no time!
TEXTURES
Let’s start out with Textures because who doesn’t like a good texture?
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PolyHaven - I think we should start with the obvious, PolyHaven: Not only is it easy to use, but it has 150+ high quality textures. If that isn’t enough for you, the founder Greg Zaal has also created HDRI Haven (also on the list).
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Public Domain Textures – Created by Fredrick Hoffmann, a freelancer in Germany, Public Domain Textures offers completely free textures without limitations. Offering everything from bricks to marble to nature, this site really has some very nice textures.
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AmbientCG – Formally known as CC0 Textures - As it reads on their website, “2135 Free Assets. Go Build Something!”. With an ever-growing library of hundreds of textures up to 8k, AmbientCG is a must for your texture library.
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Share Textures – I was close to leaving this one off the list since they don’t specify on the website itself that it’s CC0 until I looked at their Instagram which does in fact state they fall under Public Domain, so here it is! Share Textures offers it’s users a nice categorized list of textures ranging from Abstract to Wood, this site has textures I never thought about like Reptilian and Human skin, and an Amethyst texture which I though was pretty cool.
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Texture Ninja – While not offering PBR textures, this site definitely deserves a mention. With over 5,000+ textures from Concrete to Bricks, Surface Imperfections to Graffiti, this site offers a plethora of Public Domain textures for your games and 3D renditions.
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Chocofur – Ah, Chocofur. Although not PBR just like Texture Ninja, these textures do have a wonderful look and I have used them on several occasions, including their CC0 models. (More about that in the model section)
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CG Bookcase - Created by Dorian Zgraggen, with over 400+ PBR textures, CGBookcase probably has that one texture you’re looking for.
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3D Textures – All the PBR textures here are CC0 but you have to download them one by one unless you buy him a coffee which I think is pretty reasonable because who doesn’t like coffee or free textures?
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FreePoly - FreePoly, created by River Yang, is an amazing inclusion into any person’s texture library! This guy has some very unique PBR textures that I’m definitely adding to my own personal texture library.
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Backdrop Treelines - Created by Levi Magony (@Lewiw), these treelines are absolutely amazing and some of these will definitely be placed in my upcoming scenes!
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PBR Materials - PBR Materials is a website that offers 200+ beautiful PBR textures to use in your scenes!
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Trimsheets - Want a few stylized trim sheets for your renders? While looking at trying to make a map in Halo MCC, I stumbled across this website and knew it would be a wonderful addition to the list! With 22 different maps, it may suit your needs!
MODELS
Up next we have models! Ranging from .FBX, .OBJ, and .blend files these sites provide 100% free,public domain models for your next render.
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Chocofur - Even though it was listed above, Chocofur offers a nice collection of Free Use models ranging from furniture to household items like a USB, Tablet, and other small items. I also love the fact they use their own CC0 textures to create texture their models, proving their textures are just as good as any other.
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Louvre Museum 3D Scans – Oh man, oh man. When I first saw these models, I was quite ecstatic. Benjamin Bardou released 25 beautiful 3D scanned models of actual sculptures from the Louvre Museum in Paris which he used his short film, Gloria Victis which I highly recommend watching.
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Cleveland Museum 3D Scans – While we are still on the topic of Museum Photoscans, how about the beautiful sculptures in the 3D scanned archives provided by the Cleveland Museum itself? All the models on this page are CC0.
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Smithsonian Museum 3D Scans - With over 2,000 models added to the collection, the Smithsonian is an awesome archive.
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Blender Boom – Created by small Interactive Agency in Poland, Blender Boom provides a pretty good amount of stunning free models - especially the food and furniture - Blender Boom definitely has a spot on this list and in my model folder.
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CC0 3D – Even though only offering 10 models at the time of making this, CC03D does deserve a spot here because they are CC0 and even though its a small selection right now, I think we all can appreciate that.
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PolyHaven – PolyHaven (Formally known as 3DModelHaven) is another one of Greg Zaal’s projects to provide us with absolutely free CC0 models.
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Sketchfab Public Domain Cultural Heritage - Sketchfab announced that cultural organizations can now dedicate their material to the Public Domain license. Thank you @bartv for the find!
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Bahaa Saleh’s Free Cars – What’s better than a free good looking car? How about more than one good looking free car? @user5555155 blew me away with how good his cars look and the fact he made them free to use is just icing on the cake. Thank you
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Bahaa Saleh’s Free Furniture - Are good looking cars not enough for you? If you’re an architecture lover, then Bahaa has got you covered! This guy is great and definitely deserves a spot in my list
Thank you again, @user5555155 for creating some amazing models! -
Quatermius Game Assets - Some amazing low poly models for game development including some rigged models!
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Midge “Mantissa” Sinnaeve Free CG Resources - Provides us with multiple awesome CC0 models, I definitely need to download these all!
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Kay Quobad - I found this guy on Facebook and after a small chat with him, he told me his models are CC0! His models are absolutely gorgeous and worth a rate or even a donation
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3DModelsCC0 - A very nice low poly collection of models (Thank you to @nisu in the comments)
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BlendFile - Blend File is a new website on the list offering all its models under the CC0 domain! It’s definitely worth taken a look at!
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FreePoly - FreePoly makes it’s way to the models section too! Created by River Yang, it’s an amazing inclusion into any person’s asset library! This guy has some amazing talent and even includes some awesome photoscans. He also has his own add-on which you can purchase that has all his models as a small donation to help him make more amazing models, textures, and HDR’s!
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Three D Scans - Who doesn’t like a good library of photoscaned scupltures? I know I love them! This website has exactly that! Started back in 2012 by Oliver Laric, these scans are absoutely stunning!
HDRI SKYMAPS
Want a nice sky for your image?
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PolyHaven - (Formaly known as HDRIHaven), another project created by Greg Zaal with over 350+ high resolution HDR’s, PolyHaven is your one stop for some beautiful skies!
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HDR Vault – Created by Benjamin Modin back in 2016 and released under Public Domain, HDRVault is definitely worth checking out.
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Giant Cow Films – Releasing their HDR’s under public domain, GCF is another site worth checking out. Whether it be a clouded sky on a lava field or a sunset on Prairie Hill, these HDR’s are awesome for lighting your models.
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FreePoly - FreePoly is on fire! They have some amazing looking HDRI’s which are being added to my ever-growing HDR library for some amazing lighting and backgrounds.
MATERIALS
Do you like procedural textures? Want to build a better material library or just see how procedural textures work? these materials can be used in both Cycles and EEVEE.
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Blender Mada - Uploaded by both the site administrator and it’s users, BlenderMada offers us with some pretty good materials. You can add your own materials to the list to help add to the collection, however you have to create an account.
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Open Material Repository - With over 200 materials, The Open Material Repository offers us with categories ranging from car paint to fibers to sky materials. You can add your own materials to the list to help add to the collection, however you have to create an account and even though some of the materials are outdated, it is public domain and you can learn from the materials.
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Blendswap - Initially I was going to keep this out because of having to sign up and has download restrictions, they do have a lot of materials under the CC0 license. Some of them are dated, however I’m sure some people could update them and/or use them for a plethora of projects.
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Volume Based Environment Shader - As someone who loves Space, this free shader I an awesome addition to the library! With a video tutorial on the page too, you can learn this amazing shader right after downloading it.
Recently added:
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Texturebox has been removed due to becoming a subscription-based website, stripping CC0 from the website unless you pay monthly.
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FreePBR was removed due to removing CC0 from the website. You can still pay a one-time fee of $10 to use the textures commercially but cannot repackage the textures.
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Everyday Assets has been removed due to being a dead link.
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Arch Wiz has been removed for being a dead website.
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Midge “Mantissa” Sinnaeve Free CG Resources has been updated with its new link!
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M TEXTURES has been removed for being a dead website.
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CC03DS has been removed for being a dead website.
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Chocofur Base Shaders has been removed for being a dead link.
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.Blend File has been added to the list!
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FreePoly has been added to the list!
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Backdrop Treelines has been added to the list!
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Three D Scans has been added to the list!
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PBR Textures has been added to the list!
These are my top websites that provide us with awesome content under the public domain license. If there is a site you feel should be up here, tell me in the comments! If it meets the expectations laid in the first part of this thread then I will add it to the list.
I hope someone can take away from this list with a new piece of material or even some ideas. Let the power of public domain excel and let the power of us artists prosper!
I do appreciate it though. It is a long list.
Welcome to the community and welcome to Blender!