If there’s one thing that any video/effects/design person can’t get enough of, it’s free materials. Especially royalty free. So, just for you folks, here’s a collection of some sites that offer up a ton of stuff that’s either free or free with simple conditions (mostly just attribute original author).

Jamendo — (Music) - A web collection of music all licensed under Creative Commons. Which means, among other things, all the music on the site is free to download. Not all of the music is free to use in a video, but some of it is. Use advanced search for options to specifically find music you can reuse. There’s some pretty good stuff out there that merely asks you give credit to the artist. Right now I’m hooked on Chronique, but that’s just me.

Soundsnap — (Sound FX) - I’ve just discovered this site recently, so I haven’t had much chance to use it, but their collection of royalty-free sound effects is ample to say the least. May take some sifting to find the best ones. (Courtesy of Lifehacker.)

Stock Exchange — (Stock Photos) - This site requires a log in to use, but contains a large number of free or mostly free images. Some restrictions apply. Also, as Tutorial 9 pointed out a while back, the Stock Exchange can be used to find some pretty amazing, free to use textures. Don’t forget that!

Brusheezy — (Photoshop Brushes) - Free to download Photoshop brushes. Having a full arsenal of brushes can give you a huge amount of flexibility when designing an image. Of course, I find that half the brushes I download, I don’t ever even install, much less use. Nonetheless, you’ll be incredibly glad you have this site in your repertoire. Be sure to check licenses for individual brushes just in case.

Dafont — (Fonts) - Huge collection of mostly free fonts. Some are free for personal use, others are just free, so be sure to check. BONUS: I’ve also recently become aware that, when searching, you can enter your own custom text and see your text generated in all the fonts you preview. Very handy if you wanna get a better idea of just how a font will look for your project. (Which, of course, you do, don’t you?)

Video Copilot — (After Effects) - It should go without saying, a toolbox is only as good as the knowledge you use it with. Video Copilot makes it on the list of free stuff because it does, in fact, have some free presets (Tutorials tab, Presets….at least get the Lightsabre preset), but the real helpful stuff is the tutorials. If you’re learning After Effects, I suggest you get started on the basics, and then, come here. (Conveniently, you can also learn the basics here.)

Art of the Title — (Inspiration) - There’s plenty of design and design theory books and websites out there that will give you inspiration in the form of still images, teaching you about layout, colors, shapes and so on, blah de bloo. But the one thing you can’t learn from a book is movement. Enter Art of the Title. This website is nothing more than a collection of movie title sequences. Very handy for inspiration. Also, check out the Submarine Channel. I haven’t looked through it yet, but a teacher of mine highly recommends it.

If you know of any other good free stuff around, do let me know. And share with others! Several of the sites listed above all have ways to contribute your own creations back to the community of multimedia folk. So, have at it.