Free Blender Models & Character Rigs For 3D Artists
Building 3D models can be a time-consuming process.
To jumpstart the creation process we’ve compiled a list of free blender models and character rigs. These are all free but for the models found in Sketchfab and Turbosquid, you will be required to log-in first before downloading anything.
While most of these assets are made by and for Blender, the models can also be used in other 3D applications too. These can be exported as FBX or OBJ formats which can still be used even if you don’t work in Blender.
Also before downloading anything be sure to check the licenses on each model. Not all of them allow commercial use which can lead to copyright issues. In general if you’re using models for personal use you’re probably good but it’s always smart to double check!
Free Models
Lumberjack Darius
League of Legends’ Darius is given a makeover as a lumberjack reminiscent of Logan in his time in the Canadian forests.
This model comes with a low poly mesh count with a single 2k texture set. And just like the original Darius in League of Legends, he sports a massive axe.
A default T-pose is not provided but you can learn a lot on how to create an appealing character despite the model and texture constraints.
Because the model is a contest entry you can find the author’s work in progress in this thread. Zbrush was used for creating the high poly design, Blender for retopology, UV unwrapping, and rigging. Then lastly 3D Coat and Photoshop for painting.
Vivi Ornitier
You may remember Vivi as the small charming magician from Final Fantasy IX who also happens to be a playable character.
Apart from his emissive texture, the model also comes with different textures for every major part such as its coat, legs, and hands, all while providing high detail definition of every aspect.
Reptile Mage
This reptile mage is also a caster type. Unlike Vivi, this model is built on a low poly count mesh with a hand-painted texture.
In more ways than one, the design is reminiscent of a Pokemon that mated with an Argonian Mage in Elder Scrolls.
Its head is larger in proportion to the rest of its body adding an adorable appeal. It sports a number of magical items including a pair of boots, a staff, and a cape.
Lowpoly McCree
McCree is a stylized low-poly model taken from McCree, the Damage hero in Overwatch.
The model is neither skinned nor weighted with a pose in an almost neutral state.
However its limbs can be adjusted to create a T-pose. The character also sports several props such as a gun, a wad of cash, and a cigarette.
Knight Artorias
Inspired by the Dark Souls boss Astorias the Abysswalker, this model comes with a complete PBR texture from the base color to roughness maps.
The model stays true to its inspiration with ornamental metal armor and a cloth mask that extends into a cape. All of this is complemented with a massive sword for fighting baddies.
Alice
Based on Lost Saga’s Alice who’s also based on the fictional character of the same name in Alice in Wonderland, don’t let her sweet looks fool you.
She’s loaded with heavy artillery, specifically a Gatling gun with a bow.
With its action pose intact this is 3D print-ready. However you may need to perform retopology as the mesh is dense by default.
Wolf with Animation
A quadruped model that is both weighted and animated, this wolf is a 16-frame quadruped with a variety of animation cycles that loop seamlessly.
If you want to use the model without the animation you can simply reset to bind pose or disable the skinning entirely.
You may also turn off the wolf’s mane since it is skinned separately.
You can also do it the other way around. If you already have a quadruped model you can bind it to the existing joint chain and use the quadruped cycle.
Drunk Troll Tavern
This stylized environment piece easily blends in a mobile game platform because of its low poly count.
While the interior is not modeled, the exterior makes up for it. It presents a proper silhouette that can clearly be viewed from various distances and vantage points.
The entrance has a parked carriage and a signboard that shows several written announcements. There is a bar on the top floor that features beer barrels and bottles of liquor with stables below at the rear end of the tavern that add a nice overall touch.
Also the tavern shows a mix of materials and fixtures including metal details, cloth banners, windows, ropes, bottles, and aging wood.
With a little bit of texturing you can make use of an environment that can act as a venue to numerous stories.
Baba Yaga’s Hut
Baba Yaga’s Hut is set up as a location that’s VR and film friendly.
This stylized piece is well-dressed with various focal points starting with a witch and a boiling cauldron. Not far behind is a hostage trapped in a cage.
On the river we see several rescuers including a priest holding a cross and knight preparing for an attack.
The scene is surrounded by a cloudy mist, adding to its mysterious ambiance. Despite not being a part of the action the interior is also populated with several items such as potions, candles, and a broomstick.
There’s also the nice touch of another witch apprentice and an accomplice bat flying around.
Barrels
One of the staples of environment prop designs are barrels.
A scene looks more organic with a pile of barrels in a corner giving the sense of a recent occupancy. With this free download you’ll have several barrel types ranging from a standard storage barrel to a beer barrel.
The models come with PBR textures that are ready for Unity and Unreal Engine. The author also conveniently provides several exchange formats such as FBX and OBJ extensions.
Hologram Console
This model comes with the complete PBR textures which is a nice benefit.
What makes this model unique is its emissive texture which is a must for any futuristic or post-apocalyptic setting.
After the proper set-up you’ll see the screen lighting up the whole scene. You can take this further and animate the texture like the model in the Advance Tiling for Environment demonstration.
This model can also serve as a good base for a modular asset that can populate a space ship command center or docking control bay.
Runestones
To be upfront, this model does not have a well-organized hierarchy. You may need to clean up certain aspects if you want to modify the asset.
But needless to say the scenery looks good based on the Blizzard style of glowing features and details.
With a night scene the model shows off its magic with its emissive texture. Also through this model you’ll get a glimpse on how to create basic but appealing foliage.
Goblin Warrior
This goblin warrior is close to a AAA character with such attention to detail.
The author made several interesting design choices to add to the menacing nature of the goblin: nails instead of thread line the side sole of its footwear, and a shield that looks as if it was torn straight from a door.
The main leather material complements all the other elements of the design including the belt straps, armor, bandages and even on the model’s footwear.
A threatening look is achieved through a mischievous expression, piercing ears, and emissive textures.
You’ll also get a nondescript treasure box that the goblin is protecting. The model is sculpted in Zbrush, polished in Blender and painted in Substance Painter.
Old Tower
So this whole model is meticulously hand-painted and you can tell.
The effort can be seen in the blending of various props. The scene is given detail through a variety of props such as sand, rocks, cacti, barrels, fence, trees, and of course, the tower.
Gladiator Model
By far, this model is the most detailed on the list.
The model is highly realistic with the proper muscle groups for both arms and legs, as well as its torso—all displayed in its full glory.
The realism also extends to his props: a detailed helmet featuring ornaments and chips, an intricate design on the shield, a flail with a spiked morning star, all the way down to a caligae or Roman leather sandals.
While the model is made in Zbrush, the download also offers several formats such as OBJ and FBX files which you can readily import to Blender.
However you might need to decimate it first as the original model has 19 million points in its highest subdivision.
The site also offers several free models such as a teeth model and a helpful guide on how to retopo a Marvelous Designer model.
Dusty Old Bookshelf
Here’s a cool model divided into many objects: the bookshelf itself and the books.
You can use this to populate an abandoned room, or you can just use the books and put them into an existing shelf or on top of a cabinet.
These models are shipped with PBR textures which adds the dusty and realistic look.
Fruit Baskets
A fruit basket is another prop that gives life to any environment scene, especially a market place.
The download contains various foodstuffs such as grapes, oranges, tomatoes, pears, and cheese.
As this is a low poly model it will not hold well for close-up shots but the model serves as a decent grey box blocking on your scene.
The Great Sword
This stylized model makes a great weapon or even prop in any game.
It features chipped edges that suggests it has been through a lot. The cryptic glowing runes engraved in the center suggests the sword is of magical descent too.
You can treat it as a rare or hero item like the Excalibur where only the righteous can wield it.
Pokémon GO!
With this download you get the three main Pokemon from the Gen 1 games: Bulbasaur, Squirtle, and Charmander.
It may not be an action piece but it can be a cute figure piece of them huddled together.
Charmander has an additional texture accent with a glowing tale which is great for newbies in the 3D space to study.
Low-Poly Car
This low-poly car ships with a simple texture.
The car comes with a platform too and the model is also segregated in a hierarchy so you can easily move the body and wheels around.
Cityscape
In this model you’ll find several buildings that can populate a city.
For caution’s sake the creator didn’t consider any zoning. However you can still use parts of the model to block your own scene.
The asset also does not have any textures. Maybe this is a good asset to use for brushing up on your painting skills. There are several variations in this asset from a singular home to four-story buildings.
Cartoon Land
Cartoon Land is a low poly environment based on a rural setting.
It comes with basic textures with different variations of land topology.
As for the models themselves, you’ll get trees, grass, a ranch, and a house, among other items.
If you want to complete the set you can even design your own assets to match the scene.
Free Rigs
Vincent
Vincent is a professional rig made by the Blender Foundation.
The character has an appealing design that can easily blend in a Pixar animated film.
It comes with the necessary bells and whistles for you to animate the character from the IK and FK switch to the expressive facial rig.
To maximize features you’d need to download the BlenRig add-on.
Fortunately, like Blender, BlenRig is free. As the rig has dozens of parameters you may find it hard to navigate in the viewport.
But you can turn off several parameters such as the muscle system for faster playback and simply turn them back on when rendering.
Proog
Like Vincent, Proog is a rig made by the Blender Foundation.
As such you can expect that it made use of the latest tools Blender can offer at the time of the model’s creation. Even though Proog has been created for the previous version, he has been updated to work with the Cycles renderer for a more detailed look.
Proog also has hair material you can play around with and study. You can check on how to use Proog’s various rig features by reading more on the download page.
Ballie
Ballie is good beginner rig to study body mechanics.
You don’t have to deal with the complexity of a facial rig but you can still provide emotion and personality through its shape and movements.
Basically, Ballie is half-bodied rig with only a pelvis and legs.
On the plug side Ballie is already animated once you open the rig. As such you can dive right in and immediately see what the rig can offer your projects.
Grey Alien
With its shiny eyes and extra-terrestrial skin, this model’s design will remind you of any recent alien film.
You can animate this model as it is already rigged and ready to go. Although you may need to add custom controls to fit to your taste.
The model also comes a gradient texture with gradient tapers giving it a subtle focus toward the body.
Penguin Nikko
Nikko doesn’t really have a complete facial rig.
However if you want to try to animate penguins like in the film Madagascar this rig is a good start.
It may have a somewhat flawed deformation but it will be good enough for many body dynamics exercises. The rig also features IK legs and arms.
Funny Robot
What makes this model stand out from a typical robot is its rear turbine.
This means you can animate flying body mechanics fast. It’s just a bit tricky to work with at the beginning as the model is already in a position rather than in a neutral pose.
However once you get around the model it functions like any other rig.
Sara Tween Girl
Sara is a teen girl model. She has a weighted skin and ships with several textures, pretty standard stuff.
You can use her in anime projects with her pigtails and slightly larger eyes which are just adorable. She comes with a school girl attire, eyelashes, and a hair ribbon accessory.
Low Poly Character
All other characters in the list have already been posed and designed with textures. This last one does not. And for good reason.
This character is made as a low poly base mesh on which to build your own character. In its current state you can easily make a muscular design or give a more chiseled build to a chubby guy.
This also comes skinned so you can immediately build controls on top of it. The model has proper muscle groups in the chest, arms, and legs. You can subdivide the model too and you’ll still keep all the detail.
You can either use it as a base mesh on Zbrush or choose to model on top of it, or just work with this in Blender and have some fun. The sky’s the limit here!
Author: Ben Traje
Ben is a stylized character rigger based in Davao City, Philippines. Proficient in Maxon, Cinema4D, and Autodesk Maya, he's available for remote freelance work with plenty of samples in his portfolio.
