27 April 2025

Awesome

#creative-tools #knowledge-sharing #curated-resources #awesome-lists

11 min read

My personal picks and discoveries across creative media: tools, learning resources, and inspirations for 2D/3D arts, music production, and tools development.

Hardware
Software
Sync, cloud & self-hosting
Learning Resources
Funding
Inspirations
People I Know
Watchlist

Hardware

Music Gear

DIY 6-6 Keyboard – A 6-6 keyboard offers a consistent and symmetrical layout where the shapes of chords, scales, and intervals remain the same in every key, making it significantly easier to learn, understand, and play music across all keys compared to the traditional keyboard layout.
All-fourths Tuned Guitar – Tuning to all fourths offers a highly logical and symmetrical fretboard layout, making chord and scale shapes consistent across all strings. Greatly accelerates fretboard learning, enhances improvisation and music theory understanding.
HSH Strat Pickup Configuration – The The HSH (humbucker-single-humbucker) configuration is ideal for guitarists seeking maximum tonal versatility, dynamic range, and the ability to cover both vintage and modern sounds in a single instrument.
PTB (Passive Treble and Bass) Tone Circuit – PTB wiring gives you independent treble and bass cut controls plus a master volume, allowing you to shape your guitar’s tone with amp-like flexibility and prevent muddiness or harshness in any pickup position.
Scarlett Solo 4th Gen – Compact and easy-to-use audio interface that delivers clear, professional sound quality for recording vocals and instruments.

Art Studio Equipment

Huion Q11K v2 – Wireless graphic tablet that provides a large drawing area, 8192 levels of pressure sensitivity, tilt recognition and long battery life at an accessible price.
FlexiSpot Standing Desk – Height-adjustable electric standing desks designed to improve ergonomics and productivity. Feature smooth motorized lifting, memory presets, and cable management.
Meta Quest 3S – Standalone VR headset. Affordable price compared with higher-end PC VR setups. Meta sells at loss compared to R&D budget so take advantage.

Software

3D

Blender – Free and open-source 3D creation suite for modeling, animation, rendering, and more.
- Awesome Blender – Comprehensive GitHub repository listing mostly free and open-source Blender add-ons, tools, tutorials, and 3D resources for artists, developers, and researchers.
Houdini FX – Advanced 3D animation and visual effects software known for its procedural, node-based workflow and powerful simulation tools.
Substance Painter – Industry-standard 3D painting software for real-time texturing and material creation.
Substance Designer – Node-based 3D material authoring tool for creating parametric textures and materials.
MetaHuman – Epic’s pipeline for photorealistic, rigged digital humans in Unreal Engine: blend scanned presets, sculpt and refine faces, hair, and clothing, then export game-ready characters with LODs and tools like MetaHuman Animator for facial performance.
QuickMagic – AI motion capture from ordinary video: upload footage and get body, face, and hand animation for export to FBX, Unity, Unreal Engine, Maya, and similar tools—no mocap suit or dedicated stage required.

2D

Photoshop – The industry-standard software for photo editing, digital painting, and graphic design.
- Perspective Tools V2 – Create perspective and parallel grids in one click, easily transform layers in perspective, unwrap perspective distortion to a plane.
- Paletattor – Floating panel: you can put stuff in it and sample colors. Simple as that.
- Lasso Draw – Extension panel for Photoshop for drawing with selection tools and using selection tools in different creative ways.
- Free Color Wheel Plugin For Photoshop – Simple and minimal color wheel for Photoshop CC2018+.
- _SPEC’S Core Brush Kit – Streamlined and focused brush set built from scratch using high quality and hand-made textures.
- Color Constructor – Study and workflow tool that is designed to help you design the colours and values for a painting according to a light source and ambient term.
Clip Studio Paint – Digital painting software. More efficient GPU utilisation than Photoshop, thus can be faster on CPU-constrained machines.
Krita –
- UI tips for Krita – Krita’s default UI settings are a bit rough. Suggested tweaks and improvements.
- Krita UI Redesign Plugin – Flat & clean UI design coat for Krita.
- Blender layer add-on – Stream a Blender viewport into Krita.
Illustrator – Professional vector graphics editor for creating logos, illustrations, and scalable artwork.
Leonardo – Windows drawing and painting app built for pen tablets: opens almost instantly, infinite canvas, responsive brush engine with stabilization, layers, selections, and perspective helpers—aimed at sketching, inking, and illustration rather than photo editing.
Figma – Browser-based collaborative UI and vector design: intuitive & widely used for product interfaces, design systems, and game UI mockups.

Development & Automation

Unreal Engine – A leading real-time 3D creation tool for game development, virtual production, and interactive experiences.
Cursor – AI-first code editor based on VS Code: inline completions, chat, and agent-style assistance for navigation, refactors, and multi-file edits while keeping a familiar extension ecosystem.
Sublime Text – Fast, lightweight, and highly customizable text and source code editor for programmers and writers.
- LSP – Adds IDE-like features to Sublime Text by connecting the editor to external language servers via the Language Server Protocol.
AutoHotKey – AutoHotkey is a free and open-source scripting language for Windows that empowers users of all skill levels to automate repetitive tasks, create custom keyboard shortcuts, remap keys, and rapidly prototype automation solutions with simple yet powerful scripts.
Microsoft PowerToys – Free, open-source collection of utilities for Windows 10 and 11 that enhances productivity by adding powerful features like window management (FancyZones), quick shortcuts, keyboard remapping, image resizing, and more.
Geogebra – Dynamic mathematics software that integrates geometry, algebra, calculus, and statistics to provide interactive visualizations and tools for teaching, learning, and exploring mathematical concepts.
Perforce Helix Core – Centralized version control and depot workflow tuned for large teams and binary-heavy assets: file locking, fine-grained permissions, and strong scaling—common in game studios and enterprise codebases.

Web frameworks

Vue.js – Progressive JavaScript framework for building interfaces: approachable learning curve, reactive single-file components, and an ecosystem that works for small widgets or full single-page apps.
Svelte – Compile-time UI framework: Svelte components compile to lean JavaScript, with straightforward reactivity and small runtime overhead compared with traditional virtual-DOM stacks.
Pico CSS – Minimal, class-light CSS framework for semantic HTML: quick layout and typography, responsive defaults, optional dark theme—useful for prototypes and small tools without a heavy design system.

Sync, cloud & self-hosting

Nextcloud – Self-hosted collaboration hub: file sync and sharing, optional calendar, contacts, talk, and office integration—useful when you want cloud convenience with data on hardware you control.
Syncthing – Open-source, decentralized folder sync across your machines: continuous peer-to-peer replication without a central server—handy for project folders, backups, and keeping workstations aligned privately.

Video

OBS Studio – Free, open-source screen and video capture: composite scenes from displays, windows, cameras, and audio; record to disk or stream to Twitch, YouTube, and similar services—widely used for tutorials, gameplay, and live sessions.

Music

Reaper – Lightweight, highly customizable, and efficiently coded digital audio workstation offering fast startup, extensive scripting and workflow flexibility, a rich feature set, and an honest, affordable licensing model.
AmpliTube – Guitar and bass amp, cabinet, and effects modeling as a plugin: build virtual rigs for direct recording and reamping inside a DAW.
MeldaProduction – Large line of mixing and creative audio plugins—EQs, dynamics, multiband and spectral processors, modulation, and utilities—with a substantial free bundle alongside paid titles.
loopMIDI – Create virtual loopback MIDI-ports to interconnect applications on Windows. Example: connect Guitar Pro MIDI output to Reaper as an input.
Guitar Pro – Music composition and tablature software designed for guitarists and other stringed instrument players
Dorico – Modern, intuitive music notation and composition software designed for composers, arrangers, and educators, offering powerful tools for writing, arranging, playback, and publishing beautifully formatted scores on Windows, macOS, and iPad.

Knowledge & Reference Management

Obsidian – Highly extensible, non-linear note-taking experience, ensuring data ownership and longevity by storing notes locally without cloud lock-in.
- Obsidian Canvas – Infinite canvas to lay out and organize notes and multimedia content. Open & extensible format enabling non-linear thinking environment within Obsidian.
Eagle – Visual reference manager enabling fast, intuitive organization, tagging, and previewing of images, PDFs, and inspiration assets in a single, searchable library.
PureRef – Minimal, cross-platform reference board for creatives, enabling fast drag-and-drop organization, annotation, and visual arrangement of images, notes, and GIFs in a flexible, always-on-top workspace.

Online Persona

Linkyee – A fully customized, open-source LinkTree alternative deployed directly on GitHub Pages.
Jekyll – A static site generator that takes plain Markdown files and converts them to a static blog or website, eliminating the need for databases and paid hosting.
JSON Resume – An open source initiative to create a JSON-based standard for resumes.
Quartz – Static site generator that turns your markdown notes-such as those from Obsidian-into a clean, navigable personal wiki website, making your knowledge base easy to browse and share online.
Discourse – Modern, open-source forum software that creates interactive, community-driven discussion platforms with real-time notifications, a trust-based moderation system, and a mobile-friendly, user-friendly interface
ArtStation – Industry-standard platform for artists to showcase portfolios, connect with creative professionals, and discover job opportunities in games, film, media, and entertainment.
Cara – Artist-first social platform empowering creators to share portfolios, build communities, and control their work in a supportive, AI generated content free environment

Javascript libraries

Vex Fretboard – A JavaScript library for rendering guitar and bass fretboards.
Tonal – Music Theory Library. Contains functions to manipulate notes, intervals, chords, scales, modes, keys abstractions.
Paper.js – Open-source vector graphics scripting framework that runs on HTML5 Canvas, providing a clean, consistent API for creating and manipulating vector graphics and Bézier curves.
Mousetrap – Lightweight JavaScript library for easily handling keyboard shortcuts and key sequences in web applications, with no external dependencies.
fullPage.js – Simple, customizable JavaScript library for creating fullscreen, section-based scrolling websites and slides with smooth transitions and responsive design.

AI Tools

OpenClaw – Open-source personal AI assistant you run yourself: connects to chat platforms and tools, can use local or cloud models, and is built for automation with plugins and skills—MIT-licensed, bring-your-own-model flexibility.
Eleven Labs – AI-powered platform that transforms text into highly realistic, human-like speech in over 30 languages, offering advanced features like voice cloning, customizable voice styles, sound effect generation, and real-time editin
Perplexity – AI-powered conversational search engine that delivers accurate, real-time answers to any question by searching the web, summarizing information from multiple sources, and providing cited, trustworthy responses

Learning Resources

Written

Craig Mullins Sijun Posts – Archive of legendary concept artist Craig Mullins’ insightful forum posts shared on the Sijun art community.
John Singer Sargent’s Painting Techniques – In-depth exploration of John Singer Sargent’s masterful brushwork, use of light, and approach to portraiture.
The Music Notation Project – Resource hub dedicated to exploring, documenting, and promoting alternative music notation systems-especially chromatic staff approaches-that aim to make reading, writing, and learning music easier and more intuitive than with traditional notation.

YT

Borodante YT Channel – In-depth, analytical, and educational digital painting & game development content focused on practical art techniques.
Marco Bucci – Highly dense, clear, and practical art lessons focused on fundamentals like color, light, and drawing, delivered with an engaging and approachable style.
Modern Day James – His series on perspective and figure drawing are especially praised for their depth and clarity, guiding viewers through the fundamentals with a focus on building visual libraries, mastering primitive forms, and making conscious design decisions.
Sinix Design – In-depth digital art tutorials focused on artistic theory, creativity, and practical painting techniques to help artists improve their skills.
FZD School – In-depth concept design tutorials focused on fundamentals like perspective, lighting, and form, combined with practical industry insights to help artists build strong, market-ready portfolios for video games and film.
Steven Zapata — Drawing Meditation #1: How to get in The Zone (~24 min) – Entry point to his Drawing Meditation playlist: easing into flow and relaxed attention instead of forcing the session.
Harmonic Relativity Series – Music theory series exploring “harmonic relativity”-a practical system for categorizing and using chord relationships to evoke specific emotions and colors in your compositions, adaptable to any musical style.
Blender 2D/3D for beginners, drawing and animating with greasepencil by Dédouze – A beginner-friendly tutorial showing how to use Blender’s Grease Pencil to draw, organize, and prepare a floating juice box for 2D/3D animation
David Shapiro — Post AGI Economics (Mindblowers Podcast, ~44 min) – Conversation on post-labor economics, deflationary dynamics, and how to think about careers and institutions as AI shifts production.
Joscha Bach — Life, Intelligence, Consciousness, AI & the Future of Humans (Lex Fridman Podcast #392, ~2h54) – Deep dive on consciousness and development (Kegan-style stages), identity, artificial minds, suffering, happiness, and where AI fits—representative of his cognitive-science and philosophy angle.
Michael Levin — Bioelectricity as Cognitive Glue: from Diverse Intelligence to Regenerative Medicine (Johns Hopkins APL colloquium + Q&A, ~1h16) – Full technical talk: anatomical morphospace, bioelectric networks as pattern memory, collective intelligence of cells, xenobots, regeneration—core synthesis of his lab’s direction.

Books

Superforecasting: The Art and Science of Prediction – About how everyday people can improve the accuracy of their predictions by adopting habits like thinking in probabilities, constantly updating beliefs, and rigorously analyzing evidence from multiple perspectives.
Thinking in Bets: Making Smarter Decisions When You Don’t Have All the Facts – A former poker champion’s guide to making smarter decisions in an uncertain world by treating every choice as a bet, focusing on probabilities, and separating decision quality from outcomes.
Clean Code – Robert C. Martin promotes writing simple, readable, and maintainable code using clear naming, minimal complexity, consistent style, testing, and refactoring to keep codebases clean.

Funding

CNC – The CNC is a major funding engine for creators in France, offering a wide range of grants, subsidies, and tax incentives to support the development, production, and international co-production of films, series, games, and innovative audiovisual projects.

Inspirations

“Scarborough Fair” - Mike Battaglia: 31-EDO Performance - Microtonal take on “Scarborough Fair” on a Lumatone instrument.

People I Know

Christophe Galati – French indie game creator based in Grenoble, pixel artist, and writer, best known for the Game Boy-inspired platformer Save me Mr Tako and currently leading the development of Tako no Himitsu: Ocean of Secrets at Deneos.
Rémi Jaquot – French freelance concept artist and illustrator based in Lyon known for his imaginative fantasy art and contributions to games, role-playing books, and projects like Magic: The Gathering.
Ulric LeProvost – French Animation professional known for his work on projects such as the animated film Klaus (2019), contributing to various aspects of visual storytelling and animation.
Manon Cansell – French 2D background layout artist and illustrator, known for her work with studios like La Chouette Compagnie and Akami, as well as her contributions to animated films such as Le Retour des Vagues and her vibrant personal art shared under the name Surikane
Mathilde Fievre – Mathilde Fièvre is a Paris-based background designer and illustrator who has worked with studios like Cartoon Saloon, Xilam, Monello, and Passion Pictures.

Watchlist

DeepPaint addon for Blender – User-friendly Blender add-on that expands Grease Pencil’s capabilities, allowing users to easily model and paint stylized 3D illustrations by converting 2D strokes into 3D meshes.
Paint System, Turning Blender into Photoshop – With Paint System, painting 3D objects becomes simpler and more intuitive than ever before!
Sprytile – Open-source Blender addon that streamlines creating stylized, pixel-art-inspired low-poly 3D models and tile maps with pixel-perfect UV painting for game artists.
Advanced Turn Based Tile System – Unreal Engine toolkit for building turn-based tactics and strategy games, featuring flexible grid systems, advanced AI, multiplayer support, and extensive tutorials for both programmers and non-programmers.

This list is a living document and will be updated as I discover new tools, resources, and inspirations across the technical arts spectrum.

@guillaumekuc.blog