The Best Discounts and Freebies We Found To Help Us All During COVID-19

Companies Around the World Are Offering Huge Discounts and Amazing Freebies to Help Us All During the COVID-19 Pandemic

We're gonna be honest with you: We are all living through difficult times. No matter where you are in the world, COVID-19 has likely had an impact on your life. Whether it's loss of work, school closures, or sheltering in place, we all have to adjust to a new—temporary—reality. First and foremost, we want to say that we're all in this together, and we are going to get through it. Lucky for us, our industry feels the same way.

With so many Motion Designers concerned about money, a number of companies have stepped up in a big way. From huge discounts to all-out freebies, these studios and businesses are sharing what they can to help make a frustrating situation a little more manageable. From design software to mental well-being, these are some of the best things we've found to get you through the next few months.

The Best Discounts and Freebies for Motion Design

MOTION ARRAY

Motion Array is a great place to share your work and get feedback, and they want to make sure you have the tools you need to stay active and creative, so they're offering three free months!

MOTION HATCH

Motion Hatch is an online hub for Motion Designers and Animators, and they are offering 150£ (it's like a $, but stained with tea instead of coffee) off of Motion Hatch's Mastermind Program (registration ends April 6th at midnight ET).

LOGIC PRO X

Logic Pro X is the name in sound design. If you're looking to turn your Mac into a professional recording studio, Apple is offering the software Free for three Months!

FINAL CUT PRO X

Final Cut has been an industry standard for video editing for years. Fast, intuitive, and fairly versatile, there's a reason it's been able to stand among giants like Avid and Adobe Premier. Just like Logic Pro X, Apple is offering Final Cut Pro X free for three months!

ORDINARY FOLK

Ordinary Folk, Vancouver's friendly neighborhood Motion Design studio, is giving away gridRig for free! Ordinary Folk hosts a nice handful of project files for you to download and tinker with while you've got time on your hands.

RED GIANT

Red Giant is an incredibly versatile studio that also makes tools, films, and training to enrich the community of filmmakers and motion designers. To help out, they are offering their monthly subscription free for Students and Teachers, and a lower price for everyone else.

INSYDIUM LTD

INSYDIUM LTD—the brain child of Mike Batchelor, Steve Pedler, and David O’Reilly—is offering 30% off the shop with the coupon code STAYHOME! Pick up X-Particles, or one of their amazing bundles.

DOMESTIKA

Domestika, a San Francisco-based community for Spanish-speaking creative designers, has discounted courses in a section titled #StayAtHome.

RAYS

Rays Render is discounted until April 16. Render a single frame or a movie on thousands of GPUs in parallel with a simple drag-and-drop browser.

THEFUTUR

TheFutur, and online business and design school, is offering 20% off their courses! Learn typography, graphic design, project planning, and some sweet business strats.

GRAYSCALEGORILLA

Grayscalegorilla, a good friend of SOM, is offering $150 off your first year of Greyscalegorilla Plus! Use the code LEARN3D during checkout.

LEARN SQUARED

Learn Squared is offering a free first lesson for EVERY COURSE through May 30th! Join over 10,000 students from around the world, all dedicated to improving their art.

MASTER CLASS

Master Class is known for high production value and A-list guest teachers (sounds a little familiar, but we're flattered when people imitate the best). To help out, they are offering a Buy-One-Share-One for annual memberships! It's the best place to hear Gordon Ramsey berate you for burning the fish!

SUBSTANCE

Substance just reset their 30 day demo, so even if you've used the demo in the past, you can get another 30 days for free!

OCTANE

Octane Render from OTOY Inc. is now an unlimited Free Demo. Keep in mind that it renders with watermarks and is limited to 1000x600 render resolution.

REDSHIFT

Redshift Render, by Maxon, is now an unlimited Free Demo. Like Octane, it will render with watermarks.

ARNOLD RENDER

Arnold Render, an advanced Monte Carlo ray tracing renderer, is available as a fully functional 30-day free trial. You will need to log in with an AutoDesk account, but check out this bad boy today!

CINEMA 4D

Cinema 4D is now available for a 14 day trial license, or you can go with C4D Lite for free with an Adobe Creative Cloud subscription!

MAXON

Just when you thought Maxon couldn't for any more, they are offering a free 180 Day Educational License for Students and Instructors.

ADOBE CREATIVE CLOUD

The Adobe Creative Cloud covers so many amazing products, we simply don't have the room to list them all! Check out the 7 Day Free Trial and get inspired!

ADOBE CONNECT

Adobe Connect offers a great way for teams to collaborate in real-time, which is pretty much essential these days. Check out their free 90-day trial.

BLENDER

Blender is a free open-source 3D powerhouse. Download the latest version for free and start creating today!

HOUDINI

Houdini was a world-famous magician. Houdini Apprentice is a free version of Houdini FX which can be used by students, artists and hobbyists to create personal non-commercial projects.

UNITY

Unity is an incredible free engine for games, design, and even engineering. Check it out, but remember that it is free for non-commercial projects only!

TOON BOOM

Toon Boom offers amazing 2D and Storyboarding software, and they want to do their part for the community. They are offering free software for teachers and students for a 30-day home license.

CAVALRY

Calvary's animation software is now in free public beta. Sign up to check out the software and assist in the development!

MAYA

Maya by AutoDesk is an incredible tool for 3D modeling, animation, effects, and rendering. Try it free for a 1 month trial, and students get free software for 3 years!

CINEVERSITY

Cineversity has a number of great tutorials, and they are offering 30 Free Days for anyone who signs up for a MyMAXON account.

JOHN SWEENEY

John Sweeney, Art Director at Naughty Dog, is offering a free drawing course through his YouTube page. The first week is already up, so check it out!

CINE 81

Brazilian studio CINE 81 is offering a huge discount on their Film Pre-Production course for Portuguese Speakers.

The Best Discounts and Freebies for Mental Health and Wellness

REVTHINK

For the next month or so, RevThink’s Joel Pilger and Tim Thompson—along with expert voices like our good friend Marcel Ziul at STATE Design—are carving out a half hour every day to help creative business owners.

BALANCE APP

Balance App, a customized mediation program, is free for one year! In order to set it up, you will need to email them here: access@balanceapp.com

PELETON

Exercise is a fantastic way to burn off stress and calories. Peloton is launching Operation Get Ripped in Quarantine with a 90-day free trial for their app!

CALM

Calm, a meditation and relaxation app, is offering 16 Free Meditation Sequences through iTunes!

HUMBLE BUNDLE

Humble Bundle has put together an incredible collection of games and ebooks to help you keep your sanity and blow off some steam. For only $30, you get over a thousand dollars worth of content!

We Are a Community, and We Are Stronger Together

It can be really hard to find inspiration when you're dealing with stress. Remember to take time for some self-care, and don't kick yourself if the creative juices aren't flowing as fast as normal. When you're ready to jump back into it, we're here. School of Motion had a chance to host a virtual town hall with 600 motion designers to discuss how we are all coping with these changes.

If you are feeling stressed, remember that there is a community all around you. Reach out, ask for help, and be open to new ideas. You, your art, and your skills are needed, and we can't wait to see what you do next.

School of Motion Can't Resist Giving Away Shwag

Want more awesome information from the top-performing professionals in the industry? We've compiled answers to commonly asked questions from artists you may never get to meet in person and combined them in one freaking sweet book.

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