Making movies can be pretty hard. Doubly so for independent filmmakers working on very limited budgets. Presented below are a few resources that Car Trek has has found helpful over the years in making very limited budgets go as far as possible. For instance CGI footage without needing to spend a fortune hiring a special effects team, animated logos and sources for costume supplies and movie props, among others.

Sci-Fi Emporium is a wonderful resource for costume supplies and movie props in a variety of genres. Their specialties are Sci-Fi, Anime and Superhero collectibles (such as wall art, cosplay and figurines). However, this still covers a vast array of items you can find if you are on a tight budget, including stage makeup. For instance medieval armor, ninja outfits and prop swords. Perhaps sci-fi blasters, body suits and tech are more your thing, including flying drones and smart watches. Putting together a horror movie? You can find an assortment of foam tools such as axes or fake steel rods to drive through your victims. Although they have a vast selection of supplies for your next indie masterpiece, our only criticism is that they can take several weeks to source and ship the products to you... so plan accordingly! If you'd like to learn more click the button labelled "Visit Sci-Fi Emporium".

Loveday Zombies is a great company that specializes in custom vector art logos that will not break the bank. The "zombies" in question are a team of artists that will quickly create a  2D logo that can be easily resized without any loss of image quality or converted to other standard file formats such as .PDF, .PNG or .JPG . Depending on the nature of your logo described, they figure out which of their artists has the needed specialty and can generally turn it around within 24 hours. For instance, perhaps you need animals or a space robot or a character portrait from a photo you supply. Either way, for under $30, you can have a custom logo within 24 hours. They charge slightly more to provide you with full rights to use this logo commercially but that also includes all the source files to tweak and use as you wish. Definitely well worth the small expense.  These logos can be directly used on your own website or imaginary company logos could be created as background details in your movie world. By the way, the SciEmporium logo shown above was apparently also done by Loveday Zombies. Learn more by clicking the button labelled "Visit Loveday Zombies".

Logo Animators specializes in turning 2D images into 3D animated logo videos. And they do a phenomenal job! Just as with Loveday Zombies above, they can be directly used on your own website or as background details in your movie world. They can also produce a matching 2D logo for you too if you like. Either way, pricing is extremely reasonable and they can produce a stunning logo animation for around $25 including sound. All rights belong to you to use as you desire. Below, you can see some of the animations they created for Car Trek Theatrical Company. For more info click the button labelled "Visit Logo Animators".

Pond 5 is a massive library of over 42 MILLION (ever expanding) royalty free clips that can be used in your own movies and documentaries. You have sweeping vistas over Earth (or alien) landscapes. Fantasy monsters, robots, aliens, wild animals, spaceships, world war II biplanes, news archive footage and much more. You name it, they've got it and the search tools are super simple to narrow down to what you are seeking. The clips vary from a couple of seconds  to 30 seconds or more long. Some of the clips are fully rendered including backgrounds and others, as you see, are setup for green screen substitution so you can easily integrate them with your own backdrops. The clips vary from under $40 up to several hundred dollars.  This might sound a lot for someone on a small budget. However, consider that a typical Hollywood movie may invest a $1,000,000 or more on professional computer renderings. With Pond 5, you can purchase enough footage to do the same thing for just a few hundred to a few thousand dollars. Peanuts by comparison and it certainly brings those professional special effects well within the range of typical indie movie budgets. For more info click the button labelled "Visit Pond 5".

VFX-Studio is a huge add on effects library that is compatible with most major video editing software in use such as After Effects, Adobe Premier, Davinci Resolve, Lightbox, Final Cut and so on. You can buy the adds on al a carte of course but the MEGA Bundle is by far the best value for money. It is a one time purchase so no ongoing licensing fees are required to use as you will within any of your movie projects or YouTube / Instagram posts. There are over 1500 transition effects such as lightning flashes between scenes or blood splatters. 4000 lighting filters help with color balancing such as making a desolate road look like it is a really hot desert. Over 4000 clean and professional sound effects are included such as water droplets, breaking bones, vehicles, laser sounds, explosions etc. My favorite part, however, is the overlay effects. These include floating holgraphic effects  to simulate virtual displays a la Iron Man. You could also quickly turn a basic city shot into a cyberpunk dream with floating glowing marquees or a superhero firing an energy blast. Regardless of what you can imagine, this bundle has so many great effects to choose from. Sometimes too many effects so choose wisely! Learn more and check out some of the demo videos by clicking the button labelled "Visit VFX-Studio".