A friend of mine sent me a link to Finalight.com which is a new website that sells VFX stock footage. For those of you that may not be familiar with the term VFX is short for ‘visual effects’ and is used to describe all the computer generated effects you see in films these days.
Finalight.com sells elements like smoke, fire, shockwaves and explosions that you can use to add to your video or film project. You need basic compositing knowledge to add the effects to your project but the guys at Finallight have made it pretty easy by providing masks and well-filmed or computer generated elements.
They have three elements available on their site here
http://www.finalight.com/-/maindir/webpages/STHANKS.php
So you can test them out to see if you want to purchase anything from their library.
I purchased a flame effect and added it to a quick VFX test I am working. Take a look here

We have uploaded two new pages of free video background loops to our growing collection of free video loops. The new pages include 12 romantic video loops with lots of hearts and flowers plus 10 corporate video background loops with lots of charts, globes and team building images.
They are available in full rez and in both NTSC and PAL formats. You can use these video loops as backgrounds in your personal and commercial projects completely free of charge (you are not allowed to repost, redistribute or resell these clips without syncing them into your own projects first).

Free royalty free stock footage is hard to find but we have compiled a list of some of the better sites that are offering a selection of video clips available for download and use in personal and commercial projects.

You can use free royalty free stock footage in your personal and commercial projects.
You can often download it in NTSC and PAL formats which is basically covers the US (NTSC) and the rest of the world (PAL).
Many of the videos loops and are meant to used in the background of elements you already have created such as text and titles or green screen elements.

1. Partners In Rhyme Christmas Video Loops
http://www.partnersinrhyme.com/free_video_loops.shtml
These 10 Christmas themed video loops are available in NTSC and PAL formats. They are available for use in any personal or commercial projects.

2. Partners In Rhyme Sports Video Loops
http://www.partnersinrhyme.com/free_video_loops_1.shtml
Here you can download 16 sports themed royalty free video loops and use them in your personal and commercial projects absolutely free of charge. Football, basketball, tennis and bowling are just a few of the sports represented.

3. StockFootageForFree.com
http://stockfootageforfree.com
There are absolutely no fees to download as much royalty stock footage as you would like. These are footages that span the world. All you do is to create a free account and you get to log in and download unlimited amounts of quality footage or clips that you are interested in.

4. MovieTools.info
http://www.movietools.info/index.php?option=com_docman&Itemid=4
This is a great source for free stock footage in NTSC and PAL formats with 77 motion background loops, 12 lower thirds and 4 motion objects for you to download and use in your projects.

5. MotionLoops.com
http://www.motionloops.com
When you sign up for their free weekly newsletter, you will receive a free video clip every week.

6. Gman Video
http://www.gmanvideo.com/prod01.htm
Has one free video clip at the link above.

7. Digital juice
http://www.digitaljuice.com/dj_downloads/
has a variety of free downloads. You can browse, review and do a search for thousands of clips in the media library and copy the ones you pick and convert them to the compatible file format.

8. Footage Firm
http://www.footagefirm.com/freeclips.asp
Footage Firm has 20 video clips you can download plus they have entire collections they will ship to you for only the shipping and handling charge, check it out here
http://www.footagefirm.com/footage/freefootagedvds7.htm

9. Magix
http://www.magix.com/us/free-downloads/options/photos-videos-music
three video clips available here.

10. Digital Hotcakes
http://www.animationsforvideo.com/html/free_3d_animation.htm
When you sign up Digital Hotcakes at they will give away a free loop each month.

11. StockshotsNow
http://stockshotsnow.com/capturepages/freeclips/
StockShotsNow.com a great source for royalty free stock footage on the web. Each week they give you a royalty free stock video clip for 100% FREE when you sign up for their newsletter.

12. Pond5
http://www.pond5.com/Free-Stock-Footage
Download a free HD video clip every week from Pond5.com. Choose a format, add it to your cart and checkout to receive the free clip.

13. MotionElements
http://www.motionelements.com/stock-footage?p=-1
Motion Elements has an extensive free section of nearly 180 high quality background video clips.

This is basically just a plug for my friend’s website at
Nature Library Stock Footage.
You can download free video footage and check out the large library of beautiful nature footage including incredible time lapse shots.