This is quite awesome. I actually learned some stuff I didn't know. (especially camera centering - was one of my main PITAs with Blender and I didn't know there's a simple shortcut for that.) Most Blender tutorials are too newbie-oriented which ends up with me not knowing such basic, though very helpful features :p .
I think the problem has more to do with spread of open source and the general impression it makes on people.
Main reason open source started was that coders were fucked by the copyright system so they ended up designing law "code" to go around that. The idea caught on both for ideological and practical reason (having access to source).
Good point is that there is nothing quite like "source code" in art. E.g. you can get a decent idea about how some picture or 3D model is "implemented" just from looking at it, you don't have to go through anything like dissasembling in coding world.
Most artists simply don't know about open source (they're both less likely to have problems with copyright - which was designed for art, not code, _and_ there is less direct practical gain, although it's not zero). Many encountered the fanatic kind of open source people who'd want everything under GPL, which doesn't make a good name for it, or get the impression that open source is somehow "communist". (And some communists get the wrong idea too, and end up worsening the situation for open source).
But mostly it's simply that they don't know and don't really care about stuff like licensing.
As was pointed out already, there are many who create free, but not open source art. Many of them might simply be against open source or don't care but most just don't know what it is. Promotion would help here.
I think there are two ways most such artists can get in contact with open source:
1) software:
Historically, open source software for artists has been lagging behind closed source (even some freeware) on technical terms. E.g. less features, and very commonly worse or just too different GUI. Your random artist isn't going to replace his (more often pirated than not among those creating free content) Photoshop + 3dsMax/Maya/Cinema4d/Whatever with Gimp + Blender if the latter won't give them some practical advantage.
Fortunately, recently open source artist software seems to be getting its act together. Blender is the best example IMO. Its development is skyrocketing, and it's beginning to race for cutting edge features with the best of closed source programs. Its UI got much more newbie-friendly _and_ configurable and its smoothing most of its rough edges. Recently I've seen threads on big professional sites like CGSociety.org with people considering moving to Blender just on its technical merits. And the people confused about what its "business model" is. This is where people notice open source and some might start considering using it themselves (even if it's unlikely to be the case for majority of their art). Businesses didn't move to Linux server because it was cheap, or for ideological reasons, but because it was superior.
Gimp also seems to be getting its act together. Its still IMO quite far behind Photoshop on technical terms, but I tried 2.7.x development branch and there are huge strides in The Right direction.
2) Existing art/games.
Now of course one can create open source art with proprietary tools, and many (most?) do. The best way to promote this is existence of communities such as OGA itself. We can get more artists exposed to OGA by promoting it on various forums outside, but we also need a lot of existing art on OGA for some "wow factor". Most artists won't contribute to an art site that has little or low quality art. Currently OGA can't compare in quantity or quality with e.g. DeviantArt, CGSociety, ConceptArt.org, etc. The best way to solve this is by improving skills and posting more, better content to OGA.
Open source games are also important and another place where people can get in contact with the idea. Unfortunately, most existing games seem like a pile of random stuff without an art direction (a result of badly managed open source project). However, there are good examples, especially Wesnoth. Games such as Wesnoth are excellent for converting modders - they are way more moddable than anything proprietary bout there (well, maybe with exceptions like UDK) and already have some existing good work so a modder can mod instead of creating all the game content from scratch.
Another good example seems to be Xonotic. After the Nexuiz fiasco (which IMO was taken a little too emotionally, but well...) they got a lot of new people and seem to have much clearer art direction, design goals, faster development etc. (Nexuiz was a typical example of a pile of random stuff).
I originally tried for the same look as the leftmost container on the concept art here: http://opengameart.org/content/container , so that's where the similarity comes from.
Couldn't get it quite right, especially the textures (which was the main goal) so I went
for a more conventional style.
I'm now working on a slightly less verts/tris/texture res version (about half, to be more usable in games), will release when completed.
Creative Commons sounds (not music)
http://www.freesound.org/
This is quite awesome. I actually learned some stuff I didn't know. (especially camera centering - was one of my main PITAs with Blender and I didn't know there's a simple shortcut for that.) Most Blender tutorials are too newbie-oriented which ends up with me not knowing such basic, though very helpful features :p .
I think the problem has more to do with spread of open source and the general impression it makes on people.
Main reason open source started was that coders were fucked by the copyright system so they ended up designing law "code" to go around that. The idea caught on both for ideological and practical reason (having access to source).
Good point is that there is nothing quite like "source code" in art. E.g. you can get a decent idea about how some picture or 3D model is "implemented" just from looking at it, you don't have to go through anything like dissasembling in coding world.
Most artists simply don't know about open source (they're both less likely to have problems with copyright - which was designed for art, not code, _and_ there is less direct practical gain, although it's not zero). Many encountered the fanatic kind of open source people who'd want everything under GPL, which doesn't make a good name for it, or get the impression that open source is somehow "communist". (And some communists get the wrong idea too, and end up worsening the situation for open source).
But mostly it's simply that they don't know and don't really care about stuff like licensing.
As was pointed out already, there are many who create free, but not open source art. Many of them might simply be against open source or don't care but most just don't know what it is. Promotion would help here.
I think there are two ways most such artists can get in contact with open source:
1) software:
Historically, open source software for artists has been lagging behind closed source (even some freeware) on technical terms. E.g. less features, and very commonly worse or just too different GUI. Your random artist isn't going to replace his (more often pirated than not among those creating free content) Photoshop + 3dsMax/Maya/Cinema4d/Whatever with Gimp + Blender if the latter won't give them some practical advantage.
Fortunately, recently open source artist software seems to be getting its act together. Blender is the best example IMO. Its development is skyrocketing, and it's beginning to race for cutting edge features with the best of closed source programs. Its UI got much more newbie-friendly _and_ configurable and its smoothing most of its rough edges. Recently I've seen threads on big professional sites like CGSociety.org with people considering moving to Blender just on its technical merits. And the people confused about what its "business model" is. This is where people notice open source and some might start considering using it themselves (even if it's unlikely to be the case for majority of their art). Businesses didn't move to Linux server because it was cheap, or for ideological reasons, but because it was superior.
Gimp also seems to be getting its act together. Its still IMO quite far behind Photoshop on technical terms, but I tried 2.7.x development branch and there are huge strides in The Right direction.
2) Existing art/games.
Now of course one can create open source art with proprietary tools, and many (most?) do. The best way to promote this is existence of communities such as OGA itself. We can get more artists exposed to OGA by promoting it on various forums outside, but we also need a lot of existing art on OGA for some "wow factor". Most artists won't contribute to an art site that has little or low quality art. Currently OGA can't compare in quantity or quality with e.g. DeviantArt, CGSociety, ConceptArt.org, etc. The best way to solve this is by improving skills and posting more, better content to OGA.
Open source games are also important and another place where people can get in contact with the idea. Unfortunately, most existing games seem like a pile of random stuff without an art direction (a result of badly managed open source project). However, there are good examples, especially Wesnoth. Games such as Wesnoth are excellent for converting modders - they are way more moddable than anything proprietary bout there (well, maybe with exceptions like UDK) and already have some existing good work so a modder can mod instead of creating all the game content from scratch.
Another good example seems to be Xonotic. After the Nexuiz fiasco (which IMO was taken a little too emotionally, but well...) they got a lot of new people and seem to have much clearer art direction, design goals, faster development etc. (Nexuiz was a typical example of a pile of random stuff).
Ah well. huge post.
I originally tried for the same look as the leftmost container on the concept art here: http://opengameart.org/content/container , so that's where the similarity comes from.
Couldn't get it quite right, especially the textures (which was the main goal) so I went
for a more conventional style.
I'm now working on a slightly less verts/tris/texture res version (about half, to be more usable in games), will release when completed.