Full Body Character Picture Generator?

[7thAgeGamer]

Hi folks.

Wondering if you guys can help me, or point in the direction where I could find answers regarding this issue of mine. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

I'm not really very good at drawing things, bar maybe some occasional casual 3D modelling and stickmen drawings (who even then turn out looking wonky!), but I'm very keen on anime and manga, and would like to add full body pics of my own made characters to display when there is dialogue between them. Kind of like the ones that appear in games like Disgaea, where they pop up and have different expressions on them while they're talking.

Is there such a thing as a generator out there for that sort of stuff? If not, what advice could you share about trying to achieve this result? Apart from well, maybe practicing lol, 20+ years attempting to draw something on paper and it ends up looking stumpy and just weird! That and I'm not sure they'd fit too well with what I'm trying to achieve.

There's already a face generator in VX Ace, which is really neat, and I can play with expressions that way but not quite as good as a full body pic, if you get what I mean.

Thanks in advance for any help and time taken to read and answer! Means a lot!!

 

[_Shadow_]

Ok, there are scripts to be used for that matter somewhere.

Unfortunately I can't remember who made such goodies.

Maybe searching on Google for "Galv" or "Yanfly" scripts will bring some light to your request.

Also you can google for "message and picture script for RGSS3"

RGSS3 is th engine RPG Maker VX Ace games are bult on.

Finally, a good idea is to use events like:

Show Picture "HeroLaughing.png"

Show Text "Hello World"

Erase Picture

Show Picture "HeroAngry.png"

Show Text "Grrrrrr"

Erase Picture

Wait Event command can fine tune some things.

So you can check how to do stuff with events.

If you are not yet experienced with eventing on RPG Maker,

I made a game that tours and guides the player in a way that

everything will be more clear in 4 hours.

Get it from here.

I hope this helped you.

 

[Onomotopoeia]

Dreadshadow, I think 7thAgeGamer means a program to MAKE the pictures, not necessarily the scripting to add them.


Well, 7th, if 3D modeling isn't too far out of your learning curve, you might find some modeling programs to help you. Modeling your own character can be quite an involved process, but is quite rewarding when done, and done right, whether you want a photo-realistic, or anime-style, or other-stylized modeled object. For humans and humanoid characters, perhaps you have heard of the MakeHuman program {free, open-source}? which was made from the ground-up for creating realistic characters for videogames. As of the last time I used it, it had numerous sliders to tweak the character model to your liking. (If you've played with Create-A-Sim in any of the recent The Sims games, you'll be alright.) Make male or female characters, young children or old-aged centenarians, sized morbidly obese to almost-fatally-thin/emaciated, choose the skin color/race, et cetera. And yes, if you so choose, you can tweak the "chest size" of the character.


It's all based upon pretty decent pre-made humanoid templates, modeled on realistic human models; you can export these models either clothed or unclothed, for further editing. Such a model could be imported into a 3D modeling program for the final touches, and then modify to suit your purposes, such as going from a photo-realistic to an anime style. It takes some more steps before it's ready, but --

• Add your own modeled clothing, armor, weapons, whatever else fits the scene and theme of your RPG Maker game. Basically, anything the character would wear, hold, or have near.
• Apply an anime- or "toon"-style shading/modifier to all visual aspects (hair, skin, clothing, miscellanea) so that the end-result is intentionally not too realistic, at least to match the feel of your game's other visual assets. (Photographic-quality characters can be a quite jarring difference from the tilesets we use in our games; no need to be too lifelike here.)
• For creating various stances, poses, and even facial-emotive reactions, you may need to learn a bit about skeletal rigging for your character model; then, pose the character-model. I know with Blender 3D and other programs, you could script and animate the walking cycles and so much more.
• Place light-sources (one or two low-intensity omnidirectionals, maybe one or more directional lights with more intensity, to setup shadows/shading) based upon where you position a light source in relation to the character.
• Place the "camera" the rendering part of the program will use, at the appropriate location and angle to the model, and set the various properties such as the output image size; it may take a bit of repositioning until you're sure you've got your character properly framed for rendering.
• Also, if the area around the character will be transparent, it might be good to have some flat plane behind the character, to act as a "green-screen" with a vivid color or light-reflectivity that can be selected and erased from the resulting rendered picture.

I have also seen some fair premade anime-style character models for Blender 3D, Daz3D, Maya, et cetera -- quite a bit of which get shown on deviantArt.net and other 3D-CGI Showcases. Chances are, even if you're not so great at modeling and aren't interested in trying it, you may find someone who's willing to hire out their talent.

Apologies, if you already happen to know any or most of this already. But this is all a brief, spur-of-the-moment introduction to modeling; I could write a better tutorial up at some point. Again, going the route of making your own character model(s), and rendering each one, can be a quite involved process; but you need not feel overwhelmed because most of this is still a learning experience even for me. But, when done right, this will make the your game art the "best of the best" for your RPG Maker game.

 

[Tommy Gun]

Most people hire artists to draw their bust images (I did). If you're using the default characters, people have put up bust images for a lot of those. I forget where, since I don't use them. You could use MakeHuman, as Onomotopoeia suggested, even if it's just to recreate your characters for the bust images. That's a pretty interesting idea, actually.

 

[7thAgeGamer]

Thanks very much for the advice so far guys, very appreciated!

I wasn't thinking of going so far as to make full 3D modelled busts of my characters for the 'dialogue cutscenes', but that is a very interesting idea.

I was mostly focussing on creating some images like the ones already made for the default characters, in a similar art style to the way the default ones are made. I'm not really sure where to begin with looking or hiring artists to draw my characters up lol. Could you explain a bit more on the process of that?

My game and characters are inspired from the Nippon Ichi Software Disgaea series, if I could replicate or produce something similar to their art style it would be amazing.

Thanks again for the help!

 

[Ralpf]

Most people hire artists to draw their bust images (I did). If you're using the default characters, people have put up bust images for a lot of those. I forget where, since I don't use them. You could use MakeHuman, as Onomotopoeia suggested, even if it's just to recreate your characters for the bust images. That's a pretty interesting idea, actually.

Yeah, I like that idea, at least to give it a shot. Thanks for that Onomatopoeia.

 

[Onomotopoeia]

Most people hire artists to draw their bust images (I did). If you're using the default characters, people have put up bust images for a lot of those. I forget where, since I don't use them. You could use MakeHuman, as Onomotopoeia suggested, even if it's just to recreate your characters for the bust images. That's a pretty interesting idea, actually.

Yep. That should work for standing shots, and for closer-focused head/bust shots; silly me, didn't think to mention the latter possibility as well. (Thanks too for the post like; I didn't realize my response would get a response so soon.)
Anyway, I don't know any further program that can create full-body graphics with layered image sets, to be the equal of what RPG Maker's Character Generator does for the face graphic. Might be something that a nobody like me could take a stab at developing; -- though such a process would need someone to supply the baseline head/bust graphics to select and composite ontop each other, to make such a finalized bust graphic. Doable; but takes time to find spriters willing to provide the variety of images it'd need.

 

[Tommy Gun]

I was mostly focussing on creating some images like the ones already made for the default characters, in a similar art style to the way the default ones are made. I'm not really sure where to begin with looking or hiring artists to draw my characters up lol. Could you explain a bit more on the process of that?

There's a forum for it: http://forums.rpgmakerweb.com/index.php?/forum/55-classifieds/

I had a friend of mine draw the busts for my game:

You can send your sprite to the artist and they can just try to make a more detailed version, or you could send reference photos for what you want the bust to look like.

 

[7thAgeGamer]

Ooh thanks.

I might look into that. I have a few pictures as reference and could conjure up my own models for them as a reference too and ask someone to kindly produce them in the art style I'd like, if they allow such a thing.

Was planning on making models of my characters for another project anyway lol.

Would I have to arrange payments etc with the artists at all? Or any other criteria attached?

Thanks again for the help!

 

[Ralpf]

Ooh thanks.

I might look into that. I have a few pictures as reference and could conjure up my own models for them as a reference too and ask someone to kindly produce them in the art style I'd like, if they allow such a thing.

Was planning on making models of my characters for another project anyway lol.

Would I have to arrange payments etc with the artists at all? Or any other criteria attached?

Thanks again for the help!

Depends on the artist, you may be able to find someone who would do a few for free, look around http://forums.rpgmakerweb.com/index.php?/forum/73-resource-workshops/ but if it's going to be a lot of characters, probably not.

There are some artists here http://forums.rpgmakerweb.com/index.php?/forum/78-classifieds-offers/ that would likely do everything you need for payment, most seem very reasonable when you consider the skill and time involved, though may look expensive from the perspective of someone whose budget is minimal.

 

[Tommy Gun]

Yeah, there are artists who will do each character (with multiple expressions) for $15-25, which is ridiculously cheap when you think about it. But if you have a low budget, or are just making a game for fun, that's probably out of your range.

 

[7thAgeGamer]

Thanks again!

I've just had a quick browse of that particular section of the forums, seems to be mostly those offering work? Would I be allowed to create a thread there for example requesting work, giving examples of what sort of artstyle I'm looking for etc?

EDIT: $15 - $25 seems quite reasonable, if the work is good I'd be willing to offer extra. Never done this sort of thing on the internet before though, so a bit dubious with handling money with other peeps I've not met before.

 

[Tommy Gun]

There's a subforum for requests. But if you're worried, you might want to find someone in the "offers" section that has good feedback. But you would probably paypal half the money upfront for one character, so it's not that much to lose -- then if that goes well you can do more characters.

 

[Andar]

Someone from this site posted the following link a long time ago - I don't know who it was, and that linked generator is only for female busts, but it might help some people:


http://crysa.deviantart.com/art/Create-A-Character-Female-V-134120923

 

[7thAgeGamer]

Wow thanks, it's something along those lines I'm looking for. Very appreciate sharing the link!
 
I've come across a few like that in the past, but they just aren't quite what I'm looking for - they're very very close though. The one you linked me is lacking the ability to make them face certain directions instead of straight at the screen. And doesn't seem to have that much options in the way of clothing, but it was fun to play around and bring two of my characters to life in a way.
 
 
EDIT: Just as a reference, was browsing Youtube a little earlier, came across this speed drawing video: 
 

 
It's an artstyle similar to this I'm hoping to achieve for all of my characters, the name of the artist that uses that particiular style is Takahito Harada, and works as the character designer for the Disgaea series.
 
If only there was a generator like the one mentioned above that could produce characters like that, I'd be thrilled!

 

[Onomotopoeia]

If only there was a generator like the one mentioned above that could produce characters like that, I'd be thrilled!

Yes of course, but, as I mentioned above, someone like me who understands the coding side of it could make the program without the sprite layers that make the composite picture; but without the base images from someone who's a better artist than I (eh, throwing spaghetti at a wall would be better art than what I can draw), it would be just an empty program. However, I might be thinking of working on the algorithms/coding side; I'm more-or-less working out how it should go together. Need input on the end-users' expectations or experiences with drawing headshots/busts/standing shots, though.

Spoiler

The first part to work out is just how many layers could or should be used. First of course is the raw body image/shaded outline; but the rest of the layers would be graphical assets that are placed either in front of or behind the body. Similar to how the Character Generator works in RPG Maker VX Ace, with the various art assets. You have various face decoration, hair pieces (front/top/back), headwear, variations of eyes-mouth-nose-etc., on down the neck and shoulders; the variation in armor, clothing, and miscellaneous "outerwear" like cloaks and coats, all add up to a more elaborate image.
Aside from that, one issue is the target graphic size; what size would someone desire for the "bust"? Figuring a typical bust starts at the baseline just above the breast-line, and proceeds to the top of the hair, with a bit of white-space above, allowing for more elaborate hair configurations. I would make the height somewhere on the order of 2 times the width (minimum). For an image 128 pixels wide, it would be 256 pixels high, perhaps higher depending upon the hair. Not sure how large a game-maker would want; but in principle I'd prefer making something just a little bigger that can always be resized down to fit, rather than having something too small and need to "stretch" to fit a size.


This is still just "thinking aloud", trying to see if this thought is something I can/should start programming, if anyone would find it useful. If/When it ever does get to a release point, or perhaps even debugging/testing/beta, I would of course put the source code up in a public repository somewhere like SourceForge or Github. But for now, I think I may on occasion begin posting randomly about the development attempts, somewhere, perhaps a blog or something....

 

[Tommy Gun]

Aside from that, one issue is the target graphic size; what size would someone desire for the "bust"? Figuring a typical bust starts at the baseline just above the breast-line, and proceeds to the top of the hair, with a bit of white-space above, allowing for more elaborate hair configurations. I would make the height somewhere on the order of 2 times the width (minimum). For an image 128 pixels wide, it would be 256 pixels high, perhaps higher depending upon the hair. Not sure how large a game-maker would want; but in principle I'd prefer making something just a little bigger that can always be resized down to fit, rather than having something too small and need to "stretch" to fit a size.

I would definitely make it as big as you can. People can easily resize, and this way if they ever up the resolution on RPG maker (future versions), it'll still be useful and you won't have to redo everything. Same goes for cropping -- some people have the character behind the text (requiring more of the character to show), while others cut it off.