Hi, I have been trying to find a frontal battler template for RMXP. However I cannot find any. Does anyone know where I can find one?
like the default rtp battlers? There's no template they can be any size
Templates are usually only for sprites, since they're the ones you can pretty much meld out from. You can't make a template for a battler, except one that just tells you what a reasonable dimension is.
In other words, if you're searching for a Graphic Battler, sorry to say, you have to pretty much draw it on your own (Or find one).
But if you want a reasonable size for a battler, look at Arshes or other heroes' dimensions and make a general approximation from there.
I can draw then scan my drawings, but I am not good at coloring them on the computer using gimp or photo shop. They come out flat and the colors do not look right.
If you can ink your drawings on Photoshop/GIMP (In other words, have a black outline around it, kind of like (http://www.blackcatfireworks.ltd.uk/celebrations/standard/drawing/standard_guy_outline.jpg), sorry for the stupid picture), then you might be able to get someone to color for you.
If not, you can always learn how to shade and stuff in coloring on the computer, usually that creates more depth.
RTP Battlers use a 1 pixel border made with the pencil tool and soft-cel shading
Thanks for pointing that out Aqua. How do I find the cel shader in gimp in the tools though? I only have a try out version of photo shop that doesn't let me save so I have to use gimp.
Cel shading is a techinque... o.o
Unless you model and pose the character and their clothing, weapons, hair, eyes, ect. in a CG program, and use an expensive one that comes with a cell shader. Then you just have to spend a few hours tweaking all the render settings to get it looking decent (provided you have an understanding on how to do all that in the first place. Otherwise you'll either have to take a class, buy some video tutorials/books, or spend eternity looking through the help file and experimenting). This is all assuming you have a good grasp of how to use advanced software that deals with 3D modeling, and can successful transfer your skills with drawing to actually modeling something by screwing the heck out of a cube, circle, or triangle to get a decent model. That is what it would take to get the computer to do it for you :P
Or you could just learn how to cell shade drawings.
There are no shortcuts in making good art. Ok, so there ARE shortcuts, but you have to do the work yourself, particularly with coloring a drawing. Anyways, forgive my rant. Just google "cell shading tutorials" and you should find plenty.
Here are some tutorials from deviantArt
http://messa.deviantart.com/art/Shading-Techniques-Tutorial-72652863
http://getty.deviantart.com/art/Tutorial-for-soft-cell-shading-27544088
Thank you Aqua, these tutorials really help.
Put simply, there's no definitive template for battlers, it's all limited really on if you wanna have all the battlers follow the same art style. A lot of mine are modified from game artwork, with a few having been drawn by a friend I'm commissioning (these being final designs for the creatures that will be carried on to the final).
Anyways, if you're planning to work with humans, pick yourself up a copy of Daz3D, it works really well and the software itself is free + a lot of the models are free, though if you don't give a damn about legality, you could use BitTorrent or Limewire or w/e to get the various models.
Depending on art styles, I reccomend the following:
Anime:
Aiko (Female)
Hiro (Male)
Realistic:
Victoria (Female)
...it's been way too long, I forgot the name of the male default that usually comes with it.
For monsters, go pick yourself up a sketch pad or an artbook for a game like Dark Cloud and start taking notes =D.