I hope this is the right forum to ask this question in. If not, feel free to move it the appropriate forum section, thanks.

I don't know if such a thing exists, but I wanted to ask if such a thing as "royalty-free" anime images/characters exist? Although I wouldn't mind paying someone with the right art style, I'm out of a job, so I can't afford to pay anyone right now

Recently, I had an idea inspired by Innocent Tears, an RPG with artwork similar to that found in a Japanese dating sim (no, I'm not doing a dating sim; an RPG). If you need example(s) of what I'm talking about, or visuals to illustrate what I'm looking for, there's two things in particular.

1. Anime characters without backgrounds that can be drawn over an existing 2D or 3D scene.

2. An artistic image that can be used for story telling scenes, loading or menu screens, similar to this:

These images came from here: http://gtako.deviantart.com/

So, does anything like what I described above exist as royalty-free (preferably non-sexual and not too revealing)? Once again, I wish I could pay for such talent instead...

Shogun.

Smith Micro Poser Game Dev editions include some anime content that is game licensable, as does DAZ3D store DS Studio search "DAZ Originals" and RealLusion store ICLone 3D Exchange Pipeline content, with the combined with the export / daz game developer license options. Epect to use the appropriate applications to animate, decimate and convert figures to proper game use formats. (Ex .FBX > .x)

Do you have pencil and paper? Nothing cheaper than making your own artwork.
The digitalisation / post-production part you can leave for later when you have achieved the level you want.

- http://www.designyourway.net/blog/resources/tutorials/photoshop-tutorials/drawing-anime-big-tutorial-collection/

- https://www.pinterest.com/explore/manga-drawing-tutorials/

You're unlikely to find anything that's free. Usually most of the free stuff around the internet is either total garbage or was just stolen from some other source and put on a free site. Never trust "free" sites if you're trying to make something you plan on releasing to the public. Most of them just allow random submissions from the public, which could be from any source.

If you don't want to pay for it, you're going to have to do it yourself or con someone else into doing it for free, but in the case, you need a contract - and unless you're a lawyer, those aren't free either.