Mad Mario: Getting Warmer

I've been playing around with the materials and lighting a little more. I settled on more a an glowy ink feel rather then realistic. I created several subsurface scatter tests and I wasn't pleased with any of the results. It doesn't fit with the overall design aesthetic. SSS feels very obvious, even if it's effects are tuned way down.

So I have a pretty complex shader tree that is utilizing several falloff maps for things like self-illumination, specular levels, specular color, glossiness, among several others. I'm really happy with the outcome so far. I am playing around with the lighting to get the right contrast balance. Ultimately I'll play a lot with the final images in post, but they are getting close.

I also created a quick background comp, just to arrive at an understanding of the mood I'm going for. Initially my thoughts were to go with an underground sewer feel, similar to the 2nd level in Super Mario Brothers. The level uses blues and aquas, with lots of piping in the background. After playing a bit, I'm thinking about going for more of a toxic surface feel. I think it would be fun to see what a brick desert would look like from the game. The sickly yellow-green really makes Mario stand out, in a positive way.

I was shying away from this because Togo is using the same sort of color scheme, but I think I can pull off enough differences that it won't look completely similar. I also want to toon the feel up a little, so that Mario's section of the demo reel will be a nice transition into the Secret Agent segment (see older posts).

Mad Mario: Lighting and Materials

Currently I'm playing around with lighting and material tests. I feel like the material really needs to look like a cartoon without being cartoony. The point of Mad Mario, is that it studies the darker nature of Mario's actions. It's a deep character study.

I want to convey this message completely through visual means for the reel. The lighting and materials reflect this best. Because of this, I have to come up with some creative solutions. At the moment I'm using a custom falloff map as a specular map. This way the character will always very bright rim light on the edges. This makes him pop from the environment a little more then normal.

At the same time I want to create some high contrast with the shadows. Really dark areas of the character that I would normally want to see, such as the face. It creates mood, but also lets the rim light on the edges of the hat and head be the focus.

I'm looking at several pieces of illustration as inspiration right now. Comic books are extremely helpful. Frank Millar's Sin City is particularly helpful when working out contrast.

I still have a long road ahead, but I think it's coming along.

Mad Mario-Turntable

Finally worked in a few hours to work on the base and lighting for Mario this weekend. I'm juggling around a few approaches for the shaders, which ultimately will make everything "pop" more. I'm very interested in working on a backdrop painting for this one.

I initally went very moody with the lighting, but I need to lighten up the scene since this is for a demo reel. Otherwise we won't be able to see the character.