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).