This was a side project for quite a while. I modeled, textured, and rigged Mario entirely with blender. It was a way for me to try and improve my skills in blender and to give back to a really awesome community. I kept it as low poly as I could in order to make render time faster in cycles. I plan on using this in a couple of additional projects (come back for updates :D) His skin has sub surface scattering in it, I wanted to keep it a bit on the rubbery side but enough to make him pop out a bit more realistically. In addition the seams and hat logo were made in photoshop for the color and have bump maps to add a bit more shadow. The rig is completely custom including custom bone shapes, shape keys driven by drivers for fixing deformations, ik/fk switches (including the hands for some parkour), a puppet rig for quick feedback when animating, suspender adjustment controls, and other properties.
Feel free to download the model from blend swap and try it out. Just give me credit for the model, textures and rig. Im looking for feedback and suggestions and I actually want this to be a sort of collaborative effort. If you like the file but its missing a feature, or has a bug let me know and I will make occasional updates. Or feel free to make a blend shape and send it to me and I will add it in! Critiques and suggestions also welcome!
Blendswap: http://www.blendswap.com/blends/view/78749
I also have youtube video that goes over whats included in the blend file, and how to use the rig including all the attributes. Have a look if your interested!
