What if Mario weren’t a cartoony video game character? Artist Pixeloo set out to answer that question when creating this “realistic” rendering of Nintendo’s little Italian plumber.
While it’s some pretty amazing graphic work, “real” Mario isn’t quite as endearing as he’s been in previous incarnations. Created by compositing a variety of real facial details and textures in Photoshop CS2 on top of a 3D model from Nintendo, the guy is just plain creepy.
I can’t decide if it’s the scraggly facial hair or the bulbous, slightly bloodshot eyeballs that will keep me up tonight. This is definitely not the kind of Mario that you’d want your kids playing with.
[via TechEBlog]
