Okay, Set up the blue print in 3ds max. Used bitmap fit, and UVmap to make sure the blueprint was the correct size.
step 2 of 6
Modeling Mario was a fairly straight forward affair, all of the shapes used were basic primitives, had some modifications to do, used the FFD modifier to attain the correct shapes. Added turbo smooth to most parts of the model.
step 3 of 6
The part of the level that's visible is made from just simple boxes.
step 4 of 6
Added the Ivy with the freeware plugin "grow Ivy".
step 5 of 6
The starfield was added by using the starfield video post option. This is found in the rendering>video post drop down from the top menus.
step 6 of 6
I used a standard camera with some depth of field. Then to light the scene I used a standard target direct light, with Vray shadows. The render settings were straight forward. I used the 70mm panovision image frame. With a light cache of 500 samples.