Solid Cloud Object Shading (Like in Mario Galaxy 2)

Unity Engine
1

I didn’t really know the appropriate place to put this question, but I wanted to see it there was a way in Unity3d to shade objects that were sculpted as clouds or a cloud scape. I was looking for a technique similar to the cloud shading in Mario Galaxy 2

and/or Skyworld in Super Smash Brothers Brawl. I was wondering how I cloud do this (and if to) if anyone could write one or link me to something similar. I have NO experience in programming shaders, but I do have experience in 3D modeling/rendering

Most of the game takes place in clouds, so a ton of particle clouds isn’t feasible, I’m modeling the clouds in blender using metaballs and sculpting them once converted into a mesh.

Thanks to anyone that can help me out!

2

Well, it doesn’t look that special. I’d say the only difference from a diffuse shader is that there seems to be some rimlight going on. But that’s it.

The darker shadowing at the bottom seems to be baked.

3

In the Unity3 documentation is an example of a surface shader which might look like what you are heading for(I guess Unity3 is required)

Shader "Example/Diffuse Wrapped" {
    Properties {
      _MainTex ("Texture", 2D) = "white" {}
    }
    SubShader {
      Tags { "RenderType" = "Opaque" }
      CGPROGRAM
      #pragma surface surf WrapLambert

      half4 LightingWrapLambert (SurfaceOutput s, half3 lightDir, half atten) {
          half NdotL = dot (s.Normal, lightDir);
          half diff = NdotL * 0.5 + 0.5;
          half4 c;
          c.rgb = s.Albedo * _LightColor0.rgb * (diff * atten * 2);
          c.a = s.Alpha;
          return c;
      }

      struct Input {
          float2 uv_MainTex;
      };
      sampler2D _MainTex;
      void surf (Input IN, inout SurfaceOutput o) {
          o.Albedo = tex2D (_MainTex, IN.uv_MainTex).rgb;
      }
      ENDCG
    }
    Fallback "Diffuse"
  }
4

Yep it’s just diffuse lighting + rim light.

5

Ah, okay. I was having trouble making my clouds not look like ice or whatever. I was using the VertexLit, but i wanted to see if there was another way to do it, but I’ll have to find out how to do the rim light thing.