Halo Infinite: Season 2 Teaser
Microsoft . 343 INDUSTRIES . APRIL 2022
Package: Maxon C4D R25
Renderer: Octane
This video took 152 hours, nearly 7 days, to render 882 frames of animation. This short video was rendered with 2 6800XT Duo MPX modules and 3 external 5700XT GPUs at a 4:3 ratio for Instagram.
From start to end, the project was accomplished in a condensed timeframe, while incorporating an assortment of ideas from game design into the realm of traditional 2D and 3D work.
This also ended up being one of the last projects I worked on before leaving 343 Industries in September of 2022.
Narrative Design Director: Dan Chosich
Writer: Jeff Easterling
Design, Animation, Rendering: Dan Chosich
Sound Designer: Kyle Fraser
Excerpts from the magazine.
A world beyond the frame
Under greater constraints, it made a lot of sense to have done this entire piece in After Effects and then changed the orientation. However, what I wanted to achieve was a feeling of a world beyond the frame. Something was happening that triggered these states, and there was a lone computer somewhere being ravaged by an infiltration that had happened a floor above and beyond.
The power of logos
World building through bRanding
The power of logo design was rediscovered for me here. I spent a lot of my time doing traditional narrative storytelling work, and this forced me to get back into pure graphic design. The moment I created the imagery on the right, I was reminded of how semiotics was a foundational aspect of world building. The glyph gave me the latitude to make this company seem real. Once I had the logo, I could incorporate it onto walls, machines, and screens. It started to feel more like a real thing, which inspired me to bring this piece to life in a semi-real world. It needed to exist as a 3D asset that would take damage and be exposed to the machinations of outside forces depending on this location. The story and teaser needed to have layers. The screen layer, the world layer, and the audio layer.
Leave space for wonder and personal stories to unfold
Starting with Words and Audio
The Process
Every project started with a germ of an idea. This was the most rudimentary form of the story. It was usually words and text timed to various beats on a linear timeline. With this project, my goal had been to outsource the work. I knew I hadn't had a way to devote all my attention to this, but what I could do was plan and be as specific as possible. This had been one part of that specificity. This had been the blueprint with words, timing, and audio. Adjacent to this had been a lot of visual reference for what I had wanted to achieve timed out against the same beats.