Motion Control Hits A Home Run For Halo 3 Launch Site
The interactive website for Halo 3 lets the viewer navigate through a massive battlefield filled with tanks, explosions, aliens and all kinds of other good stuff. You’d think that a colossal marketing effort of this magnitude would be your basic CG wank, but not this time. The whole website was created using a series of Motion Control moves on an incredibly elaborate model. Everything you see on the site was crafted by hand. The main model was constructed by New Deal Studios with characters crafted by Stan Winston. The detail simply needs to be seen to be believed. Each explosion was made from a translucent plastic and lit from behind, the smoke trails from the RPGs and tank shells are cotton. They even made muzzle flashes for the guns. The expressions on the characters have enough emotional impact to stand up to the tightest close-ups.
The site allows you to take a self guided tour over the model. As you travel there are a few stop points along the way were you can see a 360° panorama of the carnage. The camera moves were achieved by the use of two separate Motion Control rigs fitted with Probe lenses placed on both ends of the model. The moves were shot in segments that could later be cut together into one continuous take. The end result is simply spectacular. Best of all, you can take snapshots at any point in your travels that you can download later.
Special thanks to Nyarlathotep for the low down on this one LINK to the Halo 3 Believe Site
LINK to stills of the diorama
