The visual effects work for Halo Season 2 included futuristic set extension and full CG city environments, hologram inserts, destruction FX simulations for battle scenes, vehicles, and crowds.
Working closely with Production VFX Supervisor Wojciech Zielinski and VFX Producer Mike May, MPC’s team led by VFX Supervisor Kedar Manapragada and VFX Producer Nick Colangelo along with their creative team DFX Supervisor Artem Sukach, Animation Director Tom Nagy, CG Supervisor James Reid and Production Managers Paula Barragan Naranjo, and Huong Vu completed 97 shots for the second season of Halo the Series.
MPC began work on the second season of Halo the Series in 2022, when they were enlisted by VFX Supervisor Wojciech Zielinski to provide guidance on collecting motion capture data for the show’s many fight sequences. Zielinski and VFX Producer Mike May reached out to MPC’s LA based Art Department to design new key characters for the second season including Sangheili warriors, Arbiter Var ‘Gatanai, the Covenant priest Uto ‘Mdama, and a new version of Cortana’s hologram effects. Another notable contribution was the design of the parasitic Flood and its different stages of development. The MPC Art Department also provided concepts for environments including Reach City, Visegrad Relay, the attack on Reach City, the Bridge Battle, the Halo ring itself, props, creatures and the destructive glassing effect of Covenant plasma bombardment. “A great deal of work went into pushing the environment concepts in accuracy, integrating the designs over shot plates to create a blueprint for the vfx teams” said MPC Art Director Leandre Lagrange.
Kyle Killen
The visual effects showcased for Episode 1 took center stage during the medal ceremony held in the FLEETCOM hangar. Given that a significant portion of the photography was shot against a blue screen, there was a need to replace extensive screen space with visual effects. MPC’s environment team demonstrated their expertise, crafting hangar bay set extensions. Furthermore, MPC played a pivotal role in creating monitor holograms for the futuristic displays through which the ceremony was broadcasted, adding an additional layer of innovation to the visual narrative.
A significant challenge for MPC’s artist was for the Bridge Battle sequence in Episode 4, depicting Reach City engulfed in flames after a massive battle. MPC’s Assets, DMP and FX simulation artists embarked on the challenging task of demolishing city buildings, incorporating smoke, and portraying plasma fire raining from the sky. To create the thousands of lights across the CG city, an in-house tool was developed in Houdini. To achieve the continuity in fire and smoke, we created many long simulations and adjusted the frame range on a per-shot basis. MPC’s compositing team helped develop the look of the battle environment along with creating plasma splash effects and UNSC weapon muzzle flashes. Modeling artists built a new high-fidelity Scorpion tank 3D model, while MPC’s Animation Team crafted a Sangheili horde involved the utilization of motion capture performances polished through keyframe animation techniques.
In Episode 8, the spotlight is on the intense final fight sequence featuring Master Chief and the Arbiter. Both characters engage in a gripping hand-to-hand and sword fight, ultimately facing each other in a battle for survival. To bring this pivotal moment to life, the showrunners provided CG models of the Arbiter and Master Chief, which were then meticulously enhanced by MPC’s Character Team. They introduced battle damage, blood, and gore to illustrate and intensify the evolving nature of the fight. MPC’s animation artists began blocking out the essential beats using mocap data, then refined the animation and facial performance for key dialogue moments to capture the emotion and realism of the characters. FX artists were tasked with crafting dynamic simulations, including the dramatic shattering of the Master Chief’s energy sword and cascading plasma, as well as adding blood effects for the Arbiter’s gore. TechAnim artists seamlessly integrated vfx elements to fine-tune armor details. Additionally, skin simulation was applied for the final touches, enhancing the overall authenticity of the characters.
