Halo Concept Art: Halo 4 UNSC, Cortana and Master Chief

Each of these articles I’ve endeavored to show you something new. Today might buck that trend, depending on what you’e seen before. Many of these were part of the advertising campaign for Halo 4. Still, I hope you enjoy them. As always, if you ant to see them bigger, click on the pic!

First up personnel of the UNSC.

halo_4_scientistmale_final_sheet_by_kory_lynn_hubbellThis is one of the official orthogonal views from Halo 4.This would have been a typical male scientist aboard the UNSC Infinity. We didn’t quite see this version. Though it’s pretty safe to assume it evolved into Dr. Glassman as well as the several unhooded scientists seen in Spartan Ops.

halo_4_scientistmale_variant_2_by_kory_lynn_hubbellAnd here’s the hooded version. While the previous is similar in detail, this version is much better, just by the addition of color. I can’t stress enough how much color application to concepts helps to bring them to like.

halo_4_unsc_fleet_officer_lasky_by_kory_lynn_hubbellCommander Lasky. Now this is a proper finalized concept. All the details are there. Heh, strangely though the right one is incorrect. Note the forearm device. It’s in the wrong spot on the right. Obviously the head of the character changed. I’m glad for it too as this one looks a bit bedraggled and war torn. I appreciate the friendlier face we got in the game.

Lasky Trivia:
• He was the leading character of the Forward unto Dawn miniseries.
• There was a planned action figure by McFarlane that got to the near final stages before being pulled. (Much to the chagrin of collectors, me included!)
• Mega Bloks included a micro action figure of Lasky in their Halo Mega Bloks Mammoth set. (You can see my multi-part review of it here: Pt1, Pt2, Pt3, Pt4.)

Next is a compilation of various Marines seen in Halo 4.
halo_4_unsc_marines_by_kory_lynn_hubbell
halo_4_unsc_marine_infantry_2_final_by_kory_lynn_hubbell
And a close-up of one of them. Now, while I wasn’t fond of many of the aesthetic changes made to Halo, I actually have grown to like this marine style. For me, I think the Halo 3 style will be the truest version of them, but these are definitely second to them. In the compilation pic, you can see through subtle changes in torso armor, helmets, and color, 343 achieved a varied look without having to redesign each particular version of the marines. That’s great planning there.

Now Cortana. Sweet sweet Cortana, what did 343 do to you… sigh. Before I talk about a few pieces, I have to add that I was disappointed that 343 found it necessary to kill her off. In my opinion, she’s the number 2 character in the whole of Halo. She’s only second to Master Chief. Considering her unique creation, I had hoped she would survive rampancy and achieve meta-stability. Or at the least as the campaign went on, Chief would have found a way to save her. It’s not going to be the same, without her. Okay…now the pics.

halo_4_cortanaThese 3, to me, almost appear to be a little evil. Now that could be the rampancy state starting to show through. The other thing is the face. She looks a lot like Christina Ricci, the actress.

halo_4_vinyl_cortana_ks_by_john_libertoIn the above, I get a feeling of a cross-over between the Halo 3 Cortana and the Halo 4 Cortana. I really like this version and would have been quite happy with it being in the game. The color work here, even in mostly blue hues is very well done. There is a lot of depth to the rendering.

halo_4_chief_cortana_final_by_john_libertoThe above was made popular as a wraparound magazine cover. The front half showing Chief, while the back showing Cortana. This has also been available as prints. I can appreciate the work that went into this one. Tons of detail. Also, if you take a moment to consider it, with nearly everything else being blue, except Chief, his seeming to walk away from Cortana and her just looking on, this seems to have been a clue as to the ending of the game.

Using that last one, we’ll segue over to Master Chief.

halo_4_master-chief-sketchThis early sketch of Master Chief shows his armor in a very different version from what was ultimately used. Here the helmet is a lot more simpler as are the shoulder plates. As a concept though, it’s a great place to start the creative process that eventually led us to the Chief in Halo 4 that we know.

halo_4_m-092_kill_small_by_kory_lynn_hubbellThis storyboard concept of the final battle between Master Chief and the Didact is quite fun to read. The Didact looks a bit like General Greivous from Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith. I like the caption used for Chief in the fourth panel. (Second row, first column) I’d love to see more of this kind of concept art released as well as it shows the creative process really at work.

Many of the next 10 are well known, so I’m going to just post them with little commentary and let you appreciate them.

halo_4_chief_12x12_print_by_john_libertohalo_4_chief_cover_b_final_by_john_libertohalo_4_chief_miamivice_style_final_by_john_libertohalo_4_keyart_rgb_vert_finalhalo_4_knightbattle_final_by_john_libertohalo_4_tease_secondary_verticalhalo_4_vinyl_chief_by_john_libertohalo_4_mc_scouts_infinitygoingdown_jb_sized_by_jonathan_bachhalo_4_scanned_by_john_libertohalo_4_walking_on_cadavers_final_by_john_libertoIn all of those, the detail and color were thoroughly flesh out. Some of those have already become iconic to Halo 4. This is fantastic art, even if not so much in the concept phase.

Tomorrow we’ll look at other Spartan armor from Reach as well as some equipment concepts.

Thanks again as always for checking out HaloFanForLife.com. There’s a lot more to come, so keep coming back to see loads more Halo stuff!

-Sal

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About Sal

I’ve got tons of experience with Halo gaming and collecting. I feel I have something to offer to the greater Halo fan community. Posts along the way will be about tips and tricks in the games as well as collecting and many more Halo related things. I’ll also repost interesting articles from the official site, Halowaypoint.com, or from fellow Halo fan sites. As I continue this blog, I hope to help gamers who want advice on the games, as well as any collectors with regards to where to find collectibles as well as deals, coupons and so on. You can also follow me on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/#!/HaloFanForLife or Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/halofanforlife11. Welcome to my blog and I hope you’ll come back again and again. -Sal