Today we explore yet more of Reach’s environment concepts. There’s a good mix with a few pieces of line art. As usual, click on pics to make bigger. And feel free to download these too.

The vista isn’t in the game. Is this New Alexandria in the distance? Perhaps Sword base? Regardless, the ominous clouds tell of the foreboding attack to come. This in and of itself is a great piece of art, never mind that it pertains to Halo.

A scene form the campaign, this could be a representation of several places. It looks similar to a road in the first mission, “Winter Contingency”. It also looks like a road to Sword Base, but with vegetation instead of mostly snow and ice. One thing this concept has that wasn’t in the game at this scene is the darkness and fog. It seems Bungie artists really wanted to convey that something bad was going to happen.

Peaking out high above the invading Covenant army. While this concept is dark as well, it’s discernible what is taking place. With the presence of many purple lights, the Covenant has amassed a massive army with which to destroy Reach.

Another scene from “Winter Contingency”. Once again fog prevails. Add in rain and darkness and you get a sense of a very dismal day. A beautiful piece even in it’s darkness.

Here we have a concept of what I’m assuming is Sword base. However, the many buildings that stretch out form it do make me think New Alexandria as well. The muted color palette seems to state this is dawn and the sun is starting to crawl it’s way towards the structures.

Inside the factory on Boneyard. While this space changed in the final version, this piece shows the direction Bungie was going for. Very industrial. This could be any number of manufacturing plants on Earth today. It’s that balance of sci-fi and realism that I love about Halo. It’s something that COULD happen in the future.

Ah, New Alexandria. This many tiered view shows some of the heights that the city reaches to. In the game, this level is much more brightly lit. The sharp lighting on the middle structure is quite deliberate as the artist wants us to focus on that particular area. The many and varied angles might have been lost if not for the expert use of perspective in this piece. Very well done!

Various door concepts. These could be anywhere. From Sword Base to New Alexandria and the like. Without color it makes the doors utilitarian. Depending on what color scheme would be added to these, the doors could take on a different look and feel altogether, despite the underlying base art of the structure.

Another concept of the base at the end of Winter Contingency. This is a good semi-fleshed out concept. Not quite finished, but certainly not a sketch. I wish it were possible to recreate this in Forge. I’m hoping Halo 5’s forge will be extremely robust and will have plenty of varied textured pieces to it, so that something  like the above will be possible.

The base that might have been. Would this have been the Winter Contingency Base or Sword Base? Looking at the concept, it really could have gone either way. Okay forge fans, let’s see someone make THSI! The art while over all blueish grey has a detail, texture, perspective and shading that is well placed. 

An early concept of the satellite array. Even though it lacks color, this rendering is able to tell the scale of the parts involved. In art such as this, it’s VERY important to get perspective right. The addition of highlight and shadows in the right places can make a subject leap off a page, so-to-speak.

This appears to be a concept for the final room of the Winter Contingency mission. This area was of course heavily changed for the game, though there are still quite a few elements form this concept that made it in.

A small splash of color as seen in the above concept can really change the feeling of a subject. In the piece above, your eye is drawn more to the warmer colors. It’s as if the artist is saying, go into the hallway beyond, it’s safer there.

The last concept for part 2 of Reach’s environments shows the satellite dish form different views. The railings on the side view really add to the description of size of the dish. Without those, the dish could have been much smaller. 

Okay, I’d have got this article done sooner, but was pulled away by family to go see a showing of X-Men: Days of Future Past. (I suggest see in it if you’re an X-Men fan. I liked it very much. Oh and be sure to stay ALL the way through the credits…)

Tomorrow (or rather later today), I have the third of the Reach Environment articles posted. Then Saturday, we’ll explore the environments of Halo 4.

-Sal