Okay, this one is a little lean. However, the point is to find concept art that has either never or rarely been seen before. So these articles are not meant to be exhaustive in coverage, but rather either snippets or a little more. With that in mind…

The above pic is obviously the revamped Forward Unto Dawn. While I do not agree with 343’s changing the design of the ship, I will say that this concept is quite good. I like the girder protrusions. They add some color as well as defining more the devastation from being torn in half at the end of Halo 3.

Next up are a few pieces of art for the Excavator. The Covie vehicle in Spartan Ops.This looks otherworldly for sure. More like a sea creature though that a mobile mining platform.

This simplistic concept has enough details and “callouts” to understand the orientation of and various elements of the vehicle.

Various other forms the Excavator could have had.

Now this is something strange. It appears that we could have had either an arm attachment to blast the hole or that we would have had to put our arms into this claw like piece to activate the Excavator. I would have liked to have seen this.

The next two pieces show many possibilities for Forerunner ships.
Certainly a lot to choose from. Almost too much.

The immediate above and below graphics show concepts of UNSC frigate designs.
I like the bottom pic’s designs. I wish we would have see the in-game version more and not at a distance.

Finally, one that I’m sure you’re all very familiar with, the UNSC Infinity.
When I first saw this, I was pretty happy with it. It’s obvious from the pic that it was HUGE. It reeks of power.

Tomorrow I’ll explore characters of Reach, starting with the UNSC Marines. Over the course of the next several days, the character articles will continue with Noble team; Covenant; Halo 4 Marines, Master Chief, Cortana; H4 Covenant, Forerunner and Flood.

I hope you have been enjoying these concept articles and keep coming back daily for each subsequent ones.

-Sal

After tweeting a little with former Halo Environment Artist, Paul Russel, I was graced with the following concept art. Some of which has NEVER been seen before!

First up is this sweet “poster” of various ambient creatures, enemies and ships.

After looking each up, it appears that the Threeleg, Vulpard, Thorax, and Tankbeast have never been written about before. Hmm, HFFL SCOOP???

The Drinol I’ve heard about long ago. As too the Thornbeast. I really dig the Covenant Bomber.

I as yet can not confirm an official name for this beast. So, for now, I’m calling it a Murex. That’s a splice of the words mutant rex as in mutant tyrannosaurus rex. Possibly the Guta from Reach evolved from this???

An early sketch gives us land and air creatures. Again no names for either. For the bug, I’m going to make an assumption this turned into the Yanme’e. (Though I could be wrong, so don’t quote me there.) The other I’m going to call a Sand Dog. Again, not official names.

Finally we have this most awesome concept. The “Kestrel”. While the ship is known (barely), this particular design of it has NOT been seen before by the general public. Well, at least none that I can find that predates today.

Once again, I need to thank Paul Russel as well as Marcus Leto (Yes, THE Marcus Leto) for sharing these concepts.

I hope you’ve enjoyed these surprise concept pieces. Please share them and let people know where you saw them first. Right here on HaloFanForLife.com

-Sal

In the second of this series of concept art, I take a look at a few civilian vehicles and ships as well as a few Covenant concepts. As always, click on pics to make them bigger.

Let’s start with the Spade. The Spade is a mix between a dune buggy and pickup truck. It’s a utility vehicle for various tasks on Reach. In fact it can even be seen in Halo 4, via the multiplayer map “Landfall” in the garage area.

In the above pic we see multiple early concepts for the Spade. I gotta say, those are pretty darn cool. The designs (other than top right) look like they have great suspension and could handle a varied array of terrain. Perhaps though, they looked a little to futuristic or advanced beyond the previous games which take place LATER than Reach. Still, I’d love to see some of these designs make it into a future Halo game. The one at top right would make for an excellent civilian car.

This pic shows the Spade in a much more advanced stage of concept closer to the in-game version. The biggest difference being the absence of the engine area in the front of the vehicle. Note though that the color scheme is on par with the final version.

And here we have a concept that was perhaps the latest concept before the final design. It’s VERY much like the Spade seen in the game. It’s missing the front wheel guards shown in the previous pic.

We were fortunate to also have variants of the below industrial cart. These can be seen in the campaign at Sword base. Did you know these are drivable? They can’t do much, but it’s kind of fun to tool around in them (for a few seconds).

Next up we come to the civilian transport. This craft was seen during the campaign as you come around an area being attacked by wraiths and banshees. Several on seen on the landing platform while one tries to get away, only to be hit and take a nose-dive into the water below.
These look a lot like our modern large airplanes. Though these are capable of VTOL (vertical take-off and landing) and space flight. When you play that campaign level, make note of the different color schemes on the same ships on the landing pad.

Now here we have a concept that looks like nothing seen in the game. Perhaps this was the early design for what would become the airplane design. The top design is somewhat reminiscent of a Pelican. The bottom design is quite a departure from any other human craft seen in Halo game. The top one looks more practical, while the bottom one is definitely more futuristic. Either would have been neat to see in the game.

Now we move on to the Covenant ships.

This was posted as a concept, though I have a feeling it was the final. This Covenant Corvette looks exactly like the one in the game. Regardless, the design is very alien. You can view this in the campaign as well as on the multiplayer map “Corvette.”

While this wasn’t given a name, it seems to be a concept for the Revenant. It’s thin profile and overall shape make this ship seem like it could out race any UNSC ground vehicle. Unfortunately it wasn’t included.

Finally, we have why would seem to be a near-final design for the in-game version of the Seraph. This is much more “flying-saucer” like than any other ship seen in Halo. I thought these were kind of clunky looking. Indeed, in the game, they do not seem to be built for speed, but rather power. I find them easy to take down, even though they have shields.

See any concepts that you like? Are there any you would have liked to see in the game, or preferred over what made it into the game? Let me know. Reply below!

Tomorrow we’ll take a look a Halo 4’s ships and vehicles. I think I’m going to stick to that format. Show a subject topic from Reach, then it’s counterpart in Halo 4. This will let you see the progression from Bungie’s last Halo game (that chronologically happens first), to 343’s first Halo game.

-Sal

Today marks the first of many articles to come on the concept art of Halo Reach and Halo 4. Today, I’ll be posting pics of and talking about the vehicles and ships of Halo Reach. Enjoy! (As always, click pics to make BIGGER)

First up is a curiosity. It’s a UNSC boat. To date, we’ve not had a dedicated watercraft, for battling with.

Here are some concepts of what the boat might have looked like. I like the top and bottom ones of this pic.Above we see a much more finished version of the UNSC boat. It definitely reminds me of the Warthog. You could say it would have been the Warthog of the seas!  I would have absolutely loved to have seen this in the game. I wonder if this would have also led to a Covenant style watercraft? Imagine battles over water!! Missed opportunity.

The pic below shows a concept of a Pelican redesign. It looks sleeker than the original. Problem is, it looks MORE advanced than the original, which comes chronologically AFTER this design. Strangely enough, I see the Broadsword from Halo 4 in this concept. Hmmm…. 

Now we come to a nice series of concepts for the Falcon. Undeniably, the best new addition to the UNSC’s arsenal of air ships.

The sketches above give us a nice array of potential designs for the Falcon.

In the series of pics below we see what looks to be the final or near final design of the Falcon that would be put into the game.

This is a fantastic design. Though honestly, this looks like something that could exist today. (And I’d love to see that happen!) More shots below of the near-finished design.

That last pic gives us a great view of the inside troop area of the Falcon. Many times, I’ve gone into theater and taken shots of this awesome craft!

Now let’s take a look at the Sabre.

An early draft of the Sabre looks similar to the SR-71 (below).

Perhaps that’s why that idea was canned, in favor of something more original. Still, this would have been a fun ship to pilot.

More sketches above show the Sabre getting closer to the in-game model. I like both of the ones on the left. I suppose because they are colored in. However, the design is great and again, close to the in-game model.

Now we come to the near finished concept for the in-game Sabre. This design is VERY sleek. It just looks like it’s going to be FAST.

More shots and detail of the Sabre below.

I definitely think Bungie got this design right. It feels like a natural progression to me from current military craft to what could be in space, in the future.

Above we see a concept for the Scorpion. I wish this was on the battlefield today! I think I know another person that would have loved to have operated this. Right PensHalo?!

Finally, we come to a concept for a troop Warthog.Removing the gun mount and adding a simple roll bar definitely gives this Warthog a different vibe. Personally, I’d still would rather be in a gun mounted Warthog. But on base, when things are quiet, this would still be fun to drive around in.

One thing I can say about Bungie’s concept art is consistency. Everything looks like it would belong in the Halo-verse. The concepts are well thought out and rendered.

So did you see any concepts you hadn’t seen before? Like the article? Please reply below. I want to read your comments on this.

Tomorrow we’ll look at concepts for civilian and Covenant vehicles/ships of Halo Reach.

-Sal

Thanks to a tweet by HaloBungie.org, I found a link to a whole slew of new (and old) concept art from both Reach and Halo 4.

For roughly the next two weeks, I’ll be exploring different elements and aspects of the concept art for each of those two games. These will be image heavy, so I’ll likely be posting them as thumbnail galleries to help with loading. They of course can be made bigger by clicking on them as always.

For both games, articles will be posted on:
• Characters
• Equipment
• Places
• Vehicles
• Weapons
• Other Spartan Armor (than Master Chief/Noble Team)

Articles won’t necessarily follow that line-up though. So stay posted to HFFL for a bunch of very cool new articles on the concept art of Reach and Halo 4!

-Sal

Every so-often I check out Pinterest to see if there are Halo pins that I haven’t seen yet. Then I add those to the HFFL Pinterest page.

Here are the ones I found today (click on each to make bigger!):

You can see these and MUCH more at the HFFL Pinterest page HERE.

Do you like any of these pins? If so which ones?

-Sal

Saw this on twitter this morning. Fann-made Spartan Laser. (BB gun)

Pretty cool. I just wish we could have seen more of the weapon. Hopefully they’ll make another one showing off the weapon in better lighting.

-Sal

As you all likely know, I’m a big fan of Halo Mega Bloks. So when I found out about this video and after having watched it, I contacted the filmmaker to see if they wouldn’t mind me sharing their vid here.

Fo a fan made stop-motion, I think he did rather well. I love seeing stuff like this. Who knows, it could lead that person to become a film maker in Hollywood. It all starts somewhere…

So what do you think of the above vid? Reply below and let me know!

-Sal

Shane sent an e-mail to me today, providing the link to his new Halo song.

Give it a listen. I think it’s pretty good. LOTS of visuals in the video spanning the first three games, a little bit of Halo 4 and other clips from around the Halo-verse.

Give him a like if you don’t mind.

-Sal

I was motivated today to make a “Halo Legacy” background. I wanted to show some of the vital elements of each Halo game. Since I knew I was limited in space, I really had to be picky about what images made it in.

I know it’s a bit busy with graphics. That’s deliberate though. I wanted to create a background that had lots of visuals for people to look through. My small hope is that they’ll spend some time enjoying looking at each graphic and identifying each character and remember good times playing the games.

-Sal