This morning, we got word from Shaun Escayg, who was involved in an animation project over at CGSociety.org. The short video he pointed us to (5 seconds, about 6 mb) was fantastic – but I didn’t want them to suffer from a bandwidth hit if we front-paged this, so we’re making the video available here (with Shaun’s permission, of course). Feel free to toss your two cents into that thread at CGS… but grab the video from us. (It’s available in its original H.264-encoded QuickTime (5.5 mb), as well as a Sorenson3-encoded QuickTime (3.9 mb) and a WMP9 version (5.7 mb).) It’s not long, and it has no sound – but the grunts are GORGEOUS. Model was done by Ben Falcone, animation by Shaun Escayg, and rigging by Mikkel Grosland (with Anna Terekhova supplying the Needler model). Amazing work. Grab a copy!(Louis Wu 19:31:37 UTC)

When studio funding for the Halo movie pulled out a couple of months ago, some people speculated that Microsoft wouldn’t have any trouble funding the development themselves. In an interview recently, Robbie Bach said that this would not happen – Microsoft was not getting into the movie-making business. Today’s One One Se7en suggests a reason why.(Louis Wu 19:25:02 UTC)

Camboy45, a member of the Red vs Blue community, sent along a shot of his new Halo tattoo. Nice work!(Louis Wu 18:48:58 UTC)

Fifteen new pieces for you in today’s Fan Fiction update – well, not quite, because someone thought that because they’d mislabeled a series name, they should RESUBMIT the series, in its entirety… but you get the idea. (In the future, please don’t do this.)(Louis Wu 18:04:25 UTC)

Mark MacDonald and Luke Smith (of GameVideos.com/1Up.com/Electronic Games Magazine) have their own deconstruction of the Halo 3 commercial; what’s different about theirs (aside from the fact that these guys get paid for this sort of thing) is that it’s in video format. They walk through the commercial, conversing about all the juicy tidbits as they go. This is available at GameVideos.com – it’s 13 minutes long, and you can either watch it in streaming format on their site, or download hi-res versions (more than 200 MB) to your computer to watch at your leisure. (Louis Wu 07:59:31 UTC)

Normally, The Halo Humpday Challenge is a series of three games between Bungie and a community team. Normally, Bungie gets their collective rears handed to them in a majority of those games. This week was no exception, really; Bungie had a team of two (because everyone else was either too busy or too stupid), and PraetoriaGuard simply cycled in 3 pairs of the six people they brought to the party. Two of the games were predictable; Bungie’s team of Frankie and Lars went down HARD. The third… the third was so unusual that this week’s Halo Humpday Challenge focuses ONLY on that game. In this game, Frankie (FRANKIE fergoshsakes) pummeled clan leader LordGideon and faithful sidekick SteelValor so mercilessly, so thoroughly that his score was more than double their best score, and his deaths were half of their least-killed player. His medal count equalled their TEAM’S medal count, and the number of headshots he scored was greater than the sum of all players on the PG team. To put it simply… he kicked ass and took names… and then wrote those names on a chalkboard and fed the chalkboard to a bear. And then he sicced that bear on Steven Colbert. (Wait, I might have gotten that part wrong.) LordGideon, we hear, has not come out of his room yet. (The game was played almost 36 hours ago.)(Louis Wu 07:19:02 UTC)

Mitchell Moore sent word of Outside the Box, whose current storyline is Halo-related. And yeah, I think I’d respond like the second girl…(Louis Wu 22:38:32 UTC)

Jordan117 did some creative writing. Heh.(Louis Wu 21:13:51 UTC)

A couple of weeks ago, Pinkuh finished a new piece of art that had been commissioned for an upcoming contest (a signed, framed print of this piece will be available to be won) – I hadn’t posted it in her gallery because I thought it was supposed to be exclusive to the contest. Today, I was corrected – the print will be exclusive – but the digital version is available for all to enjoy. So Enjoy!(Louis Wu 21:00:12 UTC)

Yesterday, Bungie.net posted a small note about the Halouvre, and how it had just celebrated its 2nd birthday. Since we mentioned that celebration a week ago, I figured I’d pass on this – but JeBr0nie made me look again… and there IS something of note that’s new in that post; the Halouvre has opened a new section, called ‘The Best of The Halouvre‘, nailing down some of the most impressive HUDless shots they’ve collected. If you’ve found their large collection daunting, check out this best-of gallery – it’s a great way in! Update: looks like the site’s down (probably for bandwidth over-consumption) at the moment… not a good sign, given that we’re only one week into the month. (Louis Wu 17:12:30 UTC)

Heh – Ross Mills found a funny shirt. Be sure you read the description UNDER the shirt.(Louis Wu 16:54:03 UTC)

Okay, in general, I’m probably a little burnt out on montages; when it comes down to it, it’s usually just a bunch of stickies and snipes, maybe with some clever BR work tossed in for excitement. Occasionally, though, one comes through that’s got a bunch of stuff going for it – enough to make it stand out. Z just sent word of one of these; it’s a DualTage from PhaLanX and Ephrum, released over at halo3forum.com. Great added effects (that first ‘Boom!’ made me laugh out loud), fantastic quality, great gameplay. Funny outtakes at the end. (I was rooting for the BR kill after the sword lunge off Lockout… so close!) It’s 150 mb, in WMP9 format – it’s worth the download. Check it out.(Louis Wu 16:39:43 UTC)

kinggun sent along a YouTube link showing The Unchosen playing a live, metal version of ‘Mjolnir’ (we hosted an acoustic version yesterday) – different sound!(Louis Wu 15:51:42 UTC)

Over at MLGPro.com, there’s news of another big shakeup – Final Boss has dropped Saiyan, and picked up StrongSide, in the wake of three consecutive losses to Carbon this year. (Thanks, 3Suns.) There’s another perspective on the change over at Amped.(Louis Wu 14:30:52 UTC)

Heh – it’s never too late to find new reviews. We got word from Dennis Wyman of VGRC.net that they’ve got reviews of both Halo (Xbox) and Halo (PC) online; the games earned 9.0/10 and 9.5/10, respectively. Go read ’em!(Louis Wu 14:23:45 UTC)

Wow, doesn’t leave you much time – sorry for missing this yesterday. We’d already mentioned this year’s Penny Arcade-run Child’s Play Charity Dinner and Auction – there’s Halo-related stuff to buy there, and even if there wasn’t, it’s a fantastic cause. However, if you don’t have tickets, and you WANT them – they’re giving some away. All you have to do is create a comic strip (with a bunch of restrictions). Read this post at Penny Arcade, then swing by the Child’s Play site and scroll down to Recent News for 12-05-06; you can grab the template you need there. But hurry – submissions must be in by noon PST TODAY – that’s less than 6 hours from now. Get drawing! Thanks to jdogmoney for the heads-up!(Louis Wu 14:11:39 UTC)

Spartan Jag noticed a new post over at Bungie.net – the December Fan Art update. (I think it’s mislabeled, and actually the NOVEMBER update, since the last one (posted at the end of October) was the October update… but we all know KP’s been busy playing Pimps at Sea.) A chunk (almost half) have already appeared here at HBO – but the other half have not, and there’s some pretty darned impressive stuff in this batch! Go check ’em out. (Louis Wu 14:01:36 UTC)

Ename Nep noticed a ‘Top 10 Coolest Vehicles in Film and TV‘ list over at YesButNoButYes – the Warthog pulls in at number 6. They’re a little confused, I think; the picture shows the Halo 2 Hog, but the text describes the indestructible original. Oh, well.(Louis Wu 13:52:26 UTC)

A bunch of new Halo 3 commercial dissections this morning – TeamXbox has a sort of non-serious one and then one that’s a little more serious (thanks, 3Suns), and QuickTactical has written one up over at HaloGrid. Check ’em out – you might see something you missed!(Louis Wu 13:49:12 UTC)