HRSotD (short for Halo: Reach Screenshot of the Day) is a daily feature dedicated to the wonders of Halo: Reach screenshots and the artists that capture these amazing images. A variety of shots—all of which are completely unaltered and captured in Halo: Reach’s theater mode—are included for your viewing pleasure. Enjoy the varied selection of images, and maybe even find inspiration to make your own!

Author: GlazZz ODST

Last week, for our Friday Caption Fun festivities, you provided quips for an image featuring a festive but potentially awkward situation. Here are the top captions you left for that particular image!

“This is it baby, hold me.” –The Little Moa
“Mistletoe? Wort’s that?” –oO DREWISH Oo
“Awww…. but all I got you was this sticky grenade….” –Coux73
“No, no! Mistletoe does not count when it is radioactive!!” –The Demon 0u812
“General Blarg was the first Sangheili to volunteer for the “Christmas” inter-species relations program.
He missed something in the fine print.” –Darkslayer18264
“Look Ma, no jet pack!” –Raging Striker
“Unfortunately for the Spartan, ‘kiss’ in Sangheili roughly translates into ‘Energy Sword to the face.'” –AnalogPh33r
“… and then he looked down.” –Prosperity Park

Now that we’ve wrapped up that picture, let’s start a new one. Up for your captioning pleasure this week is a picture featuring a heavily customized Warthog. Soak in the screenshot, then leave your witty and relevant quip in a comment. Off you go!

Author: jack kelland

CES is taking place next week, and Frank, our resident Mister Chief-drawing Franchise Development Director, will be there, sitting on a panel titled “Hollywood and Games – A Transmedia Approach to Entertainment Content.” He won’t be talking about Halo 4, but he will be talking about the Halo franchise in general. Here are the details, should you find yourself in the Las Vegas area next Wednesday!

Hollywood and Games – A Transmedia Approach to Entertainment Content

Date: Wednesday, January 11, 4:00 pm – 5:00 pm

Location: N262

Speakers: Adam Boyes, Frank O’Connor, James Jones, Jeff Gomez, Marcus Gners, Ned Sherman, Peter Levin

Description: Hollywood content owners and the game industry have had a rocky relationship, resulting in a few cross-platform successes. What must occur to ensure that future franchises work well across platforms and media? How can all stakeholders – licensers, developers, publishers and distributors – get a fair return on their investments?

2012 International CES

From Eagle0nFire:

Have you ever found yourself barrel rolling out of control? Ever wish you could stay on two wheels? Well, I am still learning how to do this technique properly but this is probably one of the most challenging things I have ever done in Halo. With a little bit of practice, you can try it, too! I warn you, though, this trick is very hard, very tedious, and may drive you completely nuts. Enjoy!

Two-wheel Warthog Driving in Halo: Reach

From Rooster Teeth:

We recently attended the 2011 Child’s Play dinner in Seattle, which includes a charity auction to benefit sick kids receiving treatment in hospitals all over the world. This week, the item we won arrived and we immediately hung it in a prominent place in the office. Without further ado, I present to you our one-of-a-kind masterpiece Van Doh by Frank O’Connor (oil on canvas 2011). Somehow Mister Chief added to the Rooster Teeth office has raised the stature of both entities. Two wrongs making a right as it were. Through art, progress.

For the kids!

From ducain23:

This is a really fun MX track made by alexharkleroad. Enjoy!

Download the map

HRSotD (short for Halo: Reach Screenshot of the Day) is a daily feature dedicated to the wonders of Halo: Reach screenshots and the artists that capture these amazing images. A variety of shots—all of which are completely unaltered and captured in Halo: Reach’s theater mode—are included for your viewing pleasure. Enjoy the varied selection of images, and maybe even find inspiration to make your own!

Author: Ch3rry Pick3r

From Josh:

I wanted to share some Halo coasters I made for a friend who enjoys Halo. While I was at work, I made two (4” x ½”) wooden disks. After they were finished, I scanned the internet for logos and symbols to put on the coasters. The first one I made is just the plain Halo logo with “Solo and Co-op” on it for when we completed Halo: Anniversary over Xbox live. The second is the Legendary logo with “Legendary” inscribed at the bottom for us completing it on that difficulty together. Each coaster is laser engraved and most definitely a one-of-a-kind Christmas present!

From Rooster Teeth:

Jack squares off against a fresh new opponent (Caleb) in this week’s episode of HORSE. Who will win? The crusty old vet or the young hot shot? Watch to find out!

Halo: Reach – Achievement HORSE #56

From Zero Sk0pe:

The Cleaning Crew, a Halo: Anniversary clan, is hosting an Anniversary 2v2 tournament on January 21st. Everyone is welcome, and it’s free to participate. Here are the details:

Game type: Slayer
Map: (Anniversary only)
Match: 2 vs 2
Score to win: 25 kills
Date: Jan. 21 (a Saturday)

Get more information by clicking the link below!

2v2 Anniversary Tournament – Hosted by The Cleaning Crew Clan

From ONESHOTSCOTT:

This is my second montage. It’s a sniper montage titled Seizure of Power and consists of 153 kills in 3:49. Most of the montage is made out of four snipers games. It took me about 20 hours to make and is made out of an hour of gameplay. Enjoy!

Seizure Of Power – A Halo: Reach Montage

From CruelLEGACEY:

Machinima is becoming more and more popular every day. Halo can be used to create new forms of entertainment in fun and exciting ways. Because of this, making machinima has become a popular hobby and passion for many of us, but it isn’t easy. The process of making machinima can be complicated and can lead to many questions. “How do I record the video?” “How do I record dialog?” “How do I add music?” The list of questions goes on and on. But don’t worry, I’m here to help with my complete guide to making machinima!

To help with this guide, I’ll be using my own machinima series, Playtime, to illustrate each step of the process. We’re going to go over the making of Playtime Season 2, step by step. To help keep things organized, I’ve broken this guide into five sections:

1. Planning and voice acting.
2. Storyboards and animatics.
3. Filming.
4. Video editing.
5. Audio editing and final mastering.

Let’s get started!

Part 1: Planning and Voice Acting

When making a machinima, the three most important words to remember are planning, planning, and planning. Having a clear and organized plan will make every single step of production easier, and improve the final product. The very first thing you are going to need is a script.

When writing your script, there are a few different issues you should focus on. Besides the obvious things (like making your script good), you’ll want to ask yourself the following questions:

1. How many different characters are in my machinima?
2. How many different locations will I be using?
3. What ‘sets’ do I need to build?

Making machinima presents a unique set of challenges and circumstances that you need to account for before you begin filming. For example, you need to think about what the game itself will allow you to do. If your script features a character using a vehicle, you’d better make sure that the vehicle is available on the map you are filming on. You need to think about the various weapons and Armor Abilities that are included in your script. You may need to create custom game types and forge maps designed specifically for your machinima. Luckily, Halo: Reach makes all these things possible.

For Playtime Season 2, my script needed to cover four episodes, each episode roughly five minutes in length. I also knew that all four episodes were going to tell one continuous story. This meant I needed to be particularly organized. While writing the script, I would constantly take notes about how many characters would appear in each scene, and how I would logistically go about filming it. For Playtime, I made the decision to film the show by myself. This limits me to only being able to control four characters at a time. If I write a scene that includes more than four characters, I’d better have a plan for how to film and edit things together. Some machinima makers will choose to film over Xbox Live. This has benefits such as being able to have up to 16 “body actors” in a single scene. But it also has drawbacks; playing online prevents the body actors from lowering their weapons. Whatever decisions you make, just make sure you have a plan for filming every scene contained in your script.

With the script complete, I then move on to the next major element of production: voice acting. Playtime Season 2 features far more characters than the first season. This meant that I needed to expand my range as a voice actor. I record all the dialogue using a table-top digital voice recorder. I record the voices one character at a time. This means I sit down and read through all of Warren’s dialogue for the entire season, then do all of Cobra’s dialogue, etc. I do this rather than bouncing back and forth between characters because it helps keep each character sounding consistent from one scene to the next.

Once the dialogue is recorded, I import the files to my computer and run them through a couple audio programs.

First, I use a program called Audacity to apply some basic compression and EQ passes on all the voice recordings. I also use Audacity for pitch-shifting effects, to make certain characters’ voices sound lower or higher than I can do naturally. I apply different levels of processing to each character’s voice to create distinct tones.

After all the voice work has been run through Audacity, I then import all the files into a multi-track audio program called Sonar. I use Sonar to add another layer of effects to the voices. For example, I add a slight distortion effect to Cobra and Warren’s voices to mimic the sound of their helmet speaker projecting their speech. Later, I will also use Sonar for all panning and spacial effects, such as echos and reverbs. However, that step does not come until after filming has taken place.

Here are some samples of my voice work before and after the audio processing.

1st up: Warren. Warren’s voice is basically my natural speaking voice. Here’s an un-edited clip:

Now here’s that same clip after I’ve added a distortion effect to simulate his helmet speaker:

Next, let’s listen to a clip of Cobra’s dialogue before any processing:

In addition to some distortion, I also raise the pitch of my voice for Cobra’s lines:

Finally, let’s check out one of the new characters introduced in Season 2. The Commander:

For the Commander’s voice, I lowered the pitch, added some distortion, as well as a slight flanger effect for a sound not unlike Darth Vader.

After adding the effects to each character’s voice, I edit all the dialog together into a single audio file. This allows me to listen to the dialogue from the entire season in one continuous piece of audio. I then cut scenes and move them around until I’m happy with the flow and continuity of the entire season.

That’s all for today! Come back next week for a look at the next phase of production: storyboarding.

– CruelLEGACEY
www.cruellegaceyproductions.com
www.playtimeshow.com