Frag blast the vent core. Nice. Joe, Lee, and I should do a commentary version of this. Also, I think I still have all the storyboards and scripts laying around someplace. I’m sure Lee has them too. Oh and Spark thinks MC is a “Reclaimer” which is why he assumed he already knew.
I need to start saving everything about my life like you do. I’m impressed that you’ve kept so much of what you’ve done over the years. I just lose everything.
I'm only a few minutes in but duuuuuuuuuuuude... HOLY SHIT this is incredible, I cannot imagine the amount of time this must've taken with all the individual frame masking, transitions, audio syncing etc. Absolutely incredible and more than iconic!
Nice job! That's quite a project that you took on. I am Lee Wilson, and yes I did do the storyboards for Halo 1, 2, and 3. Halo 1 were all on paper like traditional movie shooting boards. Halo 2's story went through a lot of changes and so I ended up doing them in a comic panel style, since we weren't in a place to do shooting boards. Halo 3' boards I did in color to work out the lighting and inform my final cinematic lighting. By Halo: Reach, I was directing the story and cinematics, so they were mostly scribbles and notes in various notebooks. It's certainly a trip down memory lane, and I little tough to look at some of my old artwork.
What?! These storyboards are AMAZING! It was damn near effortless to translate your drawings into animatic form. I’ve exclusively used computer tablets when making storyboards myself, and despite having that advantage I _still_ couldn’t hope to make boards half as fluid as yours. I know you’re probably about two decades past caring to hear this, but sincerely - great work. Although comic-style storyboards would undoubtedly be more difficult to translate into an animatic, I’d love to give it a shot! Seriously, send me whatever you still have. I’d happily take your _Reach_ scribbles.
@@C3_SABERTOOTH that's very high praise, thank you. You're clearly a very talented artist and animator. You'll be pleased to know that your work on this has inspired me to rummage through my old stuff and start an artstation page to post some of it. I threw most of my old storyboards out long ago. Back then they were all on paper and that stuff would mount up. I also lived in NYC and storage space was limited. I do have a bunch of stuff on a hard drive somewhere and I'm pretty sure I have the H2 boards. The Halo Reach ones are scribbled notes mostly. I'll post a selection at some point and you will see that they are not worthy of an animatic.
@@C3_SABERTOOTH I uploaded all the Halo 2 boards I had to my new artstation thingy. There's a ton of them. I think the ones with X in the name are the version that shipped, the rest are from earlier drafts. Have fun! dangerousonion.artstation.com/
This reminded even more of 'Aliens' than the final game did. It's also interesting how this explains why there's a massive gap in the pillar of autumn connected by a tiny bridge due to the damage. We see the massive gap where the ship was split in half in the storyboard.
I've always had the impression that it was called 'Two Betrayals' because, from their perspective, both Chief (because 343 wants to use Halo to snub all life in the galaxy to stop the Flood) and Spark (because Chief ultimately doesn't go through with the 'plan') are 'betrayed'.
Yeah, that was my thought too. Admittedly I think his theory is probably true in regards to the origin of the name, but I never really questioned it because it still kinda made sense (at least in an abstract way).
Exactly. I have thought this to be the very obvious understanding since I was 5 fucking years old. It's called Two Betrayals because from Guilty Spark's perspective he got betrayed and from Chief's perspective he got betrayed. SIMPLE!
So the final level of Halo 1 was going to end just like the game began. In a sense, it was like poetry, sort of. They rhymed. Every stanza rhymed with the last one. It was gonna be great.
Man, you can tell that Bungie's ambitions were sky-high even back then with just how cinematic these cutscenes would have been if it weren't for the technological limitations at the time.
Marty O Donnel apparently still has the original Halo 2 script and even the voice acting for it I believe. He's been pretty active lately so if we have any shot of getting it now is the time.
I love the greater emphasis on the Marines in awe around the chief and the helplessness. Characters like Johnson obviously boost morale but the feeling these guys are shaken up is much stronger
7:13 Actually, Cortana was purple in Halo 2 as well. It was only in Halo 3 she looked more blue. In both Anniversary games, she is indeed blue due to using her Halo 3 hologram and a similar design to her Halo 4 one respectively.
I thoroughly enjoyed everything about this video. The animation quality, the attention to detail, your take on the progression between the storyboard pieces, the intro and outro notes for each cutscene, all of it. Mighty fine work, and I hope this video gets more traction. I’ll certainly be spreading this around.
Dude! I wish I had seen your 1749 breakdown before I posted this! Remember how, in the beta, you can see Guilty Spark and a couple sentinels leaving the cryo chamber when you enter? I think these storyboards have an answer for that little oddity. Also in your breakdown, you point out how the “fire control officer” has no dialogue in the Autumn’s bridge, while in the concluding notes of x20, I posit that it was actually _Cortana_ who had no lines prior to the officer’s speaking. I think we’re both correct, and we’re seeing the exchange as it evolved over time. I’m guessing the Fire Control Officer originally addressed the dialogue to “sir” rather than “ma’am,” which is why they needed a Bungie employee to re-record the line.
@@C3_SABERTOOTH yeah I was thinking about my analysis during those scenes. The fact Spark didn’t have a name during story boarding was also, somewhat, another reminder for me consider his name in 1749, which was compiled in August 15th, 2001, was “342 Guilty Spark” before Jason requested it to be 343 instead. Spark’s name was practically made up last minute.
@@TheVengefulVadam Think you could send me the audio files for that version of the game? I’m curious if any of the deleted dialogue is relevant to these animatics.
Damn, now I really wished they brought back that "This war has enough dead heroes" line at some point, either near the end of the game or in another game, like when Chief rescued Cortana in Halo 3. I also like how Reach added a lot more weight to that line. Amazing work, I can't imagine how hard making all this had to have been, you're doing the Lord's work
shamelessly admitting i used to scour the bungie sites back in middle school when halo CE and 2 were still fresh and...I printed out a lot of these storboards cause i thought they were cool ...yes i taped them to my walls. I was a nerdy kid.
Chief shooting that Floodster at the end was a solid touch. The parasite paused when faced with the awesome might of a CE pistol, and no doubt "Blow Me Away" was the last thing running through its mind.
I think the level was called "Two Betrayals" because Cortana was actually intended to become overwhelmed with power and knowledge after integrating with the Control Room. The developers mention this in CE's Developer Commentary but it is possible that they were simply joking around.
The way I interpreted it, was that they planned for Cortana to go mad with power but then some relationship drama happened between a dev and their partner that made the plot point feel a little too personal. The way they discuss it in the commentary makes it seem like both poking fun at the trope-yness of it as well as poking fun at one of the Bungie devs.
I'm not usually phased by the Flood, but that storyboard art for the parasite's introduction legitimately freaked me out. Really loved the editing overall, and you made the Flood look like the terrifying force it should be. Awesome job! :)
Honestly, I would've liked the cutscene in-between "Truth and Reconciliation" and "Silent Cartographer." The crowd of marines would've given a sense of scale of the number of marines that Keyes had to work with since we aren't sure of how many survived long enough to get to the surface of the ring in the actual game.
This has so much unapologetic badass style from early 2000's. I miss the focus on Marines, the quirky quips, chief's 80's action hero attitude. This is what made Halo what it is. The forerunners being human and the lost cinematics of Halo 2 were absolutely perfect IMHO. This is what we all fans miss and what 343 will never understand.
This will go down in Halo history forever, great work man! Seeing this put to audio and motion really shows the vision Jason Jones & crew had for this game once they'd crystalized the details in such a way that the art books never could. This is Halo .5!
Not sure how many people actually understand the work put into these videos (animation takes a hell of a lot of time and effort). I'm not joking when I say your format and presentation is some of the best I've ever seen. I highly respect it and your knowledge of halo.
You could say these are some nice "CUTscenes". Jokes aside awesome work, really cinematic. This would be amazing in a modded version of the game, because the modern tools could actually pull these amazing cutscenes of.
I know I am late to the party here, but I was under the impression it was called two betrayals because Master Chief thought that Guilty Spark lied and tricked him into almost firing the rings, acting as an ally the entire way (betrayal one), while Guilty Spark allied with a Reclaimer to do his job only to have this Reclaimer backstab him last minute with this construct that was illegally input into the core (betrayal two).
I busted a gut laughing when I saw the caveman. Overall, excellent work. It's great to finally know what that missing cutscene before the Silent Cartographer could have been. You have some slick animation, which is probably why you saw so much potential in these storyboards. No way a guy like me could have extracted so much detail out of them.
Apparently, there was one scrapped idea where Cortana would go mad with power while in the Control Room, and become the Chief's enemy. Don't know when this idea sprang up, but 343i later salvaged it to create the "Created" storyline in Halo 5.
Love, love, LOVE this! Thank you for adding so much more depth to my favorite and most played campaign of all time. Hopefully some Bungie folks see this and get you what you need to do this for Halo 2 and 3.
i have rewatched the 'we were forerunner' video twice and listened to it about 3 or 4 times now. and i was like "wow this video is edited really well." but seriously, its really stunning to see how much work effort and time mustve been put into a video like this and this was two years ago and youve kept the qualitye to the videos that have been released. initially it was like, oh wow cool videos. but more so now than i realized before - holy shit this is simply amazing. you should be very proud
I am beyond happy that you made this available for Halo fans. Thank you for taking on such a difficult task in order for us to enjoy these storyboards!
Crazy to imagine what this game would have looked like if they had the tech when it was made. I know storyboards are always more detailed then the final product, but that opening sequence with keys and chief with all the reflections and shit, that would look so cool on todays gen games
Hey mate, I have to say that I haven't enjoyed a Halo related video as much as this one in a long, long time, if ever. I love everything you did and I have to say that you absolutely nailed it! That deleted scene of the backward flying spirit you animated and set music / voice to was nothing but pure joy for me. Well done! Really keen to see more if you're up for making them / get sent further storyboards/scripts.
While this is awesome, I would love to see a "cinematic cut" where you play out all the cutscenes without slides or commentary (though I did pause and read them all! Fascinating stuff!)
That was my original intention but I felt like a fair amount had to be explained in order to enjoy them! I’m happy to make a cinematic cut now, however. Out of curiosity, what do you think of the occasional subtitles? Think I should remove them for a “cinematic cut?”
I think the original design for 343 Guilty Spark and his Sentinels in this version are supposed to be either a reference or a holdover of the design of the S'pht Compilers from the Marathon games, since they very closely resemble them, albeit oriented with the length of their body parallel to the ground rather than the vertical orientation of the Compilers. The Compiler design was also somewhat referenced/reused for the cut Guardian Sentinel enemy from Halo 3.
WhAT? Halo: Combat Evolved content in 2020 and ALSO that's at such high quality? I can't think of anything that hasn't been said already in the comments other than you are worth my subscription to your channel. Outstanding effort you made with this, thank you.
I always assumed the first betrayal was denying the monitor the index/firing the ring And the second betrayal to be guilty turning hostile/'lying' to us about the ring killing the flood and omitting that all sentinel life would die.
“But you already knew that. I mean, how couldn’t you?” I suppose each party may feel “betrayed,” but neither the Master Chief nor Guilty Spark intentionally misled the other! You are probably right, though. That’s the only interpretation that makes sense.
"Next to nobody is actually going to pause the video to read this." -C3 I paused and read the slides did some other look ups like watched the Macworld trailer and the E3 2000 trailer. But I did in fact cringe.
I like to imagine the spirit was positioned like that so they wouldn't be shot down by friendly forces. Which is why the longswords didn't shoot them down immediately.
Seeing the x40 cut-scene, I really wish Bungie would have found a way to leave it in. It's cool to see how the survivors of the Pillar of Autumn come to regroup and conduct a guerrilla war against the Covenant presence on the ring. It drives the point that they are desperate determined human survivors and not just an endless stream of Marines being dropped off at various parts of the game.
Amazing video. At 15:21 I'm pretty sure the bungie team have said a few times that Halo: CE originally had 25 missions, which was cut down to the released 10 due to time and budget constraints. You had said you think the scene was due to a deleted scene rather than the stated deleted level, but I wouldn't assume he misspoke right away. The referenced scene might have just been part of a larger mission. I'd assume one of the last missions brought to the cutting room floor since it ended up with a storyboard where most of the other 15 cut missions didn't.
I kind of wish the actual game’s cutscenes were this in-depth. Obviously a lot of the stuff in these scenes changed because of technical limitations but this seems like a way cooler version of the actual cutscenes. The Keyes speech preceding The Silent Cartographer would have been awesome
Not sure if anyone has brought it up yet, but Lee Wilson just a few hours ago dropped the Halo 3 storyboards at www.artstation.com/artwork/B1ewzm I’d love to see your take on these, though they’ve got significantly less direction to them on a frame by frame basis.
Re: the spirit's flying direction, I am like 99% sure there is dev commentary or an interview somewhere where it was stated that it was originally intended to fly how it's shown in the storyboards but it got turned around in game by mistake. I know for a fact I've read that before... Anyways, I left a much longer, and more interesting comment, on your Halo 2 Part 2 video which I am interested in your thoughts on!
39:30 This would've been an awesome-but-scary shot to see as it's quite creative. The face of a dead Marine, only to be revealed as a horrific flood combat form with the poor Marine's head twisted upside down. Imagine how more freakier the human combat forms would look like if they looked as bad if not worse than the Elites by having their necks snapped to the point of literally hanging upside down in front of the chest/stomach.
In the flood novelization there’s also a side story about one of the marines being infected and still conscious, but he couldn’t control his own actions, he was a prisoner in his own head while the flood controlled him. Would’ve been horrific, but cool, to have somehow conveyed this concept in the game itself.
As someone who lives and breathed Halo for so much of my childhood, it blows my mind that I’m still learning new things left of the cutting room floor. I’m just mad it took me 3 years to find this vid!
I just realised in the 1739 early release of CE that leaked a while back Spark DOES briefly appear in the cyro bay during The Maw, being escorted by sentinels, which doesn't make sense if he's already in engineering.
i am so amazed... i simply can not believe it... TUNING FORKS FLY ON THE DIRECTION OF THEIR GUN?!?!?! i always thought they fly the other way because of reach
@7:17 about the cryo pod, the retail insert for the cases of Halo 1 referred to the Chief as a cybernetic soldier, and I believe the description of the Scorpion in either the booklet or in game description refers to the amount of regular soldiers *or* cyborgs that can use it at once. I’m going to go with at one point they were at least considering having Spartans be literally part machine, if not of the same breed as the Marathon character in a connected universe.
Only 7 minutes in so far, but oh my GOD this is so incredibly polished???? I'm absolutely in love with your editing style dude, this is super super cool!!
42:00 Cortana repeating the plan may have also been for people who skip cinematics or forget what they were supposed to do. The time between the two is significant enough to forget if you have a short memory (or you're a scatterbrained kid like myself). This could have also been repeating intended knowledge as that's a common tactic (too common in modern design). Take Dead Space for example. It repeats it's 'cut off the limbs' advice three to four times less than five minutes apart IIRC.
I’ve finally got around to finishing this whole video. It really is such a joy to see what was cut from the final version. Especially the cutscenes planned on being in between the early levels that were supposed to flesh out the story with more subtlety. Rather than condensed to the end ofTruth and Reconciliation in the time crunch of development.
He probably didn't want to bug Marty too much, which is the right thing to do. While developers will sometimes be polite and answer questions about the development of a game, there have been occasions where fans went overboard and developers ceased communicating with everyone.
25:50 If you ask me, I think the reason this level is called "Two Betrayals" is due to the fact that originally Cortana was gonna go mad with power due to the wealth of knowledge from the ring. This is talked about in the Dev commentary for the first game. Im probably wrong but I think its a good assumption
It's incredible seeing what could have been, and you did a great job adding animation to these old storyboards. The time watching this just flew by. I will say they made the right call replacing "All AI Constructs and Cyborgs First 2.0" with the Warthog Run. It's one of the most memorable ending sequences in a game, even to this day.
Interestingly how Guilty Spark's dialogue makes the most sense for the version of the game where Chief is a cyborg. "Oh hello, fellow forerunner cybernetic machine! I am also a forerunner cybernetic machine! My name is 343 Guilty Spark. Let us proceed to execute our predetermined programming and then we can sit down for cybercookies and cybertea enjoying the silence of a completely dead galaxy." And the later callouts make way more sense as literal attempts at making a malfunctioning machine stop and be repaired rather than tongue in cheek threats to take a person "offline".
26:20 Its called "Two Betrayals" in canon because the monitor has gone a bit crazy after 100,000 years and confuses chief for the Born Stellar Didact who was a copy of the Didact that accompanied the monitor when it was a human named Chakas. The didacts first betrayal was by the librarian and now with the monitor assuming chief is the Born Stellar Didact it would be the second betrayal so it is a reference to the first essentially. The forerunners where originally planned to be human too so for the development of CE you can take that into consideration for a more viable reason that the monitor confuses chief for the Didact but its not canon.
Installation 00 sent me, and wow... This was amazing. Really great work here. Thank you for bringing this to the Halo community. Subbed. Also I'll go with A) "the protocol is *clear* ."
I think it is called 2 Betrayals because guilty spark betrayed the master chief. In the Master Chief's perspective, he was betrayed. He thought that Guilty Spark was helping him. The second betrayal is the Master Chief betraying guilty spark. Guilty Spark thought the Master Chief would activate the ring. Guilty Spark says "why would you hesitate to do what you have already done." So in Guilty Spark's perspective, the Master Chief betrayed him. I believe it is all about perspective.
The amount of work you must have put into this is insane. Watching these animatics has invoked some real nostalgia in me for Halo. Thanks for your hard work.
The amount of time, effort, and dedication needed to make this video is absolutely off the charts. It’s a privilege to watch it. I sincerely mean that.
Frag blast the vent core. Nice.
Joe, Lee, and I should do a commentary version of this.
Also, I think I still have all the storyboards and scripts laying around someplace. I’m sure Lee has them too.
Oh and Spark thinks MC is a “Reclaimer” which is why he assumed he already knew.
Marty, you’re the man!
A legend has entered the room*
Please do a dev commentary on halo 3 like you guys did with halo 1 and 2. Those videos are awesome!
Marty PLEASE
I need to start saving everything about my life like you do. I’m impressed that you’ve kept so much of what you’ve done over the years. I just lose everything.
Marty O'Donnell brought me here. He said you deserved more subs. He is wise. You do. Was not disappointed. Nice job bud. Seriously. I'm sharing this.
Yeah I just came across this guy I wonder what happened to him
I'm only a few minutes in but duuuuuuuuuuuude... HOLY SHIT this is incredible, I cannot imagine the amount of time this must've taken with all the individual frame masking, transitions, audio syncing etc. Absolutely incredible and more than iconic!
Indeed this is more than just I C O N I C
Maybe you could share it as a community post HiddenXperia - it could really help him out. I think he deserves it don’t you?
There’s nothing _more_ than iconic.
Xperia dont tell me you never saw these
Dude I love marty he brings light to a lot of these small channels thats how I got here
Nice job! That's quite a project that you took on. I am Lee Wilson, and yes I did do the storyboards for Halo 1, 2, and 3. Halo 1 were all on paper like traditional movie shooting boards. Halo 2's story went through a lot of changes and so I ended up doing them in a comic panel style, since we weren't in a place to do shooting boards. Halo 3' boards I did in color to work out the lighting and inform my final cinematic lighting. By Halo: Reach, I was directing the story and cinematics, so they were mostly scribbles and notes in various notebooks. It's certainly a trip down memory lane, and I little tough to look at some of my old artwork.
What?! These storyboards are AMAZING! It was damn near effortless to translate your drawings into animatic form. I’ve exclusively used computer tablets when making storyboards myself, and despite having that advantage I _still_ couldn’t hope to make boards half as fluid as yours. I know you’re probably about two decades past caring to hear this, but sincerely - great work.
Although comic-style storyboards would undoubtedly be more difficult to translate into an animatic, I’d love to give it a shot!
Seriously, send me whatever you still have. I’d happily take your _Reach_ scribbles.
@@C3_SABERTOOTH that's very high praise, thank you. You're clearly a very talented artist and animator.
You'll be pleased to know that your work on this has inspired me to rummage through my old stuff and start an artstation page to post some of it. I threw most of my old storyboards out long ago. Back then they were all on paper and that stuff would mount up. I also lived in NYC and storage space was limited. I do have a bunch of stuff on a hard drive somewhere and I'm pretty sure I have the H2 boards. The Halo Reach ones are scribbled notes mostly. I'll post a selection at some point and you will see that they are not worthy of an animatic.
@@dangerousonion That's incredibly exciting news for the entirety of the Halo community, thank you so so much, Lee!!!
@@dangerousonion Yesss! I’m looking forward to it!
@@C3_SABERTOOTH I uploaded all the Halo 2 boards I had to my new artstation thingy. There's a ton of them. I think the ones with X in the name are the version that shipped, the rest are from earlier drafts. Have fun! dangerousonion.artstation.com/
Halo has a growing history of covenant drop ships accidentally flying backwards in cutscenes
This reminded even more of 'Aliens' than the final game did. It's also interesting how this explains why there's a massive gap in the pillar of autumn connected by a tiny bridge due to the damage. We see the massive gap where the ship was split in half in the storyboard.
HOLY SHIT. I know I’m late but fuck man that makes so much sense
I've always had the impression that it was called 'Two Betrayals' because, from their perspective, both Chief (because 343 wants to use Halo to snub all life in the galaxy to stop the Flood) and Spark (because Chief ultimately doesn't go through with the 'plan') are 'betrayed'.
Yeah, that was my thought too. Admittedly I think his theory is probably true in regards to the origin of the name, but I never really questioned it because it still kinda made sense (at least in an abstract way).
Exactly. I have thought this to be the very obvious understanding since I was 5 fucking years old. It's called Two Betrayals because from Guilty Spark's perspective he got betrayed and from Chief's perspective he got betrayed.
SIMPLE!
So the final level of Halo 1 was going to end just like the game began. In a sense, it was like poetry, sort of. They rhymed. Every stanza rhymed with the last one.
It was gonna be great.
Found George's hidden RUclips account
One could even say the plot of Halo could have come...full circle... 🙄
The sentinels are pretty useless, john halo cuts them down like butter.
The trilogy ended like it began... Also 117 likes on your comment, not gonna ruin it
I can just see the 90’s feeling in the cutscene’s style.
Phenomenal vibes. 90's sci fi is just... chef's kiss!
Its crazy how actually Halo was gods own personal anti son of a bitch machine.
Man, you can tell that Bungie's ambitions were sky-high even back then with just how cinematic these cutscenes would have been if it weren't for the technological limitations at the time.
I've sent this to Lee and asked him about it, great video! This deserves a huge amount of views
How is it that everyone in this community is so well connected? Thank you very much!
@@C3_SABERTOOTH Linkedin ;) And i work in the same industry which helps
Marty O Donnel apparently still has the original Halo 2 script and even the voice acting for it I believe. He's been pretty active lately so if we have any shot of getting it now is the time.
I love the greater emphasis on the Marines in awe around the chief and the helplessness. Characters like Johnson obviously boost morale but the feeling these guys are shaken up is much stronger
Dude wtf this was an incredible video to watch. The effort must had been INSANE.
7:13 Actually, Cortana was purple in Halo 2 as well. It was only in Halo 3 she looked more blue. In both Anniversary games, she is indeed blue due to using her Halo 3 hologram and a similar design to her Halo 4 one respectively.
I thoroughly enjoyed everything about this video. The animation quality, the attention to detail, your take on the progression between the storyboard pieces, the intro and outro notes for each cutscene, all of it.
Mighty fine work, and I hope this video gets more traction. I’ll certainly be spreading this around.
Dude! I wish I had seen your 1749 breakdown before I posted this!
Remember how, in the beta, you can see Guilty Spark and a couple sentinels leaving the cryo chamber when you enter? I think these storyboards have an answer for that little oddity.
Also in your breakdown, you point out how the “fire control officer” has no dialogue in the Autumn’s bridge, while in the concluding notes of x20, I posit that it was actually _Cortana_ who had no lines prior to the officer’s speaking.
I think we’re both correct, and we’re seeing the exchange as it evolved over time. I’m guessing the Fire Control Officer originally addressed the dialogue to “sir” rather than “ma’am,” which is why they needed a Bungie employee to re-record the line.
@@C3_SABERTOOTH yeah I was thinking about my analysis during those scenes. The fact Spark didn’t have a name during story boarding was also, somewhat, another reminder for me consider his name in 1749, which was compiled in August 15th, 2001, was “342 Guilty Spark” before Jason requested it to be 343 instead. Spark’s name was practically made up last minute.
@@TheVengefulVadam Think you could send me the audio files for that version of the game? I’m curious if any of the deleted dialogue is relevant to these animatics.
Damn, now I really wished they brought back that "This war has enough dead heroes" line at some point, either near the end of the game or in another game, like when Chief rescued Cortana in Halo 3. I also like how Reach added a lot more weight to that line. Amazing work, I can't imagine how hard making all this had to have been, you're doing the Lord's work
shamelessly admitting i used to scour the bungie sites back in middle school when halo CE and 2 were still fresh and...I printed out a lot of these storboards cause i thought they were cool
...yes i taped them to my walls. I was a nerdy kid.
Chief shooting that Floodster at the end was a solid touch. The parasite paused when faced with the awesome might of a CE pistol, and no doubt "Blow Me Away" was the last thing running through its mind.
I think the level was called "Two Betrayals" because Cortana was actually intended to become overwhelmed with power and knowledge after integrating with the Control Room. The developers mention this in CE's Developer Commentary but it is possible that they were simply joking around.
343: "Write that down, write that down..."
The way I interpreted it, was that they planned for Cortana to go mad with power but then some relationship drama happened between a dev and their partner that made the plot point feel a little too personal. The way they discuss it in the commentary makes it seem like both poking fun at the trope-yness of it as well as poking fun at one of the Bungie devs.
I'm not usually phased by the Flood, but that storyboard art for the parasite's introduction legitimately freaked me out. Really loved the editing overall, and you made the Flood look like the terrifying force it should be. Awesome job! :)
I actually saved making that cutscene for last because I wanted to get it right. Glad you appreciated it!
Honestly, I would've liked the cutscene in-between "Truth and Reconciliation" and "Silent Cartographer." The crowd of marines would've given a sense of scale of the number of marines that Keyes had to work with since we aren't sure of how many survived long enough to get to the surface of the ring in the actual game.
This has so much unapologetic badass style from early 2000's. I miss the focus on Marines, the quirky quips, chief's 80's action hero attitude. This is what made Halo what it is.
The forerunners being human and the lost cinematics of Halo 2 were absolutely perfect IMHO. This is what we all fans miss and what 343 will never understand.
"Lifeboat 68"
You're telling all this time they were one off from the funny number
26:27 you had me fooled for a second
This is really high quality dude
& ur a high quality dude
I wish this quality had been used for aniversary.
This will go down in Halo history forever, great work man!
Seeing this put to audio and motion really shows the vision Jason Jones & crew had for this game once they'd crystalized the details in such a way that the art books never could. This is Halo .5!
I'd love to see Halo 0 one day, those bonkers RTS and TPS builds lol!
Not sure how many people actually understand the work put into these videos (animation takes a hell of a lot of time and effort). I'm not joking when I say your format and presentation is some of the best I've ever seen. I highly respect it and your knowledge of halo.
You could say these are some nice "CUTscenes".
Jokes aside awesome work, really cinematic. This would be amazing in a modded version of the game, because the modern tools could actually pull these amazing cutscenes of.
I know I am late to the party here, but I was under the impression it was called two betrayals because Master Chief thought that Guilty Spark lied and tricked him into almost firing the rings, acting as an ally the entire way (betrayal one), while Guilty Spark allied with a Reclaimer to do his job only to have this Reclaimer backstab him last minute with this construct that was illegally input into the core (betrayal two).
That’s really the only interpretation that makes sense!
I busted a gut laughing when I saw the caveman.
Overall, excellent work. It's great to finally know what that missing cutscene before the Silent Cartographer could have been. You have some slick animation, which is probably why you saw so much potential in these storyboards. No way a guy like me could have extracted so much detail out of them.
There it is, Dustin Echos! We gotta go back and save him!
"Effecting repair sequence now." Oh god, that was so funny. Thank you so much for animating the 343 battle part!
Glad someone appreciated it!
Apparently, there was one scrapped idea where Cortana would go mad with power while in the Control Room, and become the Chief's enemy. Don't know when this idea sprang up, but 343i later salvaged it to create the "Created" storyline in Halo 5.
Love, love, LOVE this! Thank you for adding so much more depth to my favorite and most played campaign of all time. Hopefully some Bungie folks see this and get you what you need to do this for Halo 2 and 3.
I’m so happy you enjoyed it! Here’s hoping!
So this is where Blur got the backwards flying dropship from lol
36:54 “The protocol is clear” is legit a perfect one liner
i have rewatched the 'we were forerunner' video twice and listened to it about 3 or 4 times now.
and i was like "wow this video is edited really well."
but seriously, its really stunning to see how much work effort and time mustve been put into a video like this and this was two years ago and youve kept the qualitye to the videos that have been released.
initially it was like, oh wow cool videos. but more so now than i realized before - holy shit this is simply amazing. you should be very proud
How about combining the lines: "No, the protocol is clear. No more dead heroes.
...
I'll yank you real good."
Unfortunately, that’d require the Master Chief speaking more than 5 words in a row. Which is impossible.
@@C3_SABERTOOTH Not in the 343 games! Chief be spittin generic military jargon like he's Spark on Adderall...
I am beyond happy that you made this available for Halo fans. Thank you for taking on such a difficult task in order for us to enjoy these storyboards!
"No...the Protocol is clear."
This is such a fitting one liner for MC I can almost hear it.
[HAPPY MARINE NOISES]
You've got some real talent dude. Liked and subbed.
Crazy to imagine what this game would have looked like if they had the tech when it was made. I know storyboards are always more detailed then the final product, but that opening sequence with keys and chief with all the reflections and shit, that would look so cool on todays gen games
I really felt that when he said [[insert badass one-liner here]]
Subscribed because of how much effort you put into animating guilty spark, he is one of my favorites and that was absolutely impressive.
For reasons that I can't entirely explain, I think he's my favorite character, too.
11:55 "Are we gonna make it sir? I don't wanna die out here!"
*cheif puts his hand on his shoulder knowing he's a 10 ton unbuckled pinball of death*
Given that in the game’s files Chief is referred to as “Cyborg” your second possibility for the MK-VIII is probably the right one
Vengeful Vadam confirmed this to me! There’s actually audio files in the 1749 beta referring to him as an “M.K. 8!”
Hey mate, I have to say that I haven't enjoyed a Halo related video as much as this one in a long, long time, if ever. I love everything you did and I have to say that you absolutely nailed it! That deleted scene of the backward flying spirit you animated and set music / voice to was nothing but pure joy for me. Well done! Really keen to see more if you're up for making them / get sent further storyboards/scripts.
LEE WILSON HAS RELEASED THE HALO 2 BOARDS!
And yeah and super down to make more!
While this is awesome, I would love to see a "cinematic cut" where you play out all the cutscenes without slides or commentary (though I did pause and read them all! Fascinating stuff!)
That was my original intention but I felt like a fair amount had to be explained in order to enjoy them! I’m happy to make a cinematic cut now, however.
Out of curiosity, what do you think of the occasional subtitles? Think I should remove them for a “cinematic cut?”
I think the original design for 343 Guilty Spark and his Sentinels in this version are supposed to be either a reference or a holdover of the design of the S'pht Compilers from the Marathon games, since they very closely resemble them, albeit oriented with the length of their body parallel to the ground rather than the vertical orientation of the Compilers. The Compiler design was also somewhat referenced/reused for the cut Guardian Sentinel enemy from Halo 3.
WhAT? Halo: Combat Evolved content in 2020 and ALSO that's at such high quality? I can't think of anything that hasn't been said already in the comments other than you are worth my subscription to your channel.
Outstanding effort you made with this, thank you.
Why am I just now finding out about this and WHY doesn't it have more recognition?? Amazing work!
Thanks! SHARE IT TO ALL YOUR FRIENDS.
B enough dead heroes would be a nice call back to the start and round up the story nicely. like most good story do
I always assumed the first betrayal was denying the monitor the index/firing the ring
And the second betrayal to be guilty turning hostile/'lying' to us about the ring killing the flood and omitting that all sentinel life would die.
“But you already knew that. I mean, how couldn’t you?”
I suppose each party may feel “betrayed,” but neither the Master Chief nor Guilty Spark intentionally misled the other!
You are probably right, though. That’s the only interpretation that makes sense.
"Next to nobody is actually going to pause the video to read this." -C3 I paused and read the slides did some other look ups like watched the Macworld trailer and the E3 2000 trailer. But I did in fact cringe.
“The most authentic _Halo_ experience possible.”
fml
I really wish the x40 cutscene had made it into the game. It’s a level of world building I craved when playing it.
I like to imagine the spirit was positioned like that so they wouldn't be shot down by friendly forces. Which is why the longswords didn't shoot them down immediately.
Seeing the x40 cut-scene, I really wish Bungie would have found a way to leave it in. It's cool to see how the survivors of the Pillar of Autumn come to regroup and conduct a guerrilla war against the Covenant presence on the ring. It drives the point that they are desperate determined human survivors and not just an endless stream of Marines being dropped off at various parts of the game.
Amazing video.
At 15:21 I'm pretty sure the bungie team have said a few times that Halo: CE originally had 25 missions, which was cut down to the released 10 due to time and budget constraints. You had said you think the scene was due to a deleted scene rather than the stated deleted level, but I wouldn't assume he misspoke right away. The referenced scene might have just been part of a larger mission. I'd assume one of the last missions brought to the cutting room floor since it ended up with a storyboard where most of the other 15 cut missions didn't.
Thank you so much!
I feel like I know a lot about Halo, but I have never heard that Halo: CE originally had 25 missions! Are you sure about this?
I kind of wish the actual game’s cutscenes were this in-depth. Obviously a lot of the stuff in these scenes changed because of technical limitations but this seems like a way cooler version of the actual cutscenes. The Keyes speech preceding The Silent Cartographer would have been awesome
Not sure if anyone has brought it up yet, but Lee Wilson just a few hours ago dropped the Halo 3 storyboards at www.artstation.com/artwork/B1ewzm I’d love to see your take on these, though they’ve got significantly less direction to them on a frame by frame basis.
THE MADLAD ACTUALLY DID IT
Re: the spirit's flying direction, I am like 99% sure there is dev commentary or an interview somewhere where it was stated that it was originally intended to fly how it's shown in the storyboards but it got turned around in game by mistake. I know for a fact I've read that before... Anyways, I left a much longer, and more interesting comment, on your Halo 2 Part 2 video which I am interested in your thoughts on!
39:30 This would've been an awesome-but-scary shot to see as it's quite creative. The face of a dead Marine, only to be revealed as a horrific flood combat form with the poor Marine's head twisted upside down. Imagine how more freakier the human combat forms would look like if they looked as bad if not worse than the Elites by having their necks snapped to the point of literally hanging upside down in front of the chest/stomach.
In the flood novelization there’s also a side story about one of the marines being infected and still conscious, but he couldn’t control his own actions, he was a prisoner in his own head while the flood controlled him. Would’ve been horrific, but cool, to have somehow conveyed this concept in the game itself.
As someone who lives and breathed Halo for so much of my childhood, it blows my mind that I’m still learning new things left of the cutting room floor. I’m just mad it took me 3 years to find this vid!
I just realised in the 1739 early release of CE that leaked a while back Spark DOES briefly appear in the cyro bay during The Maw, being escorted by sentinels, which doesn't make sense if he's already in engineering.
What a gorgeous rendition, thanks for making it!
You are very talented at your craft, by the way.
Thanks, Elena! I've got a number of similar Halo 2 videos coming out now, if you're interested!
i am so amazed... i simply can not believe it... TUNING FORKS FLY ON THE DIRECTION OF THEIR GUN?!?!?! i always thought they fly the other way because of reach
THEY DONT IN THE ACTUAL GAME
@@C3_SABERTOOTH but it makes so much sense too... i... i feel like this is the one thing 343 should retcon
@7:17 about the cryo pod, the retail insert for the cases of Halo 1 referred to the Chief as a cybernetic soldier, and I believe the description of the Scorpion in either the booklet or in game description refers to the amount of regular soldiers *or* cyborgs that can use it at once.
I’m going to go with at one point they were at least considering having Spartans be literally part machine, if not of the same breed as the Marathon character in a connected universe.
This is incredibly high quality, great work dude!
Amazing work. Love how the covenant dropships fly backwards in this.
Only 7 minutes in so far, but oh my GOD this is so incredibly polished???? I'm absolutely in love with your editing style dude, this is super super cool!!
37 minutes in now, option B is my favorite personally :)
42:00 Cortana repeating the plan may have also been for people who skip cinematics or forget what they were supposed to do. The time between the two is significant enough to forget if you have a short memory (or you're a scatterbrained kid like myself). This could have also been repeating intended knowledge as that's a common tactic (too common in modern design). Take Dead Space for example. It repeats it's 'cut off the limbs' advice three to four times less than five minutes apart IIRC.
I feel obligated to sub now after this masterpiece of a video.
I’ve finally got around to finishing this whole video. It really is such a joy to see what was cut from the final version. Especially the cutscenes planned on being in between the early levels that were supposed to flesh out the story with more subtlety. Rather than condensed to the end ofTruth and Reconciliation in the time crunch of development.
Now that's some dedication for Halo that I love from the community!
Truly extraordinary work you have on display here!
The amount of effort that went into this video is insane. This is so good
The quality is awesome, very impressive the work you must did behind this piece of art, this open the possibility to remake Halo CE
Dude this is like the smoothest animation I’ve seen, great video!
Incredible work! Many thanks for bringing attention to this little-known piece of Halo history.
Why not ask Marty O'Donnell about the stuff you were unsure about when making this video he literally knows everything
He probably didn't want to bug Marty too much, which is the right thing to do. While developers will sometimes be polite and answer questions about the development of a game, there have been occasions where fans went overboard and developers ceased communicating with everyone.
25:50 If you ask me, I think the reason this level is called "Two Betrayals" is due to the fact that originally Cortana was gonna go mad with power due to the wealth of knowledge from the ring. This is talked about in the Dev commentary for the first game. Im probably wrong but I think its a good assumption
Honestly? I think youre spot on there, friend
I refer to this at 31:40!
@@C3_SABERTOOTH oh sorry! Can’t believe I missed that
@@jesterbomb6763 - No worries at all! Just wanted to say I think you may be right.
It's incredible seeing what could have been, and you did a great job adding animation to these old storyboards. The time watching this just flew by.
I will say they made the right call replacing "All AI Constructs and Cyborgs First 2.0" with the Warthog Run. It's one of the most memorable ending sequences in a game, even to this day.
Interestingly how Guilty Spark's dialogue makes the most sense for the version of the game where Chief is a cyborg. "Oh hello, fellow forerunner cybernetic machine! I am also a forerunner cybernetic machine! My name is 343 Guilty Spark. Let us proceed to execute our predetermined programming and then we can sit down for cybercookies and cybertea enjoying the silence of a completely dead galaxy." And the later callouts make way more sense as literal attempts at making a malfunctioning machine stop and be repaired rather than tongue in cheek threats to take a person "offline".
This work is PARAMOUNT, thank you.
bruh this is fantastic, amazed at how much effort you put into this. ez sub.
26:20 Its called "Two Betrayals" in canon because the monitor has gone a bit crazy after 100,000 years and confuses chief for the Born Stellar Didact who was a copy of the Didact that accompanied the monitor when it was a human named Chakas. The didacts first betrayal was by the librarian and now with the monitor assuming chief is the Born Stellar Didact it would be the second betrayal so it is a reference to the first essentially. The forerunners where originally planned to be human too so for the development of CE you can take that into consideration for a more viable reason that the monitor confuses chief for the Didact but its not canon.
Glorious work done here
This is crazy, I can’t imagine how much work you had to put into this. Easy sub from me :)
Really, I only have 4 words: This is absolutely amazing
everything positive said about this video is completely true, keep up the good work.
This absolutely insane and so awesome to see this stuff brought to light and presented in such a thorough and high quality way. Great work!
You need more views man! Nice vid!
Installation 00 sent me, and wow... This was amazing. Really great work here. Thank you for bringing this to the Halo community. Subbed.
Also I'll go with A) "the protocol is *clear* ."
I think it is called 2 Betrayals because guilty spark betrayed the master chief. In the Master Chief's perspective, he was betrayed. He thought that Guilty Spark was helping him. The second betrayal is the Master Chief betraying guilty spark. Guilty Spark thought the Master Chief would activate the ring. Guilty Spark says "why would you hesitate to do what you have already done." So in Guilty Spark's perspective, the Master Chief betrayed him. I believe it is all about perspective.
That’s really the only explanation that makes sense with the current cutscene.
@@C3_SABERTOOTH Nice work on the vid btw. I'm sure it took a long time. It was very interesting.
Dude your job its amazing, i just came here bc a in the coment section of vengeful vadamm someone mentioned you, so i had to see ... keep it up!
Thank you! I’m happy to hear people are talking about me!
The amount of work you must have put into this is insane. Watching these animatics has invoked some real nostalgia in me for Halo. Thanks for your hard work.
This is such an amazing video. I haven't seen an animation explaining something that well like this one. You got one fan! :)
The amount of time, effort, and dedication needed to make this video is absolutely off the charts. It’s a privilege to watch it. I sincerely mean that.
This video deserves like a million more views.
Great video homie, it’s easy to see the passion that went into this and I hope more people end up seeing this :)
the editing in these videos are professional level!!