Return of the Hog Run

Halo 3 ends a lot like it did in Halo Combat Evolved, minus the countdown timer. The Halo Hog run was by far my largest assignment and most crucial. With most of the Studio Artists finishing off the other more highly detailed levels, I along with another noobie, Dave Dunn, and designer, Dan Miller, embarked on finishing the fight with this ambitious level close to the last hour. Really, the last month before polish, but you get what I'm saying. Where some levels have had years in development, we had a month. Dave and Dan had been doing some preliminary layout stuff earlier but nothing concrete and we had one piece of concept art to go on. Cameron Pinard, my fellow noob, was tasked with all of the plates and platforms that fall and blow up. I was tasked with the rest of the environment. I worked section by section as I was given a blocked layout from Dave regarding how movement through the level would work and where our visual occlusions were going to be. Basically, I had to transition from the memory room hallway to this trench run and define the look of what a Halo would look like if it were totally under construction like the last Death Star. So basically, I developed a sort of underlying grid work of structures that could be pieced together in different configurations to form what ever superstructure needed to be formed to support the natural terrain. Then, of course I had to make the terrain as well. Additionally, I made those giant towers and ribbed substructures under the plates. These shots are using default lighting, so I'm sorry about that. However, you get to see what a level looks like without light maps.

In the above image, you are looking back on the hallway exit. Looking to the right in this image or the left when you are playing, you might want to check that area out for an alternate trench run experience.

Fans of the first Halo might recognize this "island" structure.

This concludes my environment work. Up next is UI help, skyboxes, and general polishing.