Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn opener - data spheres and holograms

A montage of 5 individual opening sequences we did in cooperation with 343 industries for the Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn web series. All titles combined result in a seamless narrative, closing the gap between the end of HALO 3 and the beginning of HALO 4. Year: 2012 Client: 343 Industries Animated Opening Sequences Production Company: Blacklist Executive Producer: Adina Sales Producer: Alexander Unick Animation Studio: Woodblock Direction: Polynoid Music / Sounddesign (Montage): Michael Fakesch Artists: Jan Bitzer, Ilija Brunck, Bashir Hamid, Marco Kowalik, Csaba Letay, Sebastian Mayer, Fabian Pross, Egbert Reichel, Heiko Schneck, Carl Schroeter, Tom Weber Live Action Series Director: Stewart Hendler Live Action Production Company: Laskey Productions, Inc. Visual Effects Producer: Dave Moulder Associate Producer: Jamieson Fry Film stills, concept art and styleframes over at polynoid.tv/fud

This Halo 4 opener is for the live action web series called Forward Unto Dawn. It features lots of crisp, detailed, cinematic shots characteristic of German Design/VFX studio Polynoid.

I really like the occasional shots of the ship's blinking screens, they do a great job of showing that the desolate ship still has some life in it. It's almost like the faint heart beat of the ship.

It was also interesting to see how the energy swarm was treated. It looks less technical and more organic and it's nice how the lines continue flowing through the body of Cortana.

Make sure you visit the breakdown page on Polynoid's site to check out the level of detail that went into the production of these shots.

Watch the Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn opener by Polynoid
Check out the making of clip
Check out Polynoid's breakdown page