Background

In the winter of 2020 Will Adams of Goodbye Kansas approached me with a pitch opportunity for the title sequence of an undisclosed and heavily NDA protected „Space Opera“ running on Showtime. The task was to bridge the aesthetic of traditional fluid work and Houdini driven VFX plates featuring Lee Griggs style volume displacement and heavy compositing. It sounded like the perfect collaboration and once I found out we were talking about the Halo franchise I was super stoked getting the chance to be a part of the journey.

„On the second pitch opportunity for the Halo title sequence, I wanted to come with stronger theme to my vision. I thought the title sequence should feel like an origin myth, something a primitve civilization would conjure to rationalize unknownable phenomena they were experiencing.“ – Will Adams

We agreed upon aiming for a very dark and cold color palette, punctuated by reds, oranges and pinks. The visuals were supposed to represent both the birth of a hero and cosmos itself where scale is indeterminate. I was super happy with the result and despite they did not make it into the final sequence due to several directional pivots these may be my favorite pieces when it comes to working with fluids.

„Though the project ended up veering in a different direction 
(several times) the pitch was a huge success.“
– Will Adams

Credits

Client
Showtime Networks

Studio
Goodbye Kansas

Creative Direction
Will Adams

Producer
LA-RÂ Hinckeldeyn

Senior Compositing Artist
Calle Granström

VFX Supervisor
Kristian Zarins