The Art of Halo: Creating a Virtual World

The Art of Halo is a collection of concept art used for making the games from pre-Halo: Combat Evolved to pre-Halo 2, along with commentary by Eric S. Trautmann. This book also includes a forward by Jason Jones and a preface by Marcus R. Lehto.

Content
The majority of the book focuses on the development of the major aspects of the games, ranging from Weapons and Vehicles, to the games environments and the Character designs. There are many early sketches and concept art for these things, much of it by Shi Kai Wang and the Bungie art team. The ideas are shown as they evolved, from a series of sketches to storyboards and their eventual animation. Finally, some screenshots are included to show how the ideas were eventually incorporated into the Halo games.

There are also many explanations for the processes and the development. Some of these explain things Halo fans had not previously known, like the role of Grunt Ultras. They also explain what the intentions were for many of the ideas and how they changed over time.

The final section of the book contains a few full-page pinups of various concept art, including scenes in the levels of Halo and ideas of new Characters.

Trivia

 * While the book shows ranks of certain species within the Covenant the Elites' section is missing the ranks of Ultra and Councilor.
 * The only Prophet shown in the book is Truth.

Links

 * See the first few pages of the book