Halo Frozen Skies is a fan piece that was created as an idea to test myself with design and animation. It soon grew to be a project way bigger than myself in terms of sourcing free online assets and eventually bringing on a cast of voice actors to bring the final piece together. I used to play Halo 2 a lot growing up, and I wanted to try and bring that nostalgic feeling back while also sharing that feeling with others.
The programs used to create this piece were Blender, Adobe After Effects and Adobe Premiere Pro. This was a piece to show what was possible to create during a pandemic (Covid-19), while involving people from all over the world. I couldn't have created this animation without the countless tutorials created by other creatives, the free sourced content, the voice actors, the inspiration from countless other designers, the feedback from friends and family, and the amazing support of my wife.
I did create all of the animations and the camera movements, but some of the more complex 3D items were sourced through one of my favorite websites, sketchfab.com. Below is a list of the models I used and the artists involved that you can look up on sketchfab. They truly deserve a lot of credit for their amazing work.
Sketchfab Credits
Warlike Dragon Of Roar - dragon head_3
Noe.Vah - Halo 2 - BR55 Heavy Barrel Service Rifle
McCarthy3D - Spartan Armour MKV - Halo Reach & Warthog Standard edition
Zangh Productions - Halo Banshee
Admiral Tributan - CCS Class Battlecruiser
Dunealex - Pelican
D880 - Space Rocks
Daproductionsrl - Halo Flood Infection/Spore
Freddy Drabble - Cave LP (9k) FREE DOWNLOAD
Another online source used in this piece was sound effects from freesound.org. This is a great source for free content produced by people all over the world. Here is a list of the sounds used in Halo Frozen Skies.
Freesound.org Credits
https://freesound.org/people/FoxZine/sounds/411096/
https://freesound.org/people/DanielsonIII/sounds/68396/
https://freesound.org/people/HuvaaKoodia/sounds/77087/
https://freesound.org/people/Huggy13ear/sounds/138970/
https://freesound.org/people/ricexzeeb/sounds/151184/
https://freesound.org/people/yatoimtop/sounds/171178/
https://freesound.org/people/madmini/sounds/192399/
https://freesound.org/people/DayCraftMC/sounds/337112/
https://freesound.org/people/SieuAmThanh/sounds/400835/
https://freesound.org/people/InspectorJ/sounds/397946/
https://freesound.org/people/InspectorJ/sounds/421022/
https://freesound.org/people/TannerSound/sounds/494312/
https://freesound.org/people/bubaproducer/sounds/151022/
https://freesound.org/people/Cell31_Sound_Productions/sounds/383020/
https://freesound.org/people/Soundholder/sounds/425384/
Below are the credits for the final fan trailer: Halo Frozen Skies.
Directed, Edited & Animated by Ryan Paxton
Voice Actors in Order of Role:
Cortana - Ciara Castiglione
Master Chief - FC Schroeder
Commander Hall - Gianni Faggion
Scripted by all of the voice actors and myself. They did most of the scriptwriting.
Music - Judgement Day - By Kevin Graham (Found on Soundstripe.com)
Special Thanks
Tim Squires, Casey Spartz, Corey O'Neill, Max Brinkley, Ryan Sterling, Tyler Lynch, Billy Owen, Jeremy Marshall, Greg Chambon Jr., Alana Guidry, David Baca, Max Hay, Zac Reinzan and many others that have helped on my journey to get to this point.