Halo CE storyboards

At the time, I had no idea that Halo would become such a cultural phenomenon or that I would gain true, lasting friendships with so many of the Bungie folks. When I was hired to work on the storyboards in early 2001, I was freelance and it was just another gig. A fun gig, with all the sci-fi action elements that I loved, but something that I would deliver and then move on.
But this Halo job left a lasting impression with me in more ways than one. There was of course, the memorable Redmond meeting, where I had been flown out to Seattle for a day and a half. The evening of my arrival, I was advised to avoid Pioneer Square (a few blocks away) because a riot had broken out during some Mardi Gras celebrations. The next day, during our meeting at the Bungie offices, I felt a familiar shaking start as we stood outside Marty's sound room. Having lived in LA, I was familiar with earthquakes and aftershocks. We all just looked at each other as the shaking grew stronger. When we noticed the parking lot light poles swaying, we knew that this was a significant quake and we politely agreed to stand in the doorway of Marty's office. I won't name names, but there may have been a couple of people who panicked and ran outside. There's nothing like an earthquake to break the ice with folks.
When I finally got to play the finished game, I was so impressed. At the time, there were driving games, shooting games, exploring games, but none that I had played where you could seamlessly do all of those things. What stuck with me was the feeling of driving that warthog on the Halo ring world and seeing and feeling the dirt fly up from the tires. It was that grounding, sensory experience that I sought to reproduce for Halo: Reach. It influenced every one of my decisions while working on the story and cinematics for that game. From the decision to remove the Spartans' helmets, to the embedded camera style. We wanted that 'boots on the ground' feel for Reach, and I think we pulled it off.
I do enjoy the nostalgia of these boards, my artwork not so much. It does make me chuckle that I mistakenly drew the tuning fork flying backwards.