Bonus Content Disc/Technology: Human Helmets

The following are transcriptions of the artists' comments for the design gallery "The Technology of Mass Effect: Human Helmets" found on the bonus content disc of Mass Effect released in 2007.

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Matt Rhodes: Designing helmets for the humans... The helmets that were going to be seen throughout the game. We pretty much knew right from the start that it was going to be one of those iconic things that was going to take forever to develop. And it did. It was exactly the sort of nightmare that we thought it would be. But, you think of Star Wars, you see that Stormtrooper helmet. You think of Halo, you got that Master Chief helmet. It's so iconic, I mean that's the face of your hero, so... We knew it was going to take a lot of time and a lot of work and no one was going to agree on it. And we got exactly what we were thinking. So here is one of the early sketches that Derek did. Just trying to explore different shapes. This actually got painted up in a different one of the other character concepts. Just trying to come up with shapes that haven't been done yet. And really because the world of science-fiction, there have been so many helmets, so many space helmets and battle helmets and all that sort of stuff... You're really treading through the territory of giants when it comes to this. So again, that search for unique is a long and hard one.

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Matt Rhodes: Here's one of the really early sketches that I did on the project. Again, just trying to think of how the helmets are going to interact with the face, how the shapes will work, what's too far in the future, what's not far enough, what hasn't been done... Here's the under sock over the head with the helmet on top of a glass opening. Something totally closed off.

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Matt Rhodes: Here was another human helmet approach that was done fairly early on. This is, again, just trying to play with the shapes and come up with shapes that haven't been approached yet. This was more of an open face concept, something where you're allowed to breathe. Maybe even it produces its own little atmosphere around your mouth so you can breathe through that. Playing with what's too far in the future, what's 10,000 years and what's 200 years.

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Matt Rhodes: Here we moved to color finally and started painting over the model. Once we had the armor approved, it was a nice task to try to find stuff that was unique and original but also still fit with the body armor that everyone was able to agree on. So here's kind of a bike helmet approach. Again, you're just trying to look at helmets and try to think "what are these helmets supposed to do?" "What's their function?" You know, the old "form follows function" thing. So again, this is just sort of, how are these guys going to explore and adventure in the galaxy? That will dictate a lot.

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Matt Rhodes: In the search for originality, you end up doing some pretty crazy stuff. I kind of like this one, this is actually one of my favorites. Just the glass visor that reaches up over the forehead. Something simple and clear, and again, going back to some of those 80s designs that you could get. This was again, like I said, open face, show off the mouth animations and all that stuff when you talk. It kind of leaves the viewer to assume that technology has advanced enough that this would be enough of a helmet; that exposed head is not such a concern.

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Matt Rhodes: Here's kind of a similar idea, except this time with the visor instead of the full face guard. Something a little more recognizable. But again, you know, the whole head exposed; a lot of people end up worrying too much that, "oh, he's going to get shot in the head. That's not enough protection." So again, it's just trying to figure out what kind of science-fiction you're telling.

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Matt Rhodes: This next one was one of a series of... just hundreds of these things. I mean, we went through so many helmet variations, it was ridiculous. And it's funny how much you end up finding how affected you are. I mean, it's just-- you sit down, you zone out for a bit, you're drawing a helmet and you realize you've drawn something that's kind of a "Master Chief" and kind of a "Stormtrooper" and enough of both that it goes straight to the cutting room floor. It's just not quite cool enough to stand up on its own, and yet it's too affected. That was the constant struggle; it's trying to find a line that went through all of the helmets that have been done before.

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Matt Rhodes: Here was a helmet that was-- I was playing with stuff that was very close to the head. Stuff that was as sleek as the body armor. You know, again, if your armor is so sophisticated that it's like a jumpsuit, it might be good to have a helmet that can do the same.

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Matt Rhodes: Okay, this next one here is... Again, playing with the armor, trying to get something tight to the head but possibly something that followed the curves established in the armor. You know, again, stuff like this, you draw it, it seems kind of weird when you draw it and then when you're done it pretty much confirms, "yep, too weird. It doesn't quite work." So, again, the adventure continued.

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Matt Rhodes: This was one of the heavy helmet concepts. We were toying with the idea of helmets that were specific to the armor classes. This one, you know, full face visor. Stuff like this was difficult because, I mean, the boys in the animation department, the facial animation in particular, it was-- they were doing so much amazing work and there was the concern that all of that would be lost as soon as you pop that visor down. So, a lot of the directions that we eventually head in gave us the open face design. This stuff was cool and it was, you know, had its merit to help us find where we were going, but again, when trying to consider all factors, you've got to cut some things.

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Matt Rhodes: This next helmet design here, kind of the BMX space helmet, was a lesson in complication. There's sort of-- once, you know, we liked it, we thought it was kind of cool, it was definitely original, fairly unique but... If it came time, really honestly, to go do a piece of fan art or like for someone to quickly scribble down what the helmet looked like, I mean... it was too much, it was too complicated. In the end, this was a big lesson in trying to find something very iconic as well as cool.

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Matt Rhodes: This next one was by Casey, and again, in the search to find something unique, I mean, we had a lot of people hop on board and just try to give us fresh material. This is kind of cool, I mean, it's still fairly Stormtrooper-ish but, you know, it's got the nightlights on there, and something trying to follow the sleek curves.

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Matt Rhodes: This helmet was one of my favorites. This one, I'm actually... Yeah, I would have loved to see this guy. It's pretty abstract and it's not exactly your normal helmet but I think that's partially-- that's mostly what I like about it. This actually ended up being one of the lead things to help push me in another direction. The big cut right through the face, cutting off the whole front end there, that ended up coming into play a little bit later on. But again, this is one of those things where it's probably too far gone. It's almost not recognizable as a helmet anymore, so it just didn't really fit with the setting.

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Matt Rhodes: And again, more contributions from some of the team members just trying to change it up, trying to get some new shapes in there, some new approaches. This pen and ink work was really cool because it sort of harkened back to a lot of the older concepts from the 70s and 80s.

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Matt Rhodes: Here's another one that I like, that was contributed by one of the other members of the team, and it's just sort of like the central eye, almost a little bit too villainous. In some ways, it reminds us of the Metal Gear Solid ninja except almost a little bit more animal-like. It's kind of freaky.

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Matt Rhodes: This was a direction explored that was kind of the Starship Troopers sort of feel. This is something that, again, we're playing with the open face, something a little bit more military. The look didn't quite mesh with the armor, but at the same time, this open face plan was something that we pretty much all agreed was going to have to be the direction, just to show off all the awesome face work.

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Matt Rhodes: This was a teched-up version of the Starship Troopers sort of helmet. Again, something very military, very open, but just trying to gear it up, make it match with the armor that we had already agreed on. You know, he's got the visor there, the open mouth, you still see his eyes and then the spot for the extension cord in the back of his head.

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Matt Rhodes: And then here, we have the final concept for the helmet design. I went through a lot of different changes. There were dozens of variations on this theme, but all of the requests and requirements like, having the visor that you could see the eyes through, and what's the level of tech and does he still have enough color variation that can match and swap with the armor's level of tech in the back of the head... And yeah, here he is. It's beefy enough, heavy enough, still looks like he can take a shot in the head and be okay and yet it works. We have our Mass Effect helmet.