Microsoft chose a very different approach to heighten the "Halo 3" mystique for the web audience by creating a unique, 1,200 square foot museum-quality diorama and shooting a film within it that allows viewers to literally submerge themselves inside the world of the game. The diorama shows a life-size, epic battle scene frozen in time and space that includes a fascinating, never before seen level of detail.

Microsoft hired acclaimed commercial filmmaker Rupert Sanders of MJZ Studios to push the boundaries of what can happen in a diorama by supplementing the use of models with digital technology to create the effect of fire, smoke, explosions, flying shrapnel, bullets moving underwater and floating debris.

Sanders commissioned the Academy Award-winning special effects legend Stan Winston to create the sculptures within the diorama. Winston, best known for his work on the "Terminator," "Alien" and "Jurassic Park" films, based the diorama's human models off 3D images of live actors to ensure each pose looked natural. The real faces of the Marine models were then painted back into the environment in post-production and superimposed over the faces of the diorama models to bring an eerie and uncanny level of detail to close-ups. Clearly immobile figures appear to breathe (in one instance the game's iconic Master Chief subtly raises his head to look at the viewer). Additional post-production details heighten the film's realistic feel. For example, selectively painted into a tracking shot across the floor of the diorama one sees an actual desert floor strewn with bullet casings, twisted metal and fallen weapons.

Microsoft plans to take the diorama beyond the web and may feature it at events in New York or Los Angeles when "Halo 3" launches. A comprehensive digital diorama world is also being planned.