Art director Brock Davis created this optical illusion using Halo 3's Forge tool. *

Image: Brock Davis * View Slideshow Brock Davis found a unique way to combine his love of Halo and his passion for drawing: He created a 3-D self-portrait using Halo 3's Forge tool.

The intriguing image, an optical illusion composed of objects found within the game, generated a lot of interest online.

Davis, who works as an art director for an ad agency in Minneapolis, had seen examples of people using Forge to write messages or draw 2-D pictures, but was curious to see if such artistic endeavors could be taken a step further by making a 3-D image.

"I was curious about the idea I had in my head, and I wanted to see if it could work," he explains. "It would be amazing to try something like this in the real world, but at least with Forge I was able to try it in a virtual world, and that's the next best thing.

"Especially since it's a tad easier to levitate and move large vehicles in Forge," he jokes.

Forge is Halo 3's extremely flexible map-customization tool that allows players to create their dream multiplayer map, right down to the tiniest detail. Halo fans quickly embraced Forge after the game's release, putting the tool to use for more than just creating custom game maps.

Using a simple interface designed to let players add or replace in-game items like weapons and vehicles, as well as random articles used simply to give the map some flavor, they soon took to drawing pictures and writing messages by lining up weapons and vehicles on the ground. One player even proposed to his girlfriend by spelling it out in Forge. (She said yes.)

Davis, who has had no formal art training but has been drawing and designing his "whole life," says he's certain the self-portrait won't be the last of his art projects.

"It's just a matter of crossing paths with something that inspires me," he says. "I'm always looking for ways of doing creative things differently."

Though he never intended for his creation to attract so much attention, Davis says that "a prominent person" at Bungie Studios, Halo's developer, commented on how much he liked the portrait.

"That was really cool," Davis says. "Maybe if I'm lucky, the gods at Bungie will see fit to drop a certain Spartan helmet in my stocking this year."

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