“This Is Your Coffee Cup”: Halo Season 2 CGI Error Spotted By VFX Artists

VFX artists identify a CGI mistake in Halo season 2, the continuation of the popular Paramount Plus series. Based on the beloved video game franchise, the sci-fi series premiered in 2022, following Pablo Schreiber’s Master Chief as he leads humanity’s fight against the alien Covenant. The show returned for a much more well-received sophomore outing earlier this year, with the Halo season 2 reviews praising its darker and grittier approach to the source material, and its standout action sequences.

Despite the positive reviews, however, the VFX artists at Corridor Crew now identify a subtle but notable CGI error in Halo season 2, episode 4, “Reach”, in which a bird clips through a portion of the environment.

The scene in question features the camera looking up through a hole in the ceiling, with a bird circling in the sky above. As Sam Gorski, Niko Pueringer, and Wren Weichman point out, however, there’s a brief moment in this scene where a matte layer of the bird ends up in front of the debris instead of behind it. Wren likens the moment to Game of Thrones‘ infamous coffee cup error, which was later edited out. Check out Sam, Niko, and Wren’s comments below:

Wren: “Wait, what the heck? Did you guys see what I saw?”

Niko: “Wait, Is it in front of the debris?”

Sam: “They messed up the layers.”

Wren: “It looks like it’s not the actual bird, it’s the bird’s matte out of, like, a fog layer or a smoke layer that’s on top of the debris there. Someone just managed to mislabel their node graph. Oh man, that’s a legitimate mistake.”

Sam: “You’ve got to fix this, Paramount.”

Wren: “Paramount, this is your coffee cup.”

Halo Season 2’s Reliance On CGI Explained

Why A Mistake Slipping Through The Cracks Isn’t Surprising

Due to the nature of the show’s story, the Halo series has to rely heavily on CGI. The alien forces of the Covenant, for example, would be nearly impossible to pull off practically, meaning the series has to create convincing, fully digital characters. This is even more of a challenge considering they’re not just enemies that get gunned down, but that some are fully-fleshed out characters of the Halo series cast who must look convincingly real even during quieter moments of dialogue, when any flaws in their appearance will be even more apparent.

What’s more, the series also features vast sci-fi cities, space battles, AI holograms, Halo rings, and armor suits that enable wearers to pull off inhuman feats of speed and strength. All of this is to say that Halo wouldn’t be possible without the talent and hard work of a team of VFX artists. It’s important to note, though, that Halo is a TV series and, like Game of Thrones, working in TV usually means working on a tight schedule with more budget constraints.

It’s not clear what the budget for Halo season 2 actually is, but executive producer Kiki Wolfkill did recently touch on this during a recent appearance on the Official Xbox Podcast. According to Wolfkill, the show “couldn’t afford to” play out the Fall of Reach over more than one episode. While the bird CGI mistake in Halo season 2 is regrettable, its existence speaks to the challenges inherent in bringing such a vast, action-heavy sci-fi franchise to life in the form of a TV show.