After Effects would also be the program you would use to 'crop' video out of halo reach.
I'm also pretty sure there was a bubble shield .3ds floating around somewhere complete with glass maps... i'll do a little digging and see what i can do about that for you. I'm not bad with 3DS max and im...
Those tags have to be compiled into a map before they can be easily exported to models. I'd like an MA5K as well, but I don't know how to compile maps. I can extract models from full maps, but I don't know how to edit model tags.
Love the MA5K!
I would be willing to help out. What do you need done?
Also to answer your first two questions:
1. I have CS5 but am not very experienced with After Effects
2. Yes, cutting a player from reach and pasting it into the trailer would be possible, but every frame would have to be rotoscoped...
I use Sketchup a fair bit to do architectural stuff for school. If you were going to do a helmet, I would recommend starting with a solid box and using the modify tools (view->toolbars->modify) to push and bash it into a helmet shape. Sketchup's learning curve is no where near as steep as...