Characters from Half-Life 2 in Reality.
No one has asked themselves the question, "Where did the developers, namely Valve, get such vibrant character designs for Half-Life 2?" The answer is simple - they saw most of the designs in their everyday surroundings!
When selecting faces for the characters, Valve artists looked for people with striking appearances.
Dr. Isaac Kleiner
The face of this character turned out to be none other than an accountant from a firm located above Valve's office.
"We thought we already had a model for Dr. Kleiner until we met Ted Kort. We were riding the elevator with him when we suddenly exclaimed, 'Oh my God, it’s Dr. Kleiner!' We talked to him, and he willingly allowed us to use his face since both of his teenage sons are fans of Half-Life. It was amusing to meet him at the 'Starbucks' café and see the reactions of colleagues who had no idea where Kleiner's face came from. They would start staring at him, trying to figure out where they had seen him before."
-Bill Van Buren
Barney Calhoun
Who was the face of Barney? You won't believe it - the very deputy director of Valve!
Dr. Eli Vance
The future likeness of Eli was encountered simply on the street - a guy was walking near the office with a cardboard sign that read "Seeking Work."
Dr. Wallace Breen
Father Grigori
Father Grigori was the father of one of the Valve modelers.
Colonel Odessa Cabbage
This face belonged to a martial arts teacher of one of the Valve team members (not the Valve martial arts team, but the developer team =D)
It was more challenging to find dissimilar female faces, and Valve eventually posted an ad in the Seattle Times: "Your Face in a Game!" A plethora of candidates showed up for the audition.
Alyx Vance
"Our casting agents recorded auditions for over a hundred actresses for the role of Alyx. We listened to all of them, and the choice narrowed down to five actresses who would be interesting to hear 'live.' After the studio auditions, we didn’t even discuss the results. Merle Dandridge was exactly what we needed. She was fantastic. We needed an actress with a beautiful voice who could be charming, very feminine, and friendly, but then in a tense situation become a strong, confident person - a realistic character in the 'action' genre. Not many actors can play both sides, but Merle handled it excellently."
-Bill Van Buren
Dr. Judith Mossman
Judith also went through the audition process like Alyx.
Citizens of City-17
Unfortunately, I do not know the origins of the 4th citizen design (a white male) =(
And now for 2 unique and mysterious characters! Can you guess who they are? =D
G-Man
Frank Sheldon, an employee of the world-renowned 'Alexander Technique,' was initially the prototype for Dr. Breen. Van Buren hastily sent out a Photoshop-altered image of Sheldon with poorly cropped hair and reduced facial features. But the whole team quickly realized that this was not Breen but G-Man. His facial mesh was used in building the 3D model for accurate and quick reproduction of the facial topology. Van Buren created the base model, then handed it over to Dabi Ingu, who sucked in the cheeks and darkened the eye sockets of the model to give G-Man a sinister look. Animator Doug Wood spent a lot of time in front of a mirror working on G-Man's facial expressions, first practicing on himself. Later, he asked Frank Sheldon to do the same.
"Animating G-Man was sheer pleasure. Michael Shapiro did a wonderful job of giving him a more sinister character than in Half-Life. I wanted the player never to be sure whose side G-Man was on. I had him throw an apologetic glance at Gordon, as if he 'regrets' putting Mr. Freeman in such a situation, but then I gave a slight smirk or smile at the end to keep you guessing about his sincerity."
-Doug Wood
Dr. Gordon Freeman
Gordon's face is unique - the likeness of one person for him was impossible. Therefore, Valve designers took profile and frontal photos of David Speirer, Eric Krishmer, Greg Kummer, and Kelly Bailey and combined them to create Gordon's head texture. Greg's image became the starting point for constructing Gordon's head model in XSI.
The End
Information taken from Half-Life 2 - Raising The Bar