Design of ‘The Avengers’ – Interface designs and HUDs
Wow! The Avengers did not disappoint, it was the entertaining blockbuster it was anticipated to be. What’s more, it didn’t disappoint in the way of featuring a tonne of HUDs and GUIs, and elaborating on what we loved about IRON MAN 1 & 2 thanks to the team at Cantina Creative! IRON MAN HUD Check [...]
Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn opener – data spheres and holograms
This Halo 4 opener is for the live action web series called Forward Unto Dawn. It features lots of crisp, detailed, cinematic shots characteristic of German Design/VFX studio Polynoid. I really like the occasional shots of the ship’s blinking screens, they do a great job of showing that the desolate ship still has some life [...]
Plurality – a Sci-Fi short by Dennis Liu
Plurality is a Sci-Fi short by director Dennis Liu, which explores a world where everyone’s DNA is plugged into a single information grid set in New York City 2023. Not only is the story easy to watch and compelling, it features a lot of nice UI goodies. The production quality of this film is quite [...]
Surviving The Future – Data visualisation by Tendril
This is a montage of shots from a documentary by Tendril that deals with the changing world and the advancement of technology. It’s very short but if you’re quick you can catch some neat examples of data visualisation. It mostly consists of scanning, medical and tracking data. What’s interesting is that there’s some clips showing [...]
Total Recall – UI Design
Here’s a highlight reel of the UI work from the 2012 remake of Total Recall, by the amazingly talented Ash Thorp. There’s quite a good range of HUDs and GUIs in Total Recall. In the clip you will see HUDs, hologram displays, scanners, maps, vehicle UI, and other touch UIs on a range of surfaces. [...]
The Matrix Reloaded – UI Design
The Matrix Reloaded explores some interfaces that exist outside the Matrix. They are only short scenes but I think it’s worth posting because the design style of the UI is so unique. The video attached features the UI from the control room to Zion and small clips showing some holograms. But the emphasis is really [...]
Mission Impossible 4 – UI Design
The great thing about spy films is that it usually features lots of cutting edge/futuristic technology, and Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol is no exception. Two of the more interesting gadgets would have to be the computerized contact lenses and the car UI. The concept of the computerized contact lenses is a lot like Google’s Project [...]
Holographic UI – Swedish House Mafia & Absolute (Greyhound)
Here’s a commercial/music video featuring Swedish House Mafia for Absolute Vodka. The video shows the three DJs using holographic UIs to control robotic greyhounds in a race. It hints early on, at how the UI captures movements and how the greyhounds respond accordingly, but that’s as deep as it goes. This video is more about [...]
Rise of the Planet of the Apes: Screen Design
I didn’t expect Rise of the Planet of the Apes to feature much UI design (and it didn’t), but it did have some interesting screen designs that focus on medical and presentation graphics. I liked the colourful brain diagrams and the animation of the big eye diagram as it slides in behind James Franco. Thanks [...]
Archetype – Robot HUDs and GUIs
I recently stumbled across Archetype, a sci-fi short film by VFX veteran Aaron Sims, who’s credits include Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Transformers: Dark of the Moon, and Green Lantern. It’s a fantastic looking short that follows the story of a robot who starts having memories of once being human, and appears to be [...]
UI Design in Sunshine
So this is officially the first post of 2012! The story of Sunshine is centered around a group of scientists, set in a spaceship heading towards the sun. What’s great is that this scenario has been carefully considered in the UI design. Since the interfaces have such a specific audience, who are highly intelligent experts in [...]
Microsoft’s Productivity Future Vision
Here is Microsoft’s latest future vision video focusing on productivity. Not quite as groundbreaking as the original installment but there’s still a lot of interesting ideas in here. The key theme in the video is connectivity and the communication between various devices. Unfortunately with a few of the examples the design is aesthetically pleasing but [...]
UI Design – Ghost in the shell 2
Ghost in the Shell 2 is the first anime film we’ve featured, but will most likely not be the last. In terms of HUDs and GUIs, anime is an excellent source for two reasons. Firstly, because they often explore themes about the future and secondly because along with industrial/vehicle design, the interface designs tend to [...]
UI Design in Serenity
There’s quite a lot of UI elements in Serenity and they all help paint a detailed picture of this fantasy world the movie is set in. There’s everything from cockpit interfaces, holograms to communication devices. Strangely, one thing that really stood out for me was actually the gravestones, which displayed holograms of the person deceased. [...]
Interface Design of Final Fantasy
There are so many great examples of UI design in Final Fantasy – The Spirits Within and they encapsulate a wide range of interfaces including holographic diagrams, medical instruments, military maps and HUDS. I was so impressed by the quality and detail that went into the interface designs. Everything seems to be so well thought [...]
Repo Men – UI Design
After seeing the trailer for Repo Men, I was hoping to see an exciting sci-fi movie about the future like Minority Report, but it turned out to be a fair bit different to my expectations. I was also expecting to see lots of UI but there wasn’t really many besides the hand held scanners and [...]
The Archiver – UI
The Archiver is an impressive short film by Thomas Obrecht, Guillaume Berthoumieu and Marc Menneglier from French 3D school ArtFX. It is beautifully crafted and features lots of interesting moments. I really love the art direction of the film, which is wonderfully detailed and cinematic. The UI elements were a nice surprise and works well [...]
Star Trek – UI Design
I can’t really say I’m a Star Trek fan (I prefer Star Wars myself), but I was pleasantly surprised by this movie, which also happened to feature some nice interface designs. Most of them appear as either screen displays in the ships or touchscreen devices, with the exception of one short clip featuring Eric Bana [...]
UI design in 007 – Quantum of Solace
The UI design in 007 – Quantum of Solace is beautiful and well worth highlighting. MK12 who were responsible for the UI design, created a wonderful graphic style but the magic is really in the animation. A lot of love has been put into the way the interface elements move with interaction, like how there’s [...]
UI design of The Island
Made in 2005, The Island features some interesting UI concepts, some of which have been realised today. One of these is the touch screen table top that’s controlled by a glass prism. Unlike regular touch screens that work with skin contact and multitouch, this one only allows the user holding the prism to control the [...]
G.I.Joe Rise of the Cobra – UI Design
G.I.Joe Rise of the Cobra features a nice collection hi-tech gadgets and displays. There’s everything from handheld tablets, scanners, HUDs, targeting systems and holograms. The HUDs and GUIs in the film definitely has its own style, with a colour palette of bright colours like red, yellow, orange, cyan and green. It’s also not as data [...]
TRON Legacy UI
What a cool movie Tron was, the art direction of the film was amazing. I really loved the design style used throughout the film, it was very minimalist and used a lot of angled lines, geometry and neon-style glows against a dark setting that really make shapes pop out. I also like the hexagon motif [...]
Iron Man HUD part 3 – Behind the scenes
Here is an absolute gold mine of the coolest and most visually stimulating collection of interface design tests and process work from Iron Man 2. This is a real treat, thanks to the incredibly talented guys at Prologue. It’s amazing to see how much work went into the development of the designs. There’s far too [...]
Iron Man HUD part 2
The first Iron Man would have been a hard act to follow, but the team behind Iron Man 2 have done a stellar job with the design in the film. As with the first film, it is rich with beautifully designed huds, surface interfaces, interactive holograms and is full of cool ideas. It was great [...]