Halo 5 - Guardians Cinematic UI

Here is the opening cinematic for Halo 5 - Guardians, by 343 Industries and AXIS Animation. The majority of the UI shots appear in the first half of the video during the briefing scene (reminds me of a scene from Final Fantasy).

There's some short glimpses of a wrist-mounted UI but most of the UI is centred around a circular floating podium that projects holographic screens and images in 360 degrees. I quite like the curved displays and how they are constantly rotating and drifting. I also love how the windows rearrange to prioritise content.

It's really weird to think of a canvas in 360 degrees, how would this actually work? Do the four soldiers have set standing positions so that they're looking at the screen most relevant to them? Or is it more like a museum exhibit where you stand where you want and areas are divided into different content types around the circle? Should the screens not drift then? Lot's of interesting questions come from scrutinising the interface in more detail.

Further in the video there's a shot of a holographic terrain map, which is really cool. There's something about a 3D map that is so appealing to me. Perhaps it's because it provides so much more information that a flat 2D map. For example when the trajectory lines appear, you can see the exact location of each of the landing points as well as the height and arch in between. Something much more difficult to convey in a 2D map.

The animation of the UI is nice and tight, from the way the screens rearrange to how the whole interface packs and unpacks, it's really well done.

Check it out!