Here's a glimpse at some of the UI work from Hitman: Agent 47 by Territory Studio. The film showcases examples of mobile screens, interactive glass, scopes and a range of screen graphics.

Overall the designs appear to be split into two distinct styles, one for Agent 47's equipment and the other for the syndicate's. Both depicting a modern covert feel, but the syndicate's UI show glimpses of a slightly more advanced and complex system.

Some shots worth checking would be the car tracking scene, the sniper scope, Agent 47's briefcase and the syndicate director's office.

Car tracking

This is one of the longer UI sequences in the film and part of an action packed sequence. The colour scheme and lighting of the 3D map is really attractive. The map elements are a nice reddish/purplish grey set upon black, which helps punch out the red elements of interest. The sequence is easy to follow and the little animated transitions are quite neat.

Sniper scope

The sniper scope looks clinical and what you'd expect from a professional hitman. It feels like a modern military weapon, and completely believable.

Agent 47's briefcase 0:29

Although this appears only momentarily, it's one of my favourite pieces. It's a briefcase Agent 47 uses, which opens up with a small satellite dish and multiple screens. Both the physical form and the digital displays look great. It instantly feels like a piece of advanced equipment that is only available to spies or in this case an advanced hitman.

Syndicate director's office

The syndicate director's office is a curved white room with various interactive surfaces built into the interior. It effectively creates an environment for a different kind of villain, one that's not overtly evil but instead the head of an evil corporation. Less of a villain than a businessman. There's two main interfaces in the office, the glass wall and the tabletop. Both help emphasise the advanced nature of the syndicate's technology.

If I were to scrutinise these as practical interfaces I would question the choice of having either one. The glass wall display although would be very useful to the director, feels too public for my liking. I would imagine the director of the syndicate would like a little more privacy on the things he's looking at. The trouble with a glass display like this is that anyone on the other side of the glass can see everything the user is doing. But I understand the appeal from a filmmaking point of view.

The interactive table is also questionable. With so much emphasis these days on office ergonomics, a table like this would wreck havoc on the user's posture. It seems interactive tables like these are great for standing and collaborating but not so much for long time use. It would have been ideal for the UI team to work together with the set design team to create a more suitable environment but from what I gather a lot of the UI work was done retrospectively, after the footage was already shot. The designs on the screens themselves are lovely!

Video conferencing could also be an issue. Normally a camera is positioned on the screen so that the video captured would be as though the user is making eye-contact with the receiver on the other end. In this case the footage is on such an angle that the receiver could be potentially looking up at the director's nose. Or if the camera was higher up, the director wouldn't appear to be looking at the person on the other end. But does the audience really care about this? Probably not. Does it affect the outcome of the film? Not sure. As practical applications it might be an issue but from a film making point of view, it's probably not as crucial.

Head over to Territory Studio's site to check out the montage, it's really a cool project! Congrats to the team!