The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Katniss leads an invasion with a handheld hologram device, and Beetee sits before a multi-panel computer display in order to hack into the Capitol. Tony Stark puts his Iron Man helmet on, and hundreds of relevant graphics animate to life: maps locating nearby enemies, flight controls, suit diagnostics, and holographs all help to tell the stories in Iron Man and The Avengers. Floor-to-ceiling glass/holographic displays enable James Franco to explain how a new drug will make apes smarter in Rise of the Planet of the Apes. Jayse Hansen has gained international attention for designing some of the most iconic fictional user interfaces in film history. His work specializes in revealing the details beneath the surface of machines, computers and hero devices' such as holographic tablets in Ender's Game, or the creation of new superhero gear using holographic tables in Disneys Big Hero 6. In the film Pixels, look closely for his many '80s video game nods and easter eggs hidden in the advanced military UIs.
In addition to designing for the fictional film world, Hansen has also consulted and designed for various real-world software companies in VR and AR, as well as the US Department of Defense on strategies to use his outside-the-limits design thinking to dramatically increase efficiency for dealing with immense amounts of time-sensitive, mission-critical information.
Hansen's work is featured in the April/May 2016 issue of Computer Graphics World, while more of his designs can be found on his website at www.jayse.tv. Here, he continues the discussion about his workflow and this unique genre of computer graphics.
You've provided fictional user interface (FUI) graphics to memorable scenes in some of today's most beloved films. Can you tell us what an FUI is, and how the story influences your designs?
FUI graphics are used in instances where a character in a film is interacting with a computer or display technology of some kind. The technology can be worn on the head as a heads-up display (HUD), like in Iron Man when he puts his helmet on and is surrounded by hundreds of relevant data graphics, or a hologram, like when Hiro assembles the armor for Baymax in Big Hero 6 , or in The Force Awakens when R2-D2 and BB-8 project their holograms of the map to Luke Skywalker. These elements are all designed, modeled, and animated by a small, specialized team of VFX artists. They both rely on and support the narrative of the film. They are always designed to move the story along in some dynamic and interesting way.
FUI graphics seems to be a specialty within visual effects content creation. How did you start designing this way?
Ive actually been obsessed with screens in movies and TV since I was a child, but I didnt know it was someones job to actually create these things. When I met Mark Coleran (who coined the term FUI and is a master at it creating content in films like Bourne Identity, The Island, Mission Impossible, and so on) I knew that was the direction I wanted to dive into with full force. It fits my love of research, pixel perfection, and super creative thinking. Its really an awesome job!
In a film, you are called in to create designs at different phases of production, both preproduction and postproduction. Can you tell us about that?
It differs with the needs of each film. On Mockingjay , I was designing and animating on set with Cantina Creative in Atlanta. The director, Francis Lawrence, wanted to have all designs live on set, not only for lighting, but more importantly so that the actors had something they could emotionally react to since a big part of that film was told through the screens. Sometimes the director will want something that cant be done practical on set, such as Katnisss (Jennifer Lawrence's) mini hologram that she carries with her through the film to locate President Snows traps, or when Han Solo (Harrison Ford) and Rey (Daisy Ridley) are walking through BB-8s hologram on the Millennium Falcon in The Force Awakens . In that case, Ill get brought back in postproduction. For The Force Awakens , for instance, I was brought on board VFX master Andrew Kramers excellent team at Bad Robot to help design and animate key moments after the film was shot.
How do you approach an empty digital canvas, so to speak? Can you tell us more about your workflow?
That empty canvas is both exciting and terrifying, so Ive worked out a few ways that I tackle it. I always start on paper. I allow myself to draw really badly and just get ideas out because even a scribble is less terrifying than a blank page. Then it becomes really apparent what I need to research and it flesh out. I'll also look at hardware for shapes and re-imagine those as software. Then I go straight to Illustrator from paper, and straight from Illustrator to After Effects for compositing and animation, and then back and forth between Cinema 4D and After Effects to add dimensionality.
The topic of virtual reality and augmented reality in entertainment content creation are trending topics at the moment. Are VR and AR graphics created in the same way but just viewed differently?
Somewhat, both tend to be assembled in a real-time game engine, such as Unity. But the needs and purposes of each can be dramatically different. In VR, for instance, you are blocking out your world and substituting it with an artificial reality. So a complete world needs to be built. In AR, its more about the integration of your physical world with digital content. A company I consult for, called Meta (getameta.com), is doing the most amazing things right now and really leading the pack in this early development of fully immersive AR. Theyre allowing you to fully interact with your digital content. The digital content can be fanciful, like a lifelike dinosaur that runs acr
