Oblivion

Oblivion GFX Montage.In 2012, I had the opportunity to work on Oblivion Joseph Kosinski's second feature film. We reassembled the core TRON: Legacy team, added a few mograph all-stars, and designed and animated the graphic content for all the interfaces in the movie.Oblivion is the story of Jack Harper, one of Earth's last few Drone repairmen. When a downed spacecraft comes crashing down on Earth, so too does Jack's existence, forcing him to question everything that he knows.OBLIVION © Universal Pictures, Inc. All Rights Reserved.Screenshots from the film.Light Table UI.Nestled safely above the clouds in the SkyTower, Vika controls the Light Table as Jack's colleague/partner, guiding and assisting him in his Drone repairing duties on the Earth below. The control table consists of a main map that monitored the positional data of the Bubbleship, Drones, Hydro Rigs, and Scavs, a Drone Monitor which tracked Drone vitals such as fuel, ammo, and status, a Hydro Rig monitor that displayed collection data from the large Resource Gatherers that sucked up all the energy and resources from Earth, and a Weather Map system for forecasts and Tet online monitoring. A Breakfast Table was also developed, with the purpose of feeding the duo their daily mission information complete with functioning video feed of important happenings.The Light Table was built practically, and all our animations were shot in camera, which meant less control overall but also a more optical touch. You really can't beat those lovely reflections on that clean, clean glass.Bubbleship HUD / UI.The Bubbleship is almost an iconic character itself, playing an important role in the film as Jack's main vehicle, it was part helicopter, part jet fighter, part spaceship. Physically built to dimension, it's unique spherical bubble shape forced us to break the grid so to speak and accentuate the circular nature of the glass panel, lending itself to more organic designs and animation. The UI had several modes depending on the situations on hand: Flight Mode, Attack Mode, and Space Mode were created along with Drone Tracking callouts, Emergency Return elements, and Radiation Zone popups. Studying helicopter flight UI and HUDs, we stressed the importance of having a realistic, functional grounding.Drone Vision HUD / UI.The Drones are programmed, weaponized machines that protect the Hydro Rigs from the Scavs. Although round and portly in shape, they were quite menacing, no doubt due to the fact that they have two huge gun cannons on each side. The design of the UI reflected the symmetrical face of the Drone, with four outer quadrants reserved for things such as fuel, GPS locational data, battery information and other vital stats, while its four inner quadrants allowed for callouts such as Voice Recognition and Bio Trail Analysis, and other key moments during the film. The eye's frenetic free-moving motion became the basis of the Drone reticle, something that also gave it more of a personality.Oblivion HUD / UI.Various other HUDs and UI were designed as part of the overall graphic package. These included the Scav equipment, gun reticles and binoculars, reticles for Jack's gun, Drone diagnostic devices, and gauges for Jack's Bike.Lots of experiments, research, and care was spent designing all of the details in the graphics, animating and making sure that specific key moments in the story were clear to the audience. Only then did we feel proud handing them off to the VFX vendors, Digital Domain and Pixomondo, who obviously did amazing jobs compositing them into the world of Oblivion.Produced at Crater Lake Productions.Oblivion Director: Joseph Kosinski.Oblivion Producer: Steve Gaubs.Oblivion Assistant Producer: David Feinsilber.Light Table credits:Graphics Design Director: Bradley G Munkowitz.Lead Graphic Designers: Bradley G Munkowitz, Jake Sargeant.Graphic Designers: Joseph Chan, Alexander Perry.Lead Graphics Animators: Joseph Chan, David Lewandowski.Graphics Animators: Alexander Perry.Bubbleship HUD / UI credits:Graphics Design Director: Bradley G Munkowitz.Lead Graphic Designers: Bradley G Munkowitz, Joseph Chan.Lead Graphics Animator: Navarro Parker.Graphics Animator: Joseph Chan.Drone Vision, Oblivion HUD / UI credits:Graphics Design Director: Bradley G Munkowitz.Lead Graphic Designers: Joseph Chan, Bradley G Munkowitz.Graphic Designer: Alexander Perry.Lead Graphics Animators: Navarro Parker, Alexander Perry.Graphics Animator: Joseph Chan.