I've been wanting to post up some work from Pacific Rim for a while now. There's quite a lot of UI design throughout the film and it's worth having a look at. Here's a montage of some of the UI work from Hybride.

The montage includes lots of holographic UIs, most of which feature inside the cockpit of the Jaegers (the big robots). So the displays show a range of diagnostic and battle related info. What I like, is the conscious effort to distinguish the different Jaegers by their country of origin, which was reflected in the cockpit design, the suits and also the UI design.

There's an obvious shift of style from the US Jaeger to the more industrial Russian Jaeger. There's a lot going on in those UIs, but I really like their arrangements and the different angles and depths of the display panels. It looks fantastic as the camera pans around them. I also really like the unusual shapes they've used for the content frames, there's a lot of irregular shapes and organic curves, it's a refreshing change from overly grided layouts. Though that is purely from an aesthetic stand point, on the other hand it is very clear to see that the more grided layouts are actually much easier to comprehend.

I also liked that they experimented with different colours. There were a few colours in there that you don't often see in UI designs. There's a lot to take in, so it's probably worth watching it a few times!

Check out the Pacific Rim VFX Breakdown by Hybride