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Part 3: Q&A with Real-World Designers and Developers

Christmann: Okay, we’ve got three people on the line, all developers and designers at EffectiveUI: Sean Christmann, who’s actually my brother, Juan Sanchez and R.J. Owen. Let’s cycle through our three listeners.

Sean Christmann: When you guys were talking, one thing that stood out for me was when you were mentioning how John Favreau wanted you to make sure that Tony’s acting was really driving the HUD, and everything makes way for that concept. That’s exactly what we argue all the time at work — users don’t want things getting in their way. So there wasn’t really any question around that ... just a comment about how we’re going to consistently want interfaces that adapt to us rather than having to adapt to them.

Seki: Great parallel. It definitely played into how we were approaching the HUD. In early versions, there were way too many graphics in the front of Tony’s face. It was confusing. In addition to obscuring Robert, no one would want to look at that.

In theory, you have all these ideas about what the HUD would do, all this information it would display like charts of projected flight paths and things like that. But if we put too many of those things in, it just becomes a cluttered mess. We slowly discovered what you’ve just talked about. The balancing act of being adaptable to needs without obscuring things you need to see. That constantly came back to us because The Orphanage was great at designing graphics. We’d want to put them in, but then you’d look at it and think, maybe we need to pull back. The idea of the acronym K.I.S.S. (keep it simple, stupid) came back time and time again.

Dav loved the expression “form and function.” We continuously kept each other in check on that front.

R.J. Owen: I just wanted to comment that what sets this film apart is the great job of showing Robert Downey Jr.’s face so much. After the movie, I was talking to a friend who has nothing to do with interface designing. We were trying to figure out what is it that made this movie so good, especially compared to other really good comic movies. For example, in Spiderman when Spiderman and the Green Goblin are arguing, it had a very Power Rangers feel because they’re both wearing their masks and they don’t look like real human beings. But here, when the Iron Monger’s suit opened up and Tony’s helmet was off, the dialog was really between the characters. It was so subtle and very well done.

Seki: I was so blown away by what Robert and Jeff brought to the table. They were just amazing. Every once in awhile you’d be on the set and you’d see them do these things that show commitment.

Robert was so gracious about “getting” the role, and he was so into it. He brought a huge amount of excitement to the table, and he would constantly try to make things better. The theme of improvisation comes up a lot with this movie. How much improv was there? A lot. There really was, even on the visual effects side. Here’s an example that you’ll relate to about UI design: In the scene where he interacts with the holographic image of the gauntlet and he puts his hand in it … and all of a sudden it’s not just a regular hologram because he’s now interacting with it and it’s actually on his hand. That was improv.

R.J. Owen: Wow!

Seki: We had the previs version where he’s working on the Mark I armor … and he sort of takes off one part and tosses it in the trash can and it disappears … we thought that was cute. That was funny and everyone would chuckle.

I wasn’t on set when this happened, but it was improv when Robert uses his pen and imagines there’s a gauntlet and he’s putting the pieces onto the gauntlet and he walks up and does this great move of his hand going into it. Within a couple days, Christopher Batty, one of our lead artists, did a postvis, took the plate and did like a quick 3D mock-up of Robert putting the glove on. That became one of the coolest things about his technology. It’s just a little bit more advanced. It blows your mind just a little bit. You can buy the hologram but then he does this extra that pushes the limit a bit further. That was all improv.

R.J. Owen: That’s so cool. I really want to go work on some eye recognition software so I can try to build a little Iron Man UI for people to play with. I think you may have just invented the next Minority Report here.

Seki: We talked about Minority Report often while we were working on this film. That’s one reason why Dav and The Orphanage were so motivated. We knew that if we did the HUD right, it could be something that people really remember about the film, and it could set it apart.

Everyone who works in visual effects wants to be a bit of a storyteller. But we rarely get the opportunity to participate and contribute in that manner because usually we’re asked to do a very specific thing. So I think that they really seized upon that notion and the Orphanage’s energy is so great. They put in a staggering amount of extra time to get shots exactly how we wanted them. My hat’s off to them for that effort and for that level of commitment.

R.J. Owen: To me, that shows that people just want to do what people want to do with technology — especially when you were talking about improvisation. People want technology to conform to them, not the other way around. They don’t want to be stuck with a screen for the next 100 years. They want to naturally interact with the world and have technology come along for the ride, supplementing their natural expectations.

Seki: You’re 100 percent right, R.J.

It’s funny that the eye control is now becoming something real. We tried a version where we actually had an eye mouse that tracked Tony’s eye movement. We had something like a cursor in the scene. The cursor was so confusing — what was thing that thing moving around? It wasn’t clear as to what exactly was happening.

We realized instead that things would naturally flower open as Tony looked at them. The analogy I drove to The Orphanage was that the dynamic should be like a keyhole. When Tony activates a mode, it explodes open; but when he looks away, it compresses.

It’s the notion of taking something complicated and simplifying it and then complicating it again when you need to. John Underkoffler made a good observation (which I’m still curious about) when he said; “I don’t think there would be icons on there.” I’m a big fan of icons. I love the idea of simplifying something into a graphic symbol and then opening it up again. But he was more interested in the idea that artificial foveation would drive the interface. I think we found a balance between the two, but it’s an interesting concept nonetheless. The graphic designer in me loves icons, so I think we did more iconography more than he would have if he were designing the thing. But at the same time, we tried to understand the concept that he was putting forward as much as we could without making it inaccessible to most viewers.

Lance Christmann: Thanks. Kent. We’ve covered a lot of really great information here. Now for my last question, which everyone’s dying to know: How’s Iron Man 2 going?

Seki: For sure we want to work on it, but right now they’re working on more important things like the story and cast. I hope to work on Iron Man 2. It was great to work on Iron Man 1 and I had a great time. It was a great team.

I can’t stress enough what a team environment it was. It just goes to show that if you work in a place that’s collaborative and supportive, amazing things can happen. I didn’t set out working on the HUDs. That wasn’t my job when I got hired. PLF was hired to do pre- and post- visualization and then we ended up doing a lot more. I think that happened because the people in charge — the director John Favreau, the visual effects supervisor John Nelson and the visual effects producer Victoria Alonzo — were so open to the idea making the best possible film and letting everyone contribute at their highest levels. I’m just really appreciative of the opportunity. I’ve never had an opportunity as good as this one. You have to appreciate something like this, because you never know if will ever happen again.

About Kent Seki
Kent Seki graduated from Yale with a degree in art, concentrating in graphic design in 1993. After three and a half years as a graphic designer, he transitioned into CG for Pixel Liberation Front’s New York office. Seki worked in New York for four years, primarily on commercials and broadcast design. In 2002, he moved to Los Angeles to become the creative director PLF.

About Pixel Liberation Front
Pixel Liberation Front is a visual effects studio located in Venice, Calif. Founded in 1995, PLF pioneered the process of previsualization recreating the physical production environment in 3D, and animating the principal actions of a sequence well in advance of shooting. In addition to previsualization, PLF has created and composited final 3D elements for feature films, television commercials, games and music videos.

About EffectiveUI
EffectiveUI is an award-winning and recognized leader in the design and development of custom rich Internet, desktop and mobile applications that helps companies maximize their business results while offering exceptional interactive experiences. Leveraging emerging technologies, and their own expertise in business strategy, experience design and development, EffectiveUI helps today’s most respected brands deepen customer engagements by enabling more compelling, dynamic and useful customer interactions.

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