Alexander Stamos

1. Yes, I agree with the comments that I got. The color scheme isn't really consistant and some elements are are translucent while others aren't. Some GUI elements have shadow effects while others don't.

2. I would probably keep everything on a blue/green/red color scheme and have all of the elements be flat and slightly transparent.
- Health Bar: I would make this have some transparency.
- Thruster: This would also become slightly transparent.
- Weapon: I'm pretty happy with the weapons display, although I'd probably make the ammo gauge slightly transparent to fit with the rest of the GUI.
- Radar: I would get rid of the shadow effect and make the radar green and slightly transparent.

3. I used the shape tools for the two circles and the pen tool for the ammo gauge and the bars. It was all pretty simple to do once I got the hang of it, but it was difficult to keep track of all of the path layers and what layers the strokes and fills were on.

1. Health bar - Gets less full as you take damage. Also turns red when the character is low on health, otherwise it is green. On the screen, it is grouped with (on the same side of the screen as) the Weapon/ammo area as they are both part of combat.

2. Weapon information - The left part of the circle shows which weapon is currently selected and the right part is a meter that shows how much ammo it currently has.

3. Thruster - This bar goes up as you use the thruster more and down as it cools down. As the thruster heats up, the bar turns red, and when it is cooled down it's blue. It's grouped with (on the same side of the screen as) the radar as they are both involved in navigation/movement.

4. Radar - Has a green triangle in the center to represent the player and red dots to represent the enemies. Also shows locations of other important objects.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HnSEqsedCb4

I like Half Life 2 a lot because it creates an extremely immersive experience which it never breaks. It never takes you out of the first person viewpoint and never skips to a cut-scene where you don't have control over your character. The interface is minimalistic and only shows what's needed at the current time. That way it doesn't distract from the gameplay and the game world.

1. Auxiliary/Flashlight energy
2. Health
3. Suit armor
4. Current Ammo
5. Total Ammo