Asg 02 Recap
--I agree with most criticism received. It wasn’t until I saw my UI on the large screen, that I recognized many of the flaws. While I was working on it they were not apparent, however returning to look at it the next day gave me a fresh objective look.
--Overall the biggest regret/difficulty I had was that my concept called for a style that Photoshop vector graphics couldn’t provide, and yet I still tried to achieve it. I was going for a grunge-realistic style which used real-world instruments as a strong influence.
1. Health Bar: This is my favorite part of the design and perhaps not coincidentally, the only predominantly raster part. I feel that the size, style, and placement of the rest of the GUI is based on this element. The only thing I might do differently is create different versions to better convey the way that the health bar works.
2. Boost Power: I think that the Iconography is very strong with this element; however it may be a bit too large. This is especially true because I almost feel that a boost gauge is redundant. However, to keep with the ‘realistic instrumentation’ feel of the GUI it needs to be fairly large. I ran into the same problem with the style and color as I did with many of my elements. I simply could not convey the style I had envisioned with Photoshop vector graphics and layer styles.
3. Weapon: This is my least favorite element. The problem I had with this element was a combination of limited time and the constraint of Photoshop vector graphics. I had originally envisioned a mechanical cog of sorts that would rotate the current weapon into view. This, however, proved nearly impossible without creating a fully textured 3d model or raster graphic. Rather than completely redesign the element, I made the mistake of making compromise upon compromise. I ended up with a bastardization of my original design that doesn’t work very well. It has much too large of a bevel and looks very ‘Photoshopped’. It is the worst suffer of the vector style problem I had.
4. Radar: I think this element serves its purpose well because it follows a conventional iconography. The size and placement are also conventional and appropriate. Again it suffers the same style problem.
--My understanding of the assignment was that it was to be entirely vector. Thus I did the entire design with shape layers and layer effects (except for a single overlay texture). Therefore the only tools I let myself use was the pen tool, the custom shape too, and the path tools. I feel that this alone was my biggest challenge and singlehandedly hurt my design the most. I believe if this realistically-mechanical style was to actually be implemented in a game it would have to be done as a raster UI.