On MCLA we got the opportunity to do more concept work and were given a lot of autonomy to create an immersive UI I'm proud of. My main contribution was coming up with the idea of the 3d in-world panels, pitching it to leads, and working with another UI artist to mock up and implement all the UI. I also concepted and helped implement checkpoint flare effects. Frequent updates to the map gave me experience with optimizing 3d and working with Maya. I learned about actionscript optimization through working with the HUD which had to be extremely efficient.
VIDEO___________________________________________________________________________________________
The boot sequence and initial GPS jump
The MCLA garage was extensive and data was added by production through a database. This video shows a quick peek at camera and menu transitions, popup messages for save/load, and the performance shop designed for quick, multiple upgrades with one check out.
This is a gameplay video with a lot of HUD messaging handled simultaneous. We received a contract with sidekick paying to be advertised in game. My personal taste is for UI to be less solid and not an actual thing but the device was important to show in this case.
SCREENSHOTS____________________________________________________
The contextual menu is the default pause menu tab. Game modes and settings are the other two tabs. Menus are quick, logical, and a good balance between flat and nested. Two options are not ideal but the items in the contextual menu constantly change. The GPS menu on the back button keeps it fast and doesn't overload the pause menu with map-related info.
An example of a submenu within the tabs. The panel is set in the same size which was a trick to get working for localization, we set minimum panel widths to the dynamic menu to avoid resizing but allow for it. Some indication of stacking panels would be nice to show what level you are navigating.
The playlists could be huge and caused a problem because Flash was storing data for each item in the list whether or not it was visible. This had to be addressed at the last moment and is a good reason to have scrolling logic handled in code.
