Robocop (2014) - UI Design

Perception have just released a case study of their recent UI work on Robocop.

Perception do a great job at showcasing their work. We previously posted a link to their work on Europa Report, which was just as good. There's explanations of the project as well as heaps of alternate designs and concept designs, which you wouldn't normally see.

Their work on Robocop included amongst other things HUDs, touch screens and screen designs. The key elements to note are the targeting sequences and threat assessment shots, which are in a similar vain to Terminator Salvation and Battleship.

The Robocop HUD looks almost like a game HUD, with vitals and ammo/weapon readouts locked to the sides. It also looks like they haven't retained the green LED look from the original and gone instead for a red and white colour palette with contemporary type to modernise the HUD along with the suit. Looking through the HUD makes you feel like you're in a video game. Perhaps this was intended to help the audience empathise with the cyborg.

The highlight for me would be the environment scanning sequences. I love the look of the red beam that gets sent to the far end of the room (at about 00:23), that analyses the environment. It's so luscious and organic, and sometimes the organic approaches feel more advanced than the overly technical.

What also stood out was the threat assessment shots, detailing the target's vitals, and analyzing everything from fingerprints to retinal scans. What's great is that you can see the robots physically scanning the database, so you can imagine being the target and seeing a blank look on the robot. It'd probably look a bit weird but you now know that it's just taking time to process all the information. Interestingly, the EM 208, ED 209 robots predates Robocop, so perhaps this wait time was a clever way to make it look like an older version of the technology.

I also stumbled on this page 'Experience Perception' which explains the company's positioning and how they've geared their business towards 'Future-tech for film' and 'Concept design for Next Gen UI'. It's really interesting to see more company likes Perception and OOOii appear who specialise in UI for film, which proves that there's really a market for this type of work now.

Check out Perception's Robocop case study
Watch Perception's Robocop UI montage Experience Perception OOOii