FUI Fishing

Fishing UI

Expression Session
School of Motion
2021

Animation of a fictional user interface on the theme of fishing on the high seas. The static design was provided by Carly Cerquone. All elements were dynamically animated using After Effects Expressions (JavaScript code). Countless elements are interdependent in this video.

Fish Finder
This part of the interface contains a switch that converts all units from imperial to metric.

The screen also shows a school of fish that moves randomly in a limited area. Each fish follows the movement of the fish preceding it with a small time delay.

The wavy graphics are meant to represent water currents. The movements of the currents are generated by random generator and are computationally limited by the superior and inferior currents, respectively.

Radar
The radar screen shows the fishing boat moving across the sea. This effect is achieved by randomly moving the card under the boat. The orientation of the boat is controlled by the directional changes of the moving map. A compass cutout is animated to match, indicating the compass direction in which the boat is pointing.

The small triangles symbolize individual fish that randomly move around the boat. Each fish has a unique randomly generated identification number.

The large triangle symbolizes the “target fish”. Depending on the distance of the “target fish”, the display of the “catch difficulty” changes. In addition, a visual highlighting also changes, which determines the catch zone of the fish and thus the fishing rods available for selection. The calculation of which fishing rod to use is displayed in another part of the user interface.

Fishing rod selection
The selection of fishing rods depends on the distance of the “target fish” from the boat. The distance is indicated on the far left of the window with a small triangle and distance indicator.

For each fishing zone there is a suitable fishing rod. The catch zones are calculated by minimum and maximum limits and displayed graphically accordingly. The distance of the “target fish” is again used for the calculation.

The bending and all properties of the fishing rod are based on its length. All indicators can be switched back and forth between the imperial and metric systems.

Small green-colored indicators for all fish in the image are displayed along the distance bar on the left edge of the image and calculated at any time.

Gauges
The speed and RPM displays are controlled by the movement of the card in the “radar screen”, with the speed lagging a little behind the engine RPM. Fuel decreases over time, engine temperature depends on RPM, oil pressure and battery voltage move randomly.

Cross Section
The underwater terrain profile was the most difficult task. The profile is generated completely automatically using a “drawing effect”. Actually, the point moves across the screen, but it is computationally fixed in the same place, so it looks like the profile is moving. The hatched area is created using several effects and dynamically adapts to the shape of the profile.