By TREVOR HOGGImages courtesy of Territory Studio and Netflix.Given that computer technology has become an integral component of everyday life, whether at work or home, user interfaces and screen graphics can easily be taken for granted, but a lot of thought goes into designing them, as reflected in the work Territory Studio did for the Netflix film Atlas. The sci-fi adventure, starring Jennifer Lopez and directed by Brad Peyton, required 300 screens, HUDs (Heads Up Displays) for Arc robots, and a way of visualizing the voice and emotional state of an AI entity known as Smith. These tasks were guided by Production Designer Barry Chusid and Visual Effects Supervisor Lindy DeQuattro.Territory Studio spent more than two years on the project. I always say that our storytelling with the universal language of design is what helps directors sometimes escape an entire scene because we can show a map with an A, B and a line, and the whole audience quickly gets that these guys are going from A to B, states Marti Romances, Co-Founder and Creative Director of Territory Studio. We look at the script and figure out what can be done practically. We understand how DPs love to get the lens and the light that comes from certain screens, but in the case of Atlas, there were a lot of things that were impossible to shoot in-camera, like holograms, which happen in a visual effects pipeline. The reason why we were on Atlas for so long was that we were prepping the graphics to be played back on set and working with the art department to develop the language. As shooting was wrapping, we were already doing concepts for the post-production visual effects.We are not beginning with a template. Rather, we always treat it as something to be novel and more towards what the director wants. In this case the director wanted to aim for simplicity, and Pacific Rim was the opposite. Pacific Rim was like a glass hologram, whereas with Atlas, imagine you have lasers sketching a hologram. If you approach it from that angle and really listen to what the director wants, you are always going to end up with something new.Marti Romances, Co-Founder and Creative Director, Territory StudioInspiring the graphic design for the International Coalition of Nations were government and military-industrial-complex institutions like the CIA.Having art directors and production designers act as a bridge between production and post-production ensures that there is no miscommunication as they understand the story behind each set, prop and graphic. There are projects where we did the on-set graphics and someone else did the post and vice versa, Romances notes. The nice thing about a project which uses the same company for both is its a more cohesive visual language. There were a number of efficiencies. For example, we didnt need to create a lot of the design language and icons from scratch because of our on-set library. Territory Studio thrives working for Hollywood and Silicon Valley. We believe that there will be different influences here and there from one industry to the other. General design principles apply no matter the industry. What is the best user experience for the viewer who is being entertained and how can we make it so that a broader audience can understand? But we also do that when were attacking an electric vehicle. You may have never had an electric vehicle, and we want to make sure you feel comfortable, Romances says.HUDs are a familiar high-tech element in cinema, in particular those associated with Iron Man and Pacific Rim. Despite this recognition, Territory Studio starts from scratch every single time. We are not beginning with a template, Romances notes. Rather, we always treat it as something to be novel and more towards what the director wants. In this case the director wanted to aim for simplicity, and Pacific Rim was the opposite. Pacific Rim was like a glass hologram, whereas with Atlas, imagine you have lasers sketching a hologram. If you approach it from that angle and really listen to what the director wants, you are always going to end up with something new. The directive was for militaristic AR in 2070. We were passing all of our toolkits and animated material to five different vendors, and the comment from Lindy was, If this graphic is here, I need to see the light source. We were trying to ground it in a more realistic way, rather than having something floating, not knowing where its anchored. Props to Lindy for keeping an eye on making sure the everyone understood that this is how it should be portrayed in the frame.The graphic for the voice of the Smith AI has a core surrounded by several transparent wrapping spheres, which gives it a simple and sophisticated visual aesthetic.The brief was, What if we imagine an augmented reality version of the visual that we get for Siri on our iPhones that floats around you? We did an immense number of design iterations and ended up with something that is simple yet could be mobile and could be projected from every corner of that HUD. We needed to give it some character and a connection to the vocal performance. I would have loved to do a PR stunt where we question why the Oscars are not considering Smith for Best Supporting Actor! It was a special element in the film.Marti Romances, Co-Founder and Creative Director, Territory StudioPartnering with counter-terrorism analyst Atlas Shepherd (Jennifer Lopez) is an AI known as Smith (voiced by Gregory James Cohan) that serves as the operating system for the mech robot she is piloting. When the AI was getting angry or witty, we almost had different modes but not necessarily a big change in the design, Romances remarks. It was more like, Lets play with color and the animation, and the reaction of the audio wave that is connected to the voice. How do we make sure that comes across as something that is too aggressive? When the movie Her came out, someone said to me, The future doesnt have any UI. That will never work. Humans are visceral animals. We need an anchor point. Thats why the Alexa has a little light that tells you if its thinking or talking. We approached it in the same way, and Brad wanted exactly that. The brief was, What if we imagine an augmented reality version of the visual that we get for Siri on our iPhones that floats around you? We did an immense number of design iterations and ended up with something that is simple yet could be mobile and could be projected from every corner of that HUD. We needed to give it some character and a connection to the vocal performance. I would have loved to do a PR stunt where we question why the Oscars are not considering Smith for Best Supporting Actor! It was a special element in the film.Driving the graphic design process was the need to clearly illustrate story points and move the narrative forward.Rather than rely on the typical audio waveform, which is line-oriented and has peaks and valleys much like a mountain range, a different approach was adopted to showcase the voice of Smith. Its the same amount of distortion that you would imagine in a two-dimensional line, but we applied it to a few wrapping transparent spheres that are surrounding the core, Romances explains. It was not only how it vibrates but how much it retracts or expands depending on tone. We added some particle elements so it isnt as simple as a few spheres on top of each other combined with the lighting, nice compositing, animation and color. We came up with enough variables to create a real character which was the endgame.The Centurion Tech is used by humanoid AI terrorist Harlan Shepherd (Simu Liu) and his agent Casca Decius (Abraham Popoola). It resembled the different blocks you get when looking at the fragmentation of a memory disk. Brad wanted Centurion Tech to be something that you could not understand. It was monochromatic, and we wanted to pair it with the same technology that Atlas has when different holograms appear in front of her. The only time we get to see a visualization of the voice from Centurion Tech is when Casca jams the signal on the Smith UI. Because Smiths system is being hacked, the visualization had to sit somewhere between as it was being pushed and forced to send the message.Shifting back and forth between consumer products and film and television projects has enabled Territory Studio to apply lessons learned from both experiences to their design methodology.Topographical projection with the light source indicated to ground the technology.An interesting challenge was the International Coalition of Nations (ICN) Interrogation Room, which took inspiration from the CIA. There were certain times when the director started asking for crazy things in the interrogation moment where Atlas comes out and deploys an entire system of holograms that appear next to her as she tries to extract the coordinates of Harlans base from Casca, Romances states. This is the type of storytelling that without those graphics would be difficult for the audience to understand what is happening.All of the work done during shooting was extremely helpful for the lead actress. We could show Jennifer Lopez that we are clearing out all of this space. So, when were shooting towards the exterior of this cockpit, make sure she remembers that in this area, she will have a voice talking to her and in that area she is going to have a menu. We created all of these rules for the HUD prior to starting post-production so Jennifer could have a nice visual cue on where that will be sitting in front of her, how big and far away it will be. That was critical for her.We could show Jennifer Lopez that we were clearing out all of this space, so when were shooting towards the exterior of this cockpit, make sure she remembers that in this area, she will have a voice talking to her and in that area she is going to have a menu. We created all of these rules for the HUD prior to starting post-production so Jennifer could have a nice visual cue on where that will be sitting in front of her, how big and far away it will be. That was critical for her.Marti Romances, Co-Founder and Creative Director, Territory StudioInnovation was required in order to be able to share 300 assets with MPC, Scanline VFX, ILM, Cantina Creative and Lola VFX. One of the best solutions that we had for that is we created a Nuke toolkit, with the biggest one being for the Arc HUD, Romances remarks. The nice thing about this toolkit was that in one file you have all of the different modes of the HUD, similar to drive mode in car. When youre in combat mode, the HUD became more militaristic and combat-ready to aim and shoot. When you were on a normal mode or what we called initiation module, that was a completely different setup. All of these setups are versions of the same HUD with different linework, icons and colors. You just need to comp this once then go to our script, change it to combat mode, rather than having to import a different set of graphics and EXRs again. Also, we were looking at things that have a lot of parallaxes. All of the EXRs were multi-layered and coded into the Nuke script, which means you dont have create different depth layers. You create that once. We could update the EXR layer without having to re-engage the whole graphic system again in the final comp. This is where you find efficiencies, especially when working with other vendors.To assist Jennifer Lopez in believably interacting with the Smith AI, an Arc HUD guideline was put together so she had a sense of the layout, position and function of each graphic.The Smith AI voice graphic was treated as a floating augmented reality version of the Siri icon found on the iPhone.The Centurion Tech was not meant to be comprehensible, as it was created by AI and not humans.Among the elements used to give Smith AI a personality were variants in color, and the core expanding and retracting.In order to be able to share 300 assets with MPC, Scanline VFX, ILM, Cantina Creative and Lola VFX, a Nuke toolkit was created by Territory Studio that streamlined the process.Every project starts from scratch for Territory Studio, as the focus is on capturing the vision of the director.One of the important aspects of graphics is orientating the audience to where the various characters are situated in relation to each other.The Arc HUD has various modes with one of them being for combat.Around 120 on-set screens were created that were all animated, including the coffee machines at the ICN. One interesting part that we never experienced is that there were a few scenes where Brad wanted to take our on-set graphics and augment them in post, Romances notes. This was a beautiful moment for us because were now being asked to extract those on-set 3D graphics, which is not usually the case. There is a moment where Atlas is synchronizing to a different level with Smith and sees all of the graphics that we had produced for on-set floating towards her. And theres another shot where shes in the medical bay and is trying to call Smith to save her. To have the director say, You did this, all of this language. Can you now bring it into post? That was a special moment for us because its like seeing the manual for Smith. It was cool. Sadly, there is a lot of cool stuff that never made the cut, like a floating visor for the Centurion. Thats another thing I would highlight. Sometimes, there is so much more that we do that never gets to see the light of day, but we had lots of fun doing it.