I was on the team at the Orphanage all those years ago. Thank you for speaking so positively about all our hard work. I enjoyed the video a great deal and was flattered to see my work included.
Iron Man is such a special piece to me as a kid, and as someone trying to get into UX I’m so impressed to learn about all this work y’all did to tell such a great story. With the arrival of AR/VR in the coming years I’m certain that your work here is an influence on these interfaces to come, thank you so much for being a part of all this! 😄
I always assumed that the HUD we see is a visual representation of what Tony sees. It feels bigger and more “deep” than it actually is, because it’s basically VR/AR. In reality if you actually looked inside his helmet you wouldn’t see anything because it’s all projected on his lenses like google glass or a VR headset. I quite like it. The only change I’d make, is that instead of a black void, we would see a slightly digitized version of the environment he’s in so it feels like Tony is seeing the HUD floating In augmented reality and he actually has no blind spots because he has a projection of what’s around him. That would be cool, but I’m happy with what we have.
Perhaps that would be too much of distraction for us viewers from the face, which is the whole point of this shot. Also, I think that would be too much to ask from the vfx team. Remember they were working on it till 3 A.M.
I think a full environment would introduce too much visual noise. Plus there would be some degree of confusion where it just looks like he's not wearing a helmet in closeups.
I think the most telling point of just how excellent and groundbreaking the CGI work on this HUD is, is the fact that it's a ridiculously dumb idea that is executed so brilliantly that one doesn't even question it. They created this space between the character's face and helmet that simply doesn't and couldn't exist given its design, and yet it seems so utterly natural and believable. It's a film moment of true CGI brilliance and I thank you for explaining its genesis in such depth and detail.
A system that projected directly into his eyes, Google Glass style, could (in theory) create a 3D image that he would see as being “further away” than the helmet’s inner surface. Of course, that’s what HE would see - the idea of there being some way for US to see it is of course a totally impossible extrapolation.
When I was a kid and first watched it, I couldn’t make sense of that space, but then I just thought “maybe his systems create this black void around him artificially. As in, the space isn’t actually this large, but it’s artificially enhanced to show him everything.
It's quite easily explained by having the inner side of the helmet function like a VR headset. Even tho a VR headset is right up your eye, you get a scarily real sense of depth and space, and is completely incomparable to a flat monitor standing a distance from you.
Lol fair point - There actually was a drop off in the amount of HUD effects used throughout the films as the nanotech came in, so you're probably right.
this nano tech bullshit was the downfall of everything that made iron man great. . nice mechanical parts that spin and make sounds. everything I loved iron man for was gone. even in transformers 3 it ruined everything.
Yea I bet it's was real struggle! That was actually a part I had to cut from the video, just to keep the runtime down - But essentially they were using a light system to direct RDJ as to where to look when filming this stuff. So a light would go off on the right of the screen, he'd look right... The a light would go off on the left and he'd look left And then they blended all these real lights in with the HUD VFX - so it was always brightest where Tony was looking. Its pretty cool, but I imagine it was a still stressful to manage all this and keep up with the timings! Thanks you for watching too! :D
Exactly! Sad that info had to be cut from this video in the interest of time - I would sure watch a Part 2 if there was one, hint hint! I think about this with the rise of MoCap. They talk a little about how the actors must use their imagination in the Horizon Forbidden West Burning Shores spotlight - the actor for Seyka mentioned how this difficulty was new for them, and how Ashley Burch helped them.
My favorite "story moment", by far, is when Tony is replying to Roodes after the crash with F-22, objecting that was actually the plane hitting him: during that dialogue can be seen on the hud a visualization of the accident, with the ripped off wing flashing red. Real attention to details!
I never noticed that but that's amazing. One of my favorites has always been when the Chitauri wormhole in Avengers releases the (much larger) second wave after they defeated the first, his hud rotates the traditional blue out and around to bring in an angry red "shit's about to get very real" interface instead. Perfect visual storytelling emphasizing the narrative beat that just hit.
This is what Vfx is about. Finding ways to enhance the story without getting in the way of it and additionally, making it all look cooler but today's Vfx lacks this personality and attention. There are only a few movies I can think of that do this perfectly. The Pirates of the Caribbean Dead Man's Chest, Pacific Rim and a few others.
One thing I find cool is how in iron man 1 and 2, when Tony talks to J.A.R.V.I.S, on the computer monitor in his shop, a transcript appears with two text boxes, one with Tony's speech, one with J.A.R.V.I.S'. This shows how Jarvis works, it convert's Tony's speech into text, then J.A.R.V.I.S responds to the text. Which gets spoken back to tony. This computer monitor can be seen in the scenes in Tony's shop when he talks to J.A.R.V.I.S. Not sure if that counts as an easter egg, though.
I just found that really fricking cool when I first saw it. I was like “wait… IS THAT TONY’S SPEECH ON THE SCREEN EXCUSE ME?!?!?!” Just a massive fan of detail over here.
You have to give Hugo Weaving MAJOR credit. He did V for Vendetta wearing a mask the entire film. His physical movements and voice are the entirety of his performance and he was amazing.
One of my biggest pet peeves with Infinity War and Endgame was just how barebones and empty the HUD shots felt. Infinity War, especially had whole shots where it was just Tony’s face in the black void, with little to no information onscreen. I get that it’s a nanotech suit that obeys his thoughts, but they could’ve still made it look more visually interesting.
I sometimes wondered how much of the HUD we see is actual contextually relevant information, and how much was just random jargon text and numbers to fill in the space. I never imagined it was THAT painstakingly thought out! I guess we as viewers take a lot of the things we see on screen for granted. especially in an age where technology is so advanced it seems almost automatic, but we don't really think about who sat down and developed that technology in the first place.
The inability to show actors' faces is actually one advantage of the animated spider verse movies because the spider men are often so expressive with their masks on, and it doesn't feel weird in that medium. Live action SM always had to take off his mask.
Funfact, in Avengers 1, we get a glimpse of Tony's combat mode within his HUD when the portal opens. The hud switches to red and displays different arsenal of weapons when so In Ironman 3, after Tony thinks Pepper died, when he enters the Ironman suit Disco, the HUD immediately switches to red when fighting Killian
It's when you realize how hard it is to create a small part of the suit is, that you realize how smart Tony stark is to be able master entire different fields of engineering to such detail
Sometimes when I get bored I just watch all 3 iron mans, I never get tired of them, they are a masterpiece. I think since I also like to build things that may play into it too
It's interesting to think about how this would have looked or felt with a different actor in the role. RDJ's ability to express complex emotions without saying a word has always captivated me. I've rewatched Kiss Kiss Bang Bang many times, and there's one moment when he discovers the dead body of an innocent person. His character wasn't even close with that person, but the sadness and tragedy he communicates in his expression is so profound and human that it hit me quite hard, and has stuck with me ever since. Although Iron Man isn't as tragic and the emotions aren't quite as complicated, I still think this movie's success is partly owed to his ability to say so much without saying a word--which, as you've described, was made possible by these incredible effects.
I think the HUD and the interactive hologram computer stuff is some of the best CG stuff from Marvel honestly. Can you get a real sense that this could technically be real in the future at some point. In fact, I was watching one of the Iron Man movies recently and specifically commented on how much I liked the HUD stuff.
It’s good to see a RUclipsr put thought into when certain clips go where. Most video essay channels it feels like clips are random and just switching on a timer.
You just blew my mind. How have I never thought about this? People always say the best VFX is invisible, but this transcends that because it's never pondered by the audience. The sheer genius of its simplicity! Thank you for shedding light on this; you've earned my subscription easily. Thank you!
Maybe everyone is creating their own Iron Man HUD vfx in their bedroom, but nobody is putting as much care and character into them as they did for the movie. Great video, picking up a seemingly simple thing and expanding on it fully. :)
Your fascination and excitement really shines through in these videos. Thank you for all of your research, and (mostly) digestible presentation. My only complaint is how often I’ve had to pause in order to read (what I found at least) to be some of the most interesting additions. Other than that minor gripe, great work.
Thank you again!! Very kind of you 😅 Yea I'm regards to the extra details on screen I'm not toooo sure how to handle that. They're typically extra info/supporting facts that I wanted to get into the video but it would just bloat the runtime to much 😥 So I just thought I'll put them on the screen and they can be a kinda "optional" read. But thank you for the feedback! I'll see what can be done 👍
The desktop computer vs MP3 player comparison makes a lot of sense. The computer is a general-purpose device. The MP3 player is a specialised one. The specialisation provides much more room for simplification that you just can't have with the computer, simply due to the fact that the computer has to remain flexible. Similarly, the suit is relatively specialised, so it has room for its UI to be simplified once the initial kinks are worked out.
So awesome to see a real physical MKII walking around. Nothing beats practical effects. I am sure that this was one of the reasons why the first movie was such a success.
One of the interesting things I've found as I've recently been reading a bunch of older marvel stuff is how the HUD was displayed in the comics prior to the movies. It's not too different in concept, but it was more pulled-back and less personal; you basically never got the face-to-face view with any kind of HUD involved, and when they wanted to show Tony viewing large amounts of info at once he was sometimes shown as sort of floating, armorless, surrounded by disembodied screens (these were usually shots from behind so that we could see the information he had, because the transparent HUD idea for front shots seems to not have been solved).
The hud pov is the most anime thing they could do because tons of mecha anime did this technique for decades but Robert n friends did it in live action
Hearing that it was based on 2001 was one of those "Oh yeah, DUH" moments, connecting dots that were there but I just didn't see and makes absolute sense. I can't not see it now. It's such a perfect inspiration.
The Iron Man HUD is so awesome, so iconic. So many other movies have now been influenced by it which goes to show that Iron Man is a revolutionary character. I think the Avengers had the best Iron Man HUD.
One subtle thing the hud did in “the Avengers” when lokis army start to enter thru the wormhole, was it went from a standard hud and then switched into more of an offensive mode before beginning his assault on the chitari
My favorite hud moment is in Avengers 2012. When the chitari army arrives, Tony's display slides from blue to red, showing how he is now in "attack" mode so to speak. A nice little touch to help fully immerse the audience.
Iron Man is such an amazing movie. Fascinating breakdown of how the HUD was designed. When we saw this movie in 2008 did any of us recognize what a ground breaking movie this was? The Orphanage worked on this for the better part of a year. The funny thing has to do with Paul Bettany. He said in an interview that he came in for a couple hours to record his voice over of J.A.R.V.I.S which is the easiest money he ever made. HUDs had to be made for Obi and Rhodey, too. I'll need to go back and see if Obi's HUD is different because he would not think like Tony. I will also have to see if Tony customized War Machine HUD for Rhodey because he was a pilot. Helmets off to The Orphanage.
The moment that really got me, from a visual perspective, with this movie, was the first Mark 2 walk around, with all the body parts moving and the theme playing. Awe inspiring, and what's most important is that I BELIEVED it, because we could see Tony doing realistic things when working on his suit (like using a soldering gun). If you constantly give the audience little pieces here and there that are believable, then they'll be able to suspend their disbelief when the fully fictional aspects are involved, like Tony's power source or the fact that no one talks about how Iron Man would need an inertial dampener or canceler to do half the things he does. I had no idea that the movie went through some production woes! I totally thought that didn't happen until Iron Man 2. I knew THAT movie went into filming without a fully realized script (and we essentially got an Avengers commercial), but I had no idea that Marvel Studios basically threw out the IM1 script and it was an "asylum". Given how the MCU turned out to be the worst film franchise in history with almost all garbage tier films, it doesn't surprise me that these kinds of problems existed from the start.
This has quickly become my favourite RUclips channel. You talk with a huge passion about VFX and its something I could listen to all day. RUclips doesn't have enough content like this! Can't wait for more videos. Keep up the good work mate
I already thought the iPhone had a huge impact on our lives. But damn I didn’t realize that it also inspired the vfx team. Thank you for making the vid! Love it! Subscribed!!!
Crazy thing stuff like this is so looked over in terms of film and animation, Ironman is probably one of my favorite movies and characters and to see how much is put in each aspect I’d always interesting
Wow, fantastic video. Thank you for translating the information into a compelling visual story. A gem for those of us interested in VFX for the sake of storytelling. Again, thank you.
Bravo! Videos like this is why today's RUclips is so awesome. We live in a world where the "long tail search" of the early 2000s Internet is mature. It was great to see the tech struggle of 2007 amplified by your voice on this. Thank you.
The omega widget thing actually reminds me a lot of the infotainment OS on mazdas in the late 2010s. Most cars at the time had a traditional ipad-style touchscreen with apps you had to manually select, but mazdas operated on a dial on the center console to make selections, keeping everything easily and comfortably accessible to the driver. The apps are laid out on a wheel on the screen which visibly turns as the driver moves the control dial.
The amount of thought and passion out into just the HUD design of Tony's suit is more than the effort put into the entire plan/scripts of MCU phase 4 😅
How tf does this only have 1.1k views? Great video ❤
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I like the content, just a heads up ;) when recording vo, get a little further from the mic, a little compressor and a light eq to remove resonances would help too.
This is super useful thank you - I have literally 0 understanding audio 😂😂. So i'll give this a shot on the recording im doing soon - Thank you so much!
This was a really interesting video! It's super cool that you shed light on often overlooked effects like this one and it's especially interesting as someone who does VFX as a hobby. If I may provide some constructive criticism however, the way you integrate quotes into the video structure could be better. You displayed a few quotes throughout this video, but cut away from them in seconds, before we have a chance to read or digest them (and I say that as an extremely quick reader). Also, you generally paraphrase the quotes you use, which only makes it more difficult. I think it'd be easier to follow you if you displayed the quote, read out the important part (giving us time to read along) and then fade it out while then going into more detail about the context and explaining the importance. As for my favourite Iron Man HUD moment, it has to go to Age of Ultron's Hulkbuster boot sequence, mainly because it cleverly expands on the techniques you mentioned in this very video! When Tony enters the Hulkbuster, at first we see the inside of his helmet as we've come to know it, but then it zooms out tremendously, visually expanding the space inside the helmet as numerous new HUD elements (in yellow, a contrasting colour to his usual blue!) fly in to fill the space. It immediately tells us everything we need to know about the Hulkbuster: It's big, it's advanced, and things are about to get SERIOUS. All communicated through a simple HUD; props to the artists, they did an awesome job with it.
They nailed it. I never knew how much work went into creating the hud. I had so many Ironman wallpapers and desktop widgets that tried to mimic this. I wanted Jarvis so bad!
3:20 those aren't the computer's lights on Dave Bowman's face, they are the gates of the stargate reflecting on to the helmet glass after reflecting on his face. There is no HUD in Bowman's helmet in 2001
Fantastic video. I was struck as a comic fan how dynamic the display was in the movies, its actually become the default across the board way to display it whereas before they either didn’t bother, used a very text heavy and filtered view or went way futuristic with holograms and such. Really goes to show all the thought that went into this
If I may say so, if a person is willing and able to watch the Iron Man movies in 3D, it is GLORIOUS. A friend of mine has a 3D 1920x1080 projector and some good glasses, played through his PC it was smooth as butter and jaw dropping how much 3D changes these movies. Honestly, 3D has changed a lot of movies for me, it is nuts.
This is something I only noticed when I saw someone else point it out. In the first Avengers movie, when the army comes in through the portal, Tony's regular hud rotates out and a battle hud rotates in, either by J.A.R.VI.S's command or as an automatic response.
I enjoyed this content on his HUD. At the he time I felt it really added to the movie experience seeing it. Even though I couldn’t see what was always about here because the action was so fast. Yet, it added so much to the shots. It would have never been so interesting if they had not done this.
Love this video. I just did a rewatch of Iron Man and spoke with my audience about how influential the design was in my professional career, and barely scratched the surface with the HUD. I’ll be sharing this with everyone!
Your audience?? You cranked around a few then huh, this is marvel studios Aussie audience, not for us to claim if we done did press play ina. DVD . That’s the way it is.
your audience...? really bro, you only pressed a little triangle on other peoples craft and you believe yourself to be the messiah of the masses, professional career? scrattching? and also the redculous assertion that youll be sharing this with "EVERYONE"? as if you have the power to literally beam to every human in this subsect@@AnferneeMyers
@@AnferneeMyers I won't let you beat me. you said everyone. YOU SAID THAT, I did not force or relinquish any gusto for wants its worth I fight to the last brimstone I will freakin let you know that you are not who you believe sky star. this is not okay to be acting like you created iron man and have so much power to choose everyone to see what you DECIDE, this is not what this country is about clank whiff
There is one HUD in movie history I remember but it was flat and 1st person view, not a mirror like approach like here. The movie is called The Terminator.
The AH-64 Apache gunship has its HUD built into its helmet, into its flip over monocle. Since the movie was made they've introduced the flight helmet for the F-35, which has an even more advanced built in HUD system.
Ther holograms and HUD in iron man was one of the most fun effects to watch, it was almost trivial to the story, but it made you believe the rest of the tech, which was special effects and you can tell sometimes, it made it more real. If the HUD was so real and far out, then the rest of the tech must be too. Nothing was an afterthought in that movie, it was so good.
Five minutes in I started thinking about Apple's Vision Pro and how we are getting our own personal "HUD" system this year 😂.... Came full circle at around 9:00 with the appearance of the iPhone (and macOS's dock interface) and how it helped in the development of the VFX in this movie. I love your videos! This is an amazing channel!
Great video! I feel like it’s also important to not how many times the HUD design has been ripped off in basically every superhero-ish/sci-fi movie with an armored exoskeleton lol. The most egregious example I can think of is the John Henry suit on Superman and Lois
One of the coolest things to me is how the HUD is adapted to the suit the way thay it is. You mentioned the difference between mk2 and mk3, but what about hulkbuster? What about War Machine? Just a really cool and expressive effect.
damn good video. subscribed and telling my friends. the fact that i never questioned the HUD in the moment, and it never distracted me from the story, is a testament to a job well done.
Yea man I loved how technical and thought through all this was - I was constantly blown away but how much effort it. And, if you've not seen it, I actually highly recommend watching the first Iron Man! genuinely great movie, even if you've not into the rest of the Marvel stuff :D
@@CGWHY Oh, I've watched all MCU movies, if only to have conversations with my friends who are fans. My mistake was expecting something serious and scifi instead of comedy, so when I watched Iron Man 1 I was turned off when he checked his thrusters and flew into a wall - my teen mind was outraged because he must be injured after that, and instead it's a "funny" moment. But later I learned to turn my mind off when watching MCU and just enjoy the action and visuals. Still, if MCU didn't exist I'd shed no tears =)
Lol fair enough. yea it's weird how, just through it's sheer success, the MCU is part of cinematic history now - and you kinda *have* so know about it to discuss things these days 😅
@@CGWHY that's for sure =) I'm a big fan of Star Wars myself, and sad that it's basically dead. Also I love CGI, and what has tons of it? Right, MCU. Sure, there are other movies, but they are few and far between.
@@Demetrius900000 Good on you! You'd be surprised at how many people flip their shit when I tell them that artists can invoke artistic liberty and that they do not need to bend over for realism at all times.
It's crazy how a bunch of vfx artists had to invent multiple versions of a fake user interface for just a handful of shots. Like the combined screen time for all hud scenes in the mcu is probably less than 5 minutes. Maximum effort. (Edit: It's about 25 minutes total, but that's still a very small amount of time across so many films to dedicate so much creative and technical work to.)
It's great those kids in the orphanage are earning their gruel by working on movie VFXs. So many orphanages waste the kids' time with school and games. BTW, I really enjoyed the video. I design and program industrial flowmeters and the user interface is the hardest part of the job. I need to find a local orphanage and get some of the kids to help me. I'll be generous and give them some bubble gum for their time (assuming they do a good job).
okay but you know it would be possible to make an illusion of depth in that small gap with actual HUD?trick of lasers, math, and the fact we have 2 eyes. it may be a silly idea, as Tonys eye would need to focus on multiple planes, it would be easier to have the HUD projected seemingly far away (but still done inside the helmet). since hes focusing on the enemies its best to project the HUD elements as far as he is focusing
I was on the team at the Orphanage all those years ago. Thank you for speaking so positively about all our hard work. I enjoyed the video a great deal and was flattered to see my work included.
Iron Man is such a special piece to me as a kid, and as someone trying to get into UX I’m so impressed to learn about all this work y’all did to tell such a great story. With the arrival of AR/VR in the coming years I’m certain that your work here is an influence on these interfaces to come, thank you so much for being a part of all this! 😄
You should totally make videos on your perspective and experience as an iron man vfx artist!
It's amazing work! And something that really inspired my career! So thank you for that 😅 - and thank you so much watching!
Can we get a new Shadow movie?
Do you know why you guys decided on using a green screen instead of just a black backdrop?
I always assumed that the HUD we see is a visual representation of what Tony sees. It feels bigger and more “deep” than it actually is, because it’s basically VR/AR. In reality if you actually looked inside his helmet you wouldn’t see anything because it’s all projected on his lenses like google glass or a VR headset.
I quite like it. The only change I’d make, is that instead of a black void, we would see a slightly digitized version of the environment he’s in so it feels like Tony is seeing the HUD floating In augmented reality and he actually has no blind spots because he has a projection of what’s around him. That would be cool, but I’m happy with what we have.
yeah, something like that was my headcanon too! well explained
Perhaps that would be too much of distraction for us viewers from the face, which is the whole point of this shot. Also, I think that would be too much to ask from the vfx team. Remember they were working on it till 3 A.M.
I think a full environment would introduce too much visual noise. Plus there would be some degree of confusion where it just looks like he's not wearing a helmet in closeups.
Your idea appeared in one of Dark Elves ship in which Thor Loki & Jane were escaping in.
Yeah, it's flat inside the helmet, but he sees an AR world. And the shot is a 3rd person view of what he is seeing.
It's bizzare to think the first Iron Man was in production way before the iPhone was a thing..
Not really
Well iPhone was also in production for several years before release
Yeah, right.
Iphone came out 2008, Iron man came out 2009. How is that "way before"
@@kurtdewittphoto My nigga this movie has to have been in production way before the iPhone was a thing for it to release in 2009
I think the most telling point of just how excellent and groundbreaking the CGI work on this HUD is, is the fact that it's a ridiculously dumb idea that is executed so brilliantly that one doesn't even question it. They created this space between the character's face and helmet that simply doesn't and couldn't exist given its design, and yet it seems so utterly natural and believable. It's a film moment of true CGI brilliance and I thank you for explaining its genesis in such depth and detail.
A system that projected directly into his eyes, Google Glass style, could (in theory) create a 3D image that he would see as being “further away” than the helmet’s inner surface. Of course, that’s what HE would see - the idea of there being some way for US to see it is of course a totally impossible extrapolation.
When I was a kid and first watched it, I couldn’t make sense of that space, but then I just thought “maybe his systems create this black void around him artificially. As in, the space isn’t actually this large, but it’s artificially enhanced to show him everything.
"So good you don't notice" is the very core philosophy of good SFX.
I wish there were more scenes where they use the HUD on First Person View.
It's quite easily explained by having the inner side of the helmet function like a VR headset.
Even tho a VR headset is right up your eye, you get a scarily real sense of depth and space, and is completely incomparable to a flat monitor standing a distance from you.
They wouldn't even bother with the hud these days. They would just have everyone have magical nano tech helmets that retracts every time they talk.
Lol fair point - There actually was a drop off in the amount of HUD effects used throughout the films as the nanotech came in, so you're probably right.
in the end the actors won over the vfx
Yeah everyone has nanotech now. It's become bland af
this nano tech bullshit was the downfall of everything that made iron man great. . nice mechanical parts that spin and make sounds. everything I loved iron man for was gone. even in transformers 3 it ruined everything.
Or a random MIT girl who can build a billion dollar Stark suit and able to fly it with no build up.
Must have been difficult for the actors too. They didn't see this stuff until it was done post-production.
Yea I bet it's was real struggle!
That was actually a part I had to cut from the video, just to keep the runtime down - But essentially they were using a light system to direct RDJ as to where to look when filming this stuff.
So a light would go off on the right of the screen, he'd look right...
The a light would go off on the left and he'd look left
And then they blended all these real lights in with the HUD VFX - so it was always brightest where Tony was looking.
Its pretty cool, but I imagine it was a still stressful to manage all this and keep up with the timings!
Thanks you for watching too! :D
@@CGWHY It must have felt like being in a Star Trek bridge scene. "On screen!" And they interact with a totally bland screen. :D
Exactly! Sad that info had to be cut from this video in the interest of time - I would sure watch a Part 2 if there was one, hint hint!
I think about this with the rise of MoCap. They talk a little about how the actors must use their imagination in the Horizon Forbidden West Burning Shores spotlight - the actor for Seyka mentioned how this difficulty was new for them, and how Ashley Burch helped them.
They had to look in certain places at certain times. Not exactly difficult.
My favorite "story moment", by far, is when Tony is replying to Roodes after the crash with F-22, objecting that was actually the plane hitting him: during that dialogue can be seen on the hud a visualization of the accident, with the ripped off wing flashing red.
Real attention to details!
I never noticed that but that's amazing. One of my favorites has always been when the Chitauri wormhole in Avengers releases the (much larger) second wave after they defeated the first, his hud rotates the traditional blue out and around to bring in an angry red "shit's about to get very real" interface instead. Perfect visual storytelling emphasizing the narrative beat that just hit.
Tony actually looks at the diagram of the plane too!
This is what Vfx is about. Finding ways to enhance the story without getting in the way of it and additionally, making it all look cooler but today's Vfx lacks this personality and attention. There are only a few movies I can think of that do this perfectly. The Pirates of the Caribbean Dead Man's Chest, Pacific Rim and a few others.
One thing I find cool is how in iron man 1 and 2, when Tony talks to J.A.R.V.I.S, on the computer monitor in his shop, a transcript appears with two text boxes, one with Tony's speech, one with J.A.R.V.I.S'. This shows how Jarvis works, it convert's Tony's speech into text, then J.A.R.V.I.S responds to the text. Which gets spoken back to tony.
This computer monitor can be seen in the scenes in Tony's shop when he talks to J.A.R.V.I.S.
Not sure if that counts as an easter egg, though.
I just found that really fricking cool when I first saw it. I was like “wait… IS THAT TONY’S SPEECH ON THE SCREEN EXCUSE ME?!?!?!”
Just a massive fan of detail over here.
You have to give Hugo Weaving MAJOR credit. He did V for Vendetta wearing a mask the entire film. His physical movements and voice are the entirety of his performance and he was amazing.
Cue that one Kamen Rider clip people post on twitter every time someone complains "ugh YOU CAN'T ACT UNDER A MASK" nonsense.
One of my biggest pet peeves with Infinity War and Endgame was just how barebones and empty the HUD shots felt. Infinity War, especially had whole shots where it was just Tony’s face in the black void, with little to no information onscreen.
I get that it’s a nanotech suit that obeys his thoughts, but they could’ve still made it look more visually interesting.
I love Jarvis in the 1st Avengers, with Tony and the nuke,
Jarvis: "Sir, shall we call Miss Pots?"
Tony: "We might as well"
I sometimes wondered how much of the HUD we see is actual contextually relevant information, and how much was just random jargon text and numbers to fill in the space. I never imagined it was THAT painstakingly thought out! I guess we as viewers take a lot of the things we see on screen for granted. especially in an age where technology is so advanced it seems almost automatic, but we don't really think about who sat down and developed that technology in the first place.
The inability to show actors' faces is actually one advantage of the animated spider verse movies because the spider men are often so expressive with their masks on, and it doesn't feel weird in that medium. Live action SM always had to take off his mask.
Funfact, in Avengers 1, we get a glimpse of Tony's combat mode within his HUD when the portal opens. The hud switches to red and displays different arsenal of weapons when so
In Ironman 3, after Tony thinks Pepper died, when he enters the Ironman suit Disco, the HUD immediately switches to red when fighting Killian
It's when you realize how hard it is to create a small part of the suit is, that you realize how smart Tony stark is to be able master entire different fields of engineering to such detail
Sometimes when I get bored I just watch all 3 iron mans, I never get tired of them, they are a masterpiece. I think since I also like to build things that may play into it too
It's interesting to think about how this would have looked or felt with a different actor in the role. RDJ's ability to express complex emotions without saying a word has always captivated me. I've rewatched Kiss Kiss Bang Bang many times, and there's one moment when he discovers the dead body of an innocent person. His character wasn't even close with that person, but the sadness and tragedy he communicates in his expression is so profound and human that it hit me quite hard, and has stuck with me ever since. Although Iron Man isn't as tragic and the emotions aren't quite as complicated, I still think this movie's success is partly owed to his ability to say so much without saying a word--which, as you've described, was made possible by these incredible effects.
Keep going, you'll get more subscribers. Still crazy how good your content is with less than 500 subs.
Thank you so much! I'm glad you liked it :D
12k now
aged like wine
17k now
Over 21k now
I think the HUD and the interactive hologram computer stuff is some of the best CG stuff from Marvel honestly. Can you get a real sense that this could technically be real in the future at some point. In fact, I was watching one of the Iron Man movies recently and specifically commented on how much I liked the HUD stuff.
Fr. That stuff changed how I acted as a middle schooler.
That was a great story. I still remember being blown away by that HUD in the first Iron Man move. That huge effort paid off well.
It’s good to see a RUclipsr put thought into when certain clips go where. Most video essay channels it feels like clips are random and just switching on a timer.
You just blew my mind. How have I never thought about this? People always say the best VFX is invisible, but this transcends that because it's never pondered by the audience. The sheer genius of its simplicity! Thank you for shedding light on this; you've earned my subscription easily. Thank you!
Terrific video, incredibly well researched and compelling. Keep up the good work, eventually you’ll get the recognition u deserve bro!
Thank you so much! I'm really glad you enjoyed it :D
Makers of the movie Iron Man:
“Let’s copy the iPhone!”
Makers of the Apple Vision Pro:
“Let’s copy, Iron Man!“
Maybe everyone is creating their own Iron Man HUD vfx in their bedroom, but nobody is putting as much care and character into them as they did for the movie. Great video, picking up a seemingly simple thing and expanding on it fully. :)
It's funny because the new Apple Vision Pro basically followed the Iron Man HUD layout for their new VR headset.
It came full circle.
Really?
Your fascination and excitement really shines through in these videos. Thank you for all of your research, and (mostly) digestible presentation.
My only complaint is how often I’ve had to pause in order to read (what I found at least) to be some of the most interesting additions. Other than that minor gripe, great work.
Thank you again!! Very kind of you 😅
Yea I'm regards to the extra details on screen I'm not toooo sure how to handle that. They're typically extra info/supporting facts that I wanted to get into the video but it would just bloat the runtime to much 😥
So I just thought I'll put them on the screen and they can be a kinda "optional" read.
But thank you for the feedback! I'll see what can be done 👍
I'm a games art student trying to get a job as a concept artist, but dabble in the odd 3d modeling, but this video wants to make me learn vfx now.
The desktop computer vs MP3 player comparison makes a lot of sense. The computer is a general-purpose device. The MP3 player is a specialised one. The specialisation provides much more room for simplification that you just can't have with the computer, simply due to the fact that the computer has to remain flexible. Similarly, the suit is relatively specialised, so it has room for its UI to be simplified once the initial kinks are worked out.
So awesome to see a real physical MKII walking around. Nothing beats practical effects. I am sure that this was one of the reasons why the first movie was such a success.
One of the interesting things I've found as I've recently been reading a bunch of older marvel stuff is how the HUD was displayed in the comics prior to the movies. It's not too different in concept, but it was more pulled-back and less personal; you basically never got the face-to-face view with any kind of HUD involved, and when they wanted to show Tony viewing large amounts of info at once he was sometimes shown as sort of floating, armorless, surrounded by disembodied screens (these were usually shots from behind so that we could see the information he had, because the transparent HUD idea for front shots seems to not have been solved).
The hud pov is the most anime thing they could do because tons of mecha anime did this technique for decades but Robert n friends did it in live action
Hearing that it was based on 2001 was one of those "Oh yeah, DUH" moments, connecting dots that were there but I just didn't see and makes absolute sense. I can't not see it now. It's such a perfect inspiration.
The Iron Man HUD is so awesome, so iconic. So many other movies have now been influenced by it which goes to show that Iron Man is a revolutionary character. I think the Avengers had the best Iron Man HUD.
Terminator had the first HUD idea, except it's like a projection of the internal computer processing into the lens of the robot.
Terminator HUD faces outwards though, and it's just text overlay.
From this to everyone’s nano helmet slipping on and off in 1second is a travesty.
TRAVESTY with a capital VESTY!!!
Ah, back when Marvel Studios put real care, effort, and artistry in their movies. Thanks for this video.
One subtle thing the hud did in “the Avengers” when lokis army start to enter thru the wormhole, was it went from a standard hud and then switched into more of an offensive mode before beginning his assault on the chitari
My headcanon always has that "Entering combat mode" voice from Crisis Core (the PSP version) playing when that HUD transition happens.
Minority report in 2002 had pretty impressive HUD scenes for it’s time too
My favorite hud moment is in Avengers 2012. When the chitari army arrives, Tony's display slides from blue to red, showing how he is now in "attack" mode so to speak. A nice little touch to help fully immerse the audience.
Iron Man is such an amazing movie. Fascinating breakdown of how the HUD was designed. When we saw this movie in 2008 did any of us recognize what a ground breaking movie this was? The Orphanage worked on this for the better part of a year. The funny thing has to do with Paul Bettany. He said in an interview that he came in for a couple hours to record his voice over of J.A.R.V.I.S which is the easiest money he ever made.
HUDs had to be made for Obi and Rhodey, too. I'll need to go back and see if Obi's HUD is different because he would not think like Tony. I will also have to see if Tony customized War Machine HUD for Rhodey because he was a pilot.
Helmets off to The Orphanage.
The moment that really got me, from a visual perspective, with this movie, was the first Mark 2 walk around, with all the body parts moving and the theme playing. Awe inspiring, and what's most important is that I BELIEVED it, because we could see Tony doing realistic things when working on his suit (like using a soldering gun). If you constantly give the audience little pieces here and there that are believable, then they'll be able to suspend their disbelief when the fully fictional aspects are involved, like Tony's power source or the fact that no one talks about how Iron Man would need an inertial dampener or canceler to do half the things he does. I had no idea that the movie went through some production woes! I totally thought that didn't happen until Iron Man 2. I knew THAT movie went into filming without a fully realized script (and we essentially got an Avengers commercial), but I had no idea that Marvel Studios basically threw out the IM1 script and it was an "asylum". Given how the MCU turned out to be the worst film franchise in history with almost all garbage tier films, it doesn't surprise me that these kinds of problems existed from the start.
This has quickly become my favourite RUclips channel. You talk with a huge passion about VFX and its something I could listen to all day. RUclips doesn't have enough content like this! Can't wait for more videos. Keep up the good work mate
Why does the narrator have sudden laughs in middle of his sentences due to no apparent reason?
Idk shawarma
It’s just how he talks, why does it matter?
i know right. very distracting and annoying
@@sgdadfgdfgadbdfbd You lot are weird lmao didn’t even notice it until the comments pointed it out, nothing wrong with it.
@@JohnDoe-it8ww people are affected differently by things. It's not hard to understand why it would be distracting.
I already thought the iPhone had a huge impact on our lives. But damn I didn’t realize that it also inspired the vfx team. Thank you for making the vid! Love it! Subscribed!!!
Real shame that this only has 7K views. Definitely the best content I've seen on RUclips in a while
Your constant chuckles are distractingly funny 😂 you seem to love making this video! That's great to see!
The Mark II test flight is super awesome!
Crazy thing stuff like this is so looked over in terms of film and animation, Ironman is probably one of my favorite movies and characters and to see how much is put in each aspect I’d always interesting
Anime's been doing this, even comics. I'm glad they did it in live action
Wow, fantastic video. Thank you for translating the information into a compelling visual story. A gem for those of us interested in VFX for the sake of storytelling. Again, thank you.
Bravo! Videos like this is why today's RUclips is so awesome. We live in a world where the "long tail search" of the early 2000s Internet is mature. It was great to see the tech struggle of 2007 amplified by your voice on this. Thank you.
Great video as always man! Glad you're back with another banger!
Thank you! I'm glad you enjoyed it - This one took a really long time to put together 😅
@@CGWHY Well hey, it was well worth it cause this another quality video man!
Thank you :D
The omega widget thing actually reminds me a lot of the infotainment OS on mazdas in the late 2010s. Most cars at the time had a traditional ipad-style touchscreen with apps you had to manually select, but mazdas operated on a dial on the center console to make selections, keeping everything easily and comfortably accessible to the driver. The apps are laid out on a wheel on the screen which visibly turns as the driver moves the control dial.
The amount of thought and passion out into just the HUD design of Tony's suit is more than the effort put into the entire plan/scripts of MCU phase 4 😅
How tf does this only have 1.1k views? Great video ❤
I like the content, just a heads up ;) when recording vo, get a little further from the mic, a little compressor and a light eq to remove resonances would help too.
Good constructive feedback 🫡
This is super useful thank you - I have literally 0 understanding audio 😂😂. So i'll give this a shot on the recording im doing soon - Thank you so much!
This was a really interesting video!
It's super cool that you shed light on often overlooked effects like this one and it's especially interesting as someone who does VFX as a hobby.
If I may provide some constructive criticism however, the way you integrate quotes into the video structure could be better. You displayed a few quotes throughout this video, but cut away from them in seconds, before we have a chance to read or digest them (and I say that as an extremely quick reader). Also, you generally paraphrase the quotes you use, which only makes it more difficult. I think it'd be easier to follow you if you displayed the quote, read out the important part (giving us time to read along) and then fade it out while then going into more detail about the context and explaining the importance.
As for my favourite Iron Man HUD moment, it has to go to Age of Ultron's Hulkbuster boot sequence, mainly because it cleverly expands on the techniques you mentioned in this very video!
When Tony enters the Hulkbuster, at first we see the inside of his helmet as we've come to know it, but then it zooms out tremendously, visually expanding the space inside the helmet as numerous new HUD elements (in yellow, a contrasting colour to his usual blue!) fly in to fill the space.
It immediately tells us everything we need to know about the Hulkbuster: It's big, it's advanced, and things are about to get SERIOUS. All communicated through a simple HUD; props to the artists, they did an awesome job with it.
This was an amazing video, nice detail and depth about something that visually felt so natural that most just assume it was easy.
They nailed it. I never knew how much work went into creating the hud. I had so many Ironman wallpapers and desktop widgets that tried to mimic this. I wanted Jarvis so bad!
Iron Man's HUD always reminded me of the one used in the Metroid Prime games, which presented the game's UI as a diagetic helmet display.
Great video! Really enjoying your channel, keep it up m8
Did not realize the issues involved, it was so seamlessly included. Thank you.
Sounds like you're laughing a lot in this or almost laughing
3:20 those aren't the computer's lights on Dave Bowman's face, they are the gates of the stargate reflecting on to the helmet glass after reflecting on his face. There is no HUD in Bowman's helmet in 2001
Its clearly a computer panel in front of his pod man lol
I just rewatched it. You are right and I am wrong. Thanks
The vfx team of the first Iron Man are absolutely the real heroes of the movie, no doubt
Great work man, keep it up!
I had no idea how complex und new the hud and its invention were. Thanks for this great deep dive explanation!
Fantastic video. I was struck as a comic fan how dynamic the display was in the movies, its actually become the default across the board way to display it whereas before they either didn’t bother, used a very text heavy and filtered view or went way futuristic with holograms and such. Really goes to show all the thought that went into this
If I may say so, if a person is willing and able to watch the Iron Man movies in 3D, it is GLORIOUS. A friend of mine has a 3D 1920x1080 projector and some good glasses, played through his PC it was smooth as butter and jaw dropping how much 3D changes these movies. Honestly, 3D has changed a lot of movies for me, it is nuts.
The hulkbuster suit HUD zooming out implying that it was a suit for a suit and a HUD for a HUD was really funny for me
This was a great video. I hope the design folks at Apple are paying attention to this for the new Vision Pro headset!
This is something I only noticed when I saw someone else point it out. In the first Avengers movie, when the army comes in through the portal, Tony's regular hud rotates out and a battle hud rotates in, either by J.A.R.VI.S's command or as an automatic response.
I enjoyed this content on his HUD. At the he time I felt it really added to the movie experience seeing it. Even though I couldn’t see what was always about here because the action was so fast. Yet, it added so much to the shots. It would have never been so interesting if they had not done this.
I think Iron Man 1 was a fckng masterpiece
My god it took 3 minutes to actually get to the 'amazing story'.
Appreciate the effort, but so much waffle!
Great content on this and I learned a few things that I will use in the future when upgrading my Iron Man HUD I've been working on.
@srtech2205 Thanks! It wasn't a bug. Turned out they don't have a hardware decoder in that module. I have a new one that does. 😁
Love this video. I just did a rewatch of Iron Man and spoke with my audience about how influential the design was in my professional career, and barely scratched the surface with the HUD. I’ll be sharing this with everyone!
Your audience?? You cranked around a few then huh, this is marvel studios Aussie audience, not for us to claim if we done did press play ina. DVD . That’s the way it is.
@@swisserty lol dude what are you talking about?
your audience...? really bro, you only pressed a little triangle on other peoples craft and you believe yourself to be the messiah of the masses, professional career? scrattching? and also the redculous assertion that youll be sharing this with "EVERYONE"? as if you have the power to literally beam to every human in this subsect@@AnferneeMyers
@@swisserty why would you assume I was talking about the whole world and not just a group of people I speak to on a frequent basis?
@@AnferneeMyers I won't let you beat me. you said everyone. YOU SAID THAT, I did not force or relinquish any gusto for wants its worth I fight to the last brimstone I will freakin let you know that you are not who you believe sky star. this is not okay to be acting like you created iron man and have so much power to choose everyone to see what you DECIDE, this is not what this country is about clank whiff
It was delightful to hear how giddy you were getting near the end of the video - I could hear the excitement in your voice. Another banger video
Excellent video. Also makes me think about James Cameron's Terminator HUD, ahead of its time?
I really never thought much into the hud, I just liked it, now that I know so much more about it I appreciate it so much more so.
There is one HUD in movie history I remember but it was flat and 1st person view, not a mirror like approach like here. The movie is called The Terminator.
The AH-64 Apache gunship has its HUD built into its helmet, into its flip over monocle. Since the movie was made they've introduced the flight helmet for the F-35, which has an even more advanced built in HUD system.
Ther holograms and HUD in iron man was one of the most fun effects to watch, it was almost trivial to the story, but it made you believe the rest of the tech, which was special effects and you can tell sometimes, it made it more real. If the HUD was so real and far out, then the rest of the tech must be too. Nothing was an afterthought in that movie, it was so good.
Five minutes in I started thinking about Apple's Vision Pro and how we are getting our own personal "HUD" system this year 😂.... Came full circle at around 9:00 with the appearance of the iPhone (and macOS's dock interface) and how it helped in the development of the VFX in this movie. I love your videos! This is an amazing channel!
HUDle up is such a dad thing 😭
Why do you have to add so much gibberish before coming to the point? You could've cut the video in half.
Not his fault you can’t understand English…
@@ComicXanz I can actually understand English and I can say he talked too much for nothing
Great video! I feel like it’s also important to not how many times the HUD design has been ripped off in basically every superhero-ish/sci-fi movie with an armored exoskeleton lol. The most egregious example I can think of is the John Henry suit on Superman and Lois
This effect was first done in Spartacus: Blood And Sand.
One of the coolest things to me is how the HUD is adapted to the suit the way thay it is. You mentioned the difference between mk2 and mk3, but what about hulkbuster? What about War Machine? Just a really cool and expressive effect.
damn good video. subscribed and telling my friends.
the fact that i never questioned the HUD in the moment, and it never distracted me from the story, is a testament to a job well done.
Not a fan of MCU, but love the thought out tech, interesting!
Yea man I loved how technical and thought through all this was - I was constantly blown away but how much effort it.
And, if you've not seen it, I actually highly recommend watching the first Iron Man! genuinely great movie, even if you've not into the rest of the Marvel stuff :D
@@CGWHY Oh, I've watched all MCU movies, if only to have conversations with my friends who are fans. My mistake was expecting something serious and scifi instead of comedy, so when I watched Iron Man 1 I was turned off when he checked his thrusters and flew into a wall - my teen mind was outraged because he must be injured after that, and instead it's a "funny" moment. But later I learned to turn my mind off when watching MCU and just enjoy the action and visuals. Still, if MCU didn't exist I'd shed no tears =)
Lol fair enough. yea it's weird how, just through it's sheer success, the MCU is part of cinematic history now - and you kinda *have* so know about it to discuss things these days 😅
@@CGWHY that's for sure =)
I'm a big fan of Star Wars myself, and sad that it's basically dead. Also I love CGI, and what has tons of it? Right, MCU. Sure, there are other movies, but they are few and far between.
@@Demetrius900000 Good on you! You'd be surprised at how many people flip their shit when I tell them that artists can invoke artistic liberty and that they do not need to bend over for realism at all times.
Couldn't finish the video with you doing a little chuckle every five seconds.
It's crazy how a bunch of vfx artists had to invent multiple versions of a fake user interface for just a handful of shots. Like the combined screen time for all hud scenes in the mcu is probably less than 5 minutes. Maximum effort.
(Edit: It's about 25 minutes total, but that's still a very small amount of time across so many films to dedicate so much creative and technical work to.)
I may be misremembering but didn't Batman Beyond do something similar? And that show was made 8 years before Iron Man.
cool to see a iron man vid
Thanks you! I hope you enjoyed it 😊😅
It's great those kids in the orphanage are earning their gruel by working on movie VFXs. So many orphanages waste the kids' time with school and games.
BTW, I really enjoyed the video. I design and program industrial flowmeters and the user interface is the hardest part of the job. I need to find a local orphanage and get some of the kids to help me. I'll be generous and give them some bubble gum for their time (assuming they do a good job).
I like how he sounds like he’s trying not laugh every 5 seconds
Credit to how the HUD could assist perpetuating the story!!!
okay but you know it would be possible to make an illusion of depth in that small gap with actual HUD?trick of lasers, math, and the fact we have 2 eyes. it may be a silly idea, as Tonys eye would need to focus on multiple planes, it would be easier to have the HUD projected seemingly far away (but still done inside the helmet). since hes focusing on the enemies its best to project the HUD elements as far as he is focusing