I created my own Graphical User Interface (GUI) by first of sketching up four concept ideas, I used professional examples of Interfaces to use as inspiration as I knew what Interfaces in which games are popular and easy to use. As our game trailer is of the adventure/rpg genre, I went with this approach when choosing suitable inspiration. However I also took other inspiration from First Person Shooters like Call Of Duty and Battlefield as their interfaces are very well designed. When sketching up my concept ideas I also took into consideration the fact of what I was going to put into my GUI, our trailer being of the rpg genre as I discussed earlier, I followed along the lines of what is included in these sort of interfaces, this being a simple map almost like a radar but slightly different, they also include, some type of inventory, quest list and furthermore a health, magicka and stamina bar which is usually in the middle of the screen, either top or bottom depending on where the map is sat. The professional GUI's are very well set out, as everything is placed in a convenient space, nothing interferes with any other aspect of the design and so they are very well managed when interacting in-game consequences.
On My GUI I decided to follow the approach of what Skyrim did for their Interface, I created my Interface firstly in Photoshop by drawing my design onto a screenshot of my environment, I was then able to see what it would look like and choose my final design. I created an inventory at the bottom of the screen which had an opacity of approximately 60%, I changed the colour to a dark orangey brown, to suit the atmosphere of my environment, and included other aspects of my Interface using various shapes. After I had created my Interface and I was pleased with what I had produced, I decided to take the same screenshot into Adobe Flash and produce it with several animation which would make the buttons do certain tasks such as scroll-down lists. To make these aspects I firstly drew a shape for example a rectangle, I then right-clicked and pressed convert to symbol, button. This converted the rectangle into a button which I could now add effects to. When I double clicked the button it came up with an editing menu, which is how I applied these various effects. I inserted a blank keyframe, and pasted in the same button but instead this time, changed the colour to a dark blue, I then exited the editing menu and pressed Ctrl + Enter, this brought up the Flash version of what I currently made and when the mouse hovered over the rectangle it changed colour and brought up a drop-down menu which included the quest information.
I didn't really struggle with anything while making my Interface because I am already used to using Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Flash I had much simplicity with creating most of my Interface, it was very simple to create my concept GUI using Photoshop, however I struggled slightly with the Flash aspect of the task. The main part I struggled with was how to add effects to the objects, but when I looked at a tutorial it was very simple to do.
Comparing my Interface to a professional example, there are similarities to do with the design and layout of the actual interface, however, I wouldn't say it compares to an Interface from Skyrim because of the fact its a simple design, I didn't overcomplicate anything in my design, whereas professional GUI's are complicated but not to the point where there not understandable.
If I was to make my Interface again I would possibly go with another strategy or genre for my design, I think that I would possibly go for more of a FPS (First Person Shooter) design, as I would like my game to have weapons such as guns and also other weapons which are from different genres.
