Major Project - Pause Menu

The Pause Menu, much like the Main Menu, went through different stages of iteration - though not as drastic.

Originally, upon completing the low fidelity prototype, I struggled to find a colour palette that worked for the Pause Menu. I put a few options to paper, and got the following.

In the end, I settled on the below variant, believing it to look the most aesthetically pleasing at the time.

I then added it to Unreal Engine. To make this interface work, I had the core of the interface be the render target with the turntable and buttons, while all the side panels were stored in seperate variables - to which an integer will determine which event is played. This also involved setting the Z Order of the different text displays, in order to maintain the carousel effect.

Then, upon switching to a different score, an animation would play, bringing it in, and the current score out.

I finished the first in-engine version of the Pause Menu in December 2024. I recieved feedback, most notably that the text on the buttons was hard to read, and to change the labels of them to be shorter in exchange for size.

I then changed the buttons, but recieved critique that their colour fails for them to stand out. The menu was described as too predominantly orange, and that contrast was needed. In combaring the two oranges used between the text outline and the BG, it failed the WebAIM contrast checker.

To this, I then went back to the drawing board to see if I could find a colour scheme that would allow more contrast. I researched into the 60-30-10 rule, the idea that of a colour scheme, 60% should be a dominant color, 30% should be a secondary color, and 10% should be an accent color.

After experimenting, I found inspiration in the below poster, and how it blended various colours together.

After seeing this, I put the colour scheme onto the menu, and found it was far nicer of a contrast.

However, it recieved feedback that further dark was needed. Originally, I experimented with having the entire side panel be outlined, but found a more subtle approach was better instead.

Before

Upon completing this, this was the push that I recieved to create a proper style guide, which I then updated the rest of the interfaces around.

After this, I then decided that I would switch out the Mixamo model, which lacked the graphical fidelity to go with such a menu, to a ReadyPlayerMe model.

I then also changed the Skill Tree menu to include the full bodies of the different characters that I made for the Main Menu.

Finally, I added a BG made in after effects, this time being a hypnotic-circular pattern. This was due to it resembling the movement of many Psychadelic 60's-style artwork, and I thought this would be the best place to pay homage to that - all the while using dull colours as to not distract the user of the interface.

To do this, I first made a circle stroke, before copying it into the repeater.

Then, same as the Main Menu, I applied the Turbulent Displacer upon it, giving it a wavier effect, and brought it over via the Media Player as an MP4.