chrisbiscardi, loading indicator -> "Hades" start screen Bevy demo.
I think I've learned what I wanted to from building this "Hades Start Menu" style demo. Doesn't use any Hades assets for copyright reasons, but accomplishes all of the elements in it using bevy_ui.
Still some more to do on it re: timings and such but happy with the couple custom shaders I wrote and having exported 3d animations as sprites from blender, etc for this.