A cloud human-machine interface (HMI) generation system converts an original HMI project to a web-compatible version of the HMI capable of storage and execution on a cloud platform or web server. The cloud HMI generation system parses HMI project files exported from the original HMI to identify graphical objects and their attributes, animations, data tags linked to the HMI, and other characteristics of the HMI. The system then generates scripts or function calls that reproduce the identified graphical objects and their associated animations, yielding a web-based HMI that emulates the original HMI project. The resulting cloud HMI can retrieve copies of the original industrial system data maintained on cloud-based storage, allowing the cloud HMI to display near real-time system data on a client device from any location.