Some Things About tron

I am a pretty massive Tron fan. Ever since I saw the movie for the first time back in about 2002 I have loved just about everything in the franchise. I tracked down a new in-boxed copy of the spectacular videogame Tron 2.0 (now available on steam by the way), and I even saw the disappointment of Tron: Legacy in IMAX 3D. I enjoyed it too, still disappointing, but very much enjoyable. However I don’t want to talk about Tron: Legacy right now, or even Tron 2.0, I want to say some things I think are pretty neat about the original Tron.

                There are only 15 total minutes of CGI animation in the entire movie. This amount of CGI is still absolutely revolutionary, however the majority of the look of Tron was derived from traditional animation, and in camera effects. Including backlight animation techniques uniquely applied to live action footage, and hand drawn backgrounds. It is also important to note that according to the director, Steven Lisberger, the Academy refused to nominate Tron for achievement in visual effects, because they thought using computers was cheating.

                The production of Tron bears some striking similarities with that of Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow. Both were essentially independent movies with major studio backing. Both were written and directed by first time writer directors. They both got funding from their respective studios by producing a proof of concept short. Finally both attempted to revolutionize the way movies are made: Tron by extensively using CGI, and Sky Captain by shooting the entire movie on CGI sets.

                And that’s all I got. All information was gathered by watching the making of documentary on the Tron 20^th anniversary DVD, and all information on Sky Captain gathered from the making of documentary on its DVD release.