GreenScreen: Before Tron

With the advancement of computer animation today it is common for us to see in the theater, TV and on our home computers many cartoons, TV commercials, and movies that are rich in special effects and CGI animation.

Computer animation has been growing in a process where many companies and individuals collaborated with the advance of the computer animation industry (http://design.osu.edu/carlson/history/timeline.html ). There were several movies that included one or more special effects scenes that were CGI before 1982 like Superman, Star Trek – The Wrath of Kan etc. but this process of advancement could not be noticed without mention of the sci-fi movie TRON (1982).

TRON, directed by Steven Lisberger and produced by Donald Kushner, was one the first feature length movie to make extensive use of computer simulation, allowing the viewer images in a 3D prospect, a way that they never seen before.

Technology and creativity made TRON stand out in 1982. A multimillion computer was used for the development of TRON. These super computers occupied an entire department to achieve the speed needed for processing of all the components to obtain the volume, motion, and color and texture requirements to develop the project. Today with one single computer machine and adequate software it is possible to produce a similar process developed in 1982.

Two departments had to work to develop the project. On the West coast there were animators that were proficient in programming and on the East coast one programmer that was proficient in animation. With the usage of modems to transmit low resolution rendering between the two departments working on the East and West coast of the United States, they brought together the live action / computer reality to the big screen.

This year we will have the release of the sequel “TRON – Legacy” where the director will have the chance to explore many features not used in the first TRON. The computer animation overturn in TRON (1982) will always be remembered as a pioneer for today’s computer animation and a big contributor to escape reality and go beyond our imagination.