"TRON: Legacy" Joseph Kosinski's directorial debut, with a focus on CG, design, and new technology Part 2 *Note! Contains spoilers.

Charm of design

What makes "TRON: Legacy" so memorable is the beauty of its design. The appeal of " Tron: Original " was the world view created by three designers: Peter Lloyd (backgrounds), Jean "Möbius" Giraud (costumes), and Syd Mead (mecha). Mead's vehicle designs in particular were extremely impressive, despite being limited by the capabilities of CG.

Daniel Simon (*1) from Germany was in charge of the vehicle design. After The Graduate from the University of Pforzheim, he joined the Volkswagen Design Center in 2001. After going independent in 2005, he published " Cosmic Motors - Spaceships, Cars and Pilots from a Galaxy Far, Far Away" , a collection of illustrations of fictional vehicles, in 2007, which caught the eye of Disney. He took Mead's original designs and refined them to a modern style.

"TRON: Legacy" (c)Photofest / Getty Images

Another distinctive feature of the costumes in " Tron: The Original " was the neon-like light lines running down the body. The method used at the time was to dress the actors in white bodysuits with black lines depicting electronic circuit patterns, and to film them on black-and-white film. Each frame of this film was printed onto a large sheet of photographic paper, cut into separate colors using a hand-drawn rotoscoping process, printed onto lithographic film (high-contrast film for platemaking), and photographed through light on an animation stand. The rotoscoping process, which amounted to 600,000 frames, was mainly carried out by Taiwan's Cook's Nest Studios ( now One Film Productions ).

To make this process more efficient, the costumes themselves were designed to be illuminated by LEDs. This resulted in high costs, with just one racer suit for "Light Cycle Battle" costing $60,000. The cost of the entire movie's costumes was an astounding $13 million, enough to make a blockbuster movie in Japan. However, despite the huge budget, there were some problems. For example, the lithium batteries for the LEDs only lasted for 12 minutes, so they had to be turned on just before a take and turned off when the cut was called. The circuitry in the suit was also very fragile, so the cast could not sit down during filming, and had to rest standing up against the wall.

*1 Daniel Simon began working as a mecha designer and concept artist for movies after "TRON: Legacy."Captain America: The First Avenger" (11)Prometheus" (12)Oblivion"(13),"turbo"(13),"Star Wars: The Last Jedi" (17) and the anime series "Tron: Rising” (12-13).

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