As I promised yesterday, the subject of today's blog is Walt Disney's Tron (1982).

(First however, a side note to Glenn...I just realized yesterday you had posted comments on some of my blogs and I wanted to let you know that I will be responding with my next few posts.)

And now, back to regularly scheduled programming...
As I mentioned yesterday, Tron came out immediately after Star Trek II in the early summer of 1982. This film was the second ever to be released into theatres with CGI. A major difference between the two, is that Star Trek only untilized computer imagery in a brief segment of the film. Tron however, used computer animation in a solid 15 minutes of film. Not only that, but over 200 background shots were manipulated with computers. Due to the intense computer work facing the Disney corporation, the digital work was split up between several companies including, Digital Effects, Incorporated, Robert Abel & Associates, Mathematical Applications Group Incorporated (MAGI), and Information International Incorporated (Triple-I). I don't imagine that using several different companies would necessarily make things easier, but according to the computer effects supervisor Richard Taylor, "The most difficult thing was getting them to have the same vocabulary, same understanding, same description of three space motion, same description of a color. After looking at it for a while, I realized that there were similarities that everybody understood." Obviously, the film was a success and one that must be mentioned when dealing with computer images.
For more Tron tidbits, click here.