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A Detailed Look Into The Making of Tron Legacy VFX

yawpitch 3y ago
My favorite thing about Tron Legacy is that my dad got to see his son’s name way, way down the credit roll before he died. My second favorite thing is that night we all went out into the parking lot outside the Whale and contributed the backs of our heads to the crowd fill. My third favorite thing is that I’m pretty sure the movie wouldn’t have made its premiere if it hadn’t been for some last-minute Python I wrote to fill the last drive to rush out the door. God, was DD a good place to work.
- sakopov 3y ago
  > if it hadn’t been for some last-minute Python I wrote to fill the last drive to rush out the door. What was the code doing?
  - yawpitch 3y ago
    Not much, really, just validating some incoming work from an outsource vendor, kicking off some conversions and bookkeeping entries in a database, then copying the critical files required by the edit to the external drive to be hand-carried to the finishing suite… problem was the outsource stuff showed up REAL last minute, and didn’t match what it was supposed to. So basically glorified ETL with one hell of an expensive deadline.
- Feverish001 3y ago
  I watched a preview of that movie during a high school Disneyland trip and was completely blown away. It was nice to watch the whole thing once it came out, since it was one of the few movies I was excited for at the time. Thanks for your hard work to make it a reality
- bleair 3y ago
  Here DD means the "post" vfx effects house Digital Domain https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Domain https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Domain The vfx business was and continues to be a "challenging field to work in", but man what an incredible experience it was working there.
russ 3y ago
Just learned that JT Nimoy, the lead code artist who worked on the TL visuals passed away in 2020. Her work was incredible. RIP JT. Edit: some more technical details about the effects JT built https://web.archive.org/web/20190124122848/http://jtnimoy.net/item.php?handle=14881671-tron-legacy https://web.archive.org/web/20190124122848/http://jtnimoy.ne...
- fractallyte 3y ago
  This thread has some more information: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25660152 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25660152
  - lawgimenez 3y ago
    This is sad. I just don't get it with what's wrong with being trans or gay.
aleksiy123 3y ago
As a film its okay, but as a Daft Punk music video its awesome and for that I love it.
- jhbadger 3y ago
  In which it follows the original, where Wendy Carlos' pioneering electronic score was the best part.
nodespace 3y ago
Does anyone know what is meant by this: > Other design tools included the infamous 'Egyptian' algorithm that generated massive amounts of linear-based traveling linework and was used extensively for the bracket animations when a combatant was de-rezzified. Some googling and chatgpt searching hasn't yielded any info. I'm a huge fan of the tron asthetic, and it inspired me to design an entire game based on it. Such an algorithm sounds like it would be very cool to impliment in a game.
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
sneak 3y ago
It was this film that turned me into a fan of this artist!
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
red_acted 3y ago
Criminally underrated movie. Thank you for sharing!
kazmerb 3y ago
Man we're not gonna get a sequel to this until the actors who plays Sam and Qora are as old as Jeff Daniels was in Legacy...
- SirMaster 3y ago
  Tron: Ares is coming in 2025 I’m pretty sure.
  - lawgimenez 3y ago
    I have been waiting for this moment. Looking forward to 2025.
- mixmastamyk 3y ago
  You mean the Dude?
- gabrielsroka 3y ago
  Jeff Bridges. Though Jeff Daniels would be pretty funny.
- genjii931 3y ago
  https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6604188/ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6604188/
bigbaguette 3y ago
They're behind the Windows 10 desktop wallpaper we all know as well
ambyra 3y ago
I didn't like this one. The first movie made it feel like you were inside of a computer, the second just felt like a generic cyberpunk world. It was also a bit too empty. I expected to see so much more data flying around. The music was good though!
- ChuckNorris89 3y ago
  Thank god I'm not the only one. The first Tron from 1982 really made you feel you were in the computer world[1], from the blocky graphics to the sound effects. Tron Legacy feels more like an videogame[2], the story was poor, reverse ageing CGI was terrible, the only thing that saved it was the glorious Daft Punk soundtrack and the acting chops of Jeff Bridges ("Where's the money Lebowski?") [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jyqS4IS7h8Y https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jyqS4IS7h8Y [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jv4WayqlLcs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jv4WayqlLcs
kennyloginz 3y ago
Beautiful film. Would love to have access to the arena fireworks program or patch.
- jbm 3y ago
  Absolutely my feeling as well. I bought the Bluray off of Ebay recently and watched with my wife. English is not her first language and she was concerned but I told her it was a very rare case where the spectacle is worth the watch. After one watch, we both agreed. The gorgeous visuals (a proper use of blue/orange heavy contrast), the amazing soundtrack — and a mostly inoffensive, enjoyable story. (My controversial opinion is that it's my favourite synthwave musical since 1986's Transformers The Movie, but I can see how that sounds insane)
  - Drunk_Engineer 3y ago
    Mostly inoffensive...aside from the "sexy born yesterday" trope.
bhauer 3y ago
Tron Legacy is an amazing visual spectacle paired with an enjoyable story. It's a shame that this site uses Vimeo embeds rather than Youtube. On Youtube, you can pause and use the , and . keys to advance and reverse by single frames to truly enjoy the wonder of the animation. On Vimeo, no such frame-by-frame scrubbing seems to be available.
- XorNot 3y ago
  It's truly an incredible video clip for a Daft Punk album.
pengaru 3y ago
What I'd like to know is how much BMW and Ducati payed for their gratuitous product placements in the first ~20mins of this film...

My favorite thing about Tron Legacy is that my dad got to see his son’s name way, way down the credit roll before he died. My second favorite thing is that night we all went out into the parking lot outside the Whale and contributed the backs of our heads to the crowd fill. My third favorite thing is that I’m pretty sure the movie wouldn’t have made its premiere if it hadn’t been for some last-minute Python I wrote to fill the last drive to rush out the door. God, was DD a good place to work.

sakopov 3y ago
> if it hadn’t been for some last-minute Python I wrote to fill the last drive to rush out the door. What was the code doing?
- yawpitch 3y ago
  Not much, really, just validating some incoming work from an outsource vendor, kicking off some conversions and bookkeeping entries in a database, then copying the critical files required by the edit to the external drive to be hand-carried to the finishing suite… problem was the outsource stuff showed up REAL last minute, and didn’t match what it was supposed to. So basically glorified ETL with one hell of an expensive deadline.
Feverish001 3y ago
I watched a preview of that movie during a high school Disneyland trip and was completely blown away. It was nice to watch the whole thing once it came out, since it was one of the few movies I was excited for at the time. Thanks for your hard work to make it a reality
bleair 3y ago
Here DD means the "post" vfx effects house Digital Domain https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Domain https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Domain The vfx business was and continues to be a "challenging field to work in", but man what an incredible experience it was working there.

russ 3y ago

Just learned that JT Nimoy, the lead code artist who worked on the TL visuals passed away in 2020. Her work was incredible. RIP JT. Edit: some more technical details about the effects JT built https://web.archive.org/web/20190124122848/http://jtnimoy.net/item.php?handle=14881671-tron-legacy https://web.archive.org/web/20190124122848/http://jtnimoy.ne...

fractallyte 3y ago
This thread has some more information: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25660152 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25660152
- lawgimenez 3y ago
  This is sad. I just don't get it with what's wrong with being trans or gay.

aleksiy123 3y ago

As a film its okay, but as a Daft Punk music video its awesome and for that I love it.

jhbadger 3y ago
In which it follows the original, where Wendy Carlos' pioneering electronic score was the best part.

nodespace 3y ago

Does anyone know what is meant by this: > Other design tools included the infamous 'Egyptian' algorithm that generated massive amounts of linear-based traveling linework and was used extensively for the bracket animations when a combatant was de-rezzified. Some googling and chatgpt searching hasn't yielded any info. I'm a huge fan of the tron asthetic, and it inspired me to design an entire game based on it. Such an algorithm sounds like it would be very cool to impliment in a game.

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

sneak 3y ago

It was this film that turned me into a fan of this artist!

deleted 3y ago
[deleted]

red_acted 3y ago

Criminally underrated movie. Thank you for sharing!

kazmerb 3y ago

Man we're not gonna get a sequel to this until the actors who plays Sam and Qora are as old as Jeff Daniels was in Legacy...

SirMaster 3y ago
Tron: Ares is coming in 2025 I’m pretty sure.
- lawgimenez 3y ago
  I have been waiting for this moment. Looking forward to 2025.
mixmastamyk 3y ago
You mean the Dude?
gabrielsroka 3y ago
Jeff Bridges. Though Jeff Daniels would be pretty funny.
genjii931 3y ago
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6604188/ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6604188/

bigbaguette 3y ago

They're behind the Windows 10 desktop wallpaper we all know as well

ambyra 3y ago

I didn't like this one. The first movie made it feel like you were inside of a computer, the second just felt like a generic cyberpunk world. It was also a bit too empty. I expected to see so much more data flying around. The music was good though!

ChuckNorris89 3y ago
Thank god I'm not the only one. The first Tron from 1982 really made you feel you were in the computer world[1], from the blocky graphics to the sound effects. Tron Legacy feels more like an videogame[2], the story was poor, reverse ageing CGI was terrible, the only thing that saved it was the glorious Daft Punk soundtrack and the acting chops of Jeff Bridges ("Where's the money Lebowski?") [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jyqS4IS7h8Y https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jyqS4IS7h8Y [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jv4WayqlLcs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jv4WayqlLcs

kennyloginz 3y ago

Beautiful film. Would love to have access to the arena fireworks program or patch.

jbm 3y ago
Absolutely my feeling as well. I bought the Bluray off of Ebay recently and watched with my wife. English is not her first language and she was concerned but I told her it was a very rare case where the spectacle is worth the watch. After one watch, we both agreed. The gorgeous visuals (a proper use of blue/orange heavy contrast), the amazing soundtrack — and a mostly inoffensive, enjoyable story. (My controversial opinion is that it's my favourite synthwave musical since 1986's Transformers The Movie, but I can see how that sounds insane)
- Drunk_Engineer 3y ago
  Mostly inoffensive...aside from the "sexy born yesterday" trope.

bhauer 3y ago

Tron Legacy is an amazing visual spectacle paired with an enjoyable story. It's a shame that this site uses Vimeo embeds rather than Youtube. On Youtube, you can pause and use the , and . keys to advance and reverse by single frames to truly enjoy the wonder of the animation. On Vimeo, no such frame-by-frame scrubbing seems to be available.

XorNot 3y ago
It's truly an incredible video clip for a Daft Punk album.

pengaru 3y ago

What I'd like to know is how much BMW and Ducati payed for their gratuitous product placements in the first ~20mins of this film...