TRON: Modern FX Update (* unfinished project *)

From what I've read about Tron Legacy, the explanation for the different look is that the ENCOM mainframe has been evolving independently since the time of the last film.  Hence, the drastically updated landscape, lightcycles, recognizers, etc.  I don't know how close the final film is going to look to the concept trailer shown last year at SDCC (and, now, officially released by Disney, URL below), but if it's anything similar to it, it's going to kick ass.

The URL for the officially released trailers: http://www.flynnlives.com/media/video/0xendgame.aspx (two are downloadable WMV files, the rest are regular and HD QuickTime).  They definitely blow away the bootleg FLV that's floating around the net, but by the same token, they don't have the excitement factor that it had (mainly, the reactions of the crowd to the knowledge that they're seeing the Tronverse and to the appearance of Jeff Bridges).

MJPollard said:

From what I've read about Tron Legacy, the explanation for the different look is that the ENCOM mainframe has been evolving independently since the time of the last film.  Hence, the drastically updated landscape, lightcycles, recognizers, etc.  I don't know how close the final film is going to look to the concept trailer shown last year at SDCC (and, now, officially released by Disney, URL below), but if it's anything similar to it, it's going to kick ass.

The URL for the officially released trailers: http://www.flynnlives.com/media/video/0xendgame.aspx (two are downloadable WMV files, the rest are regular and HD QuickTime).  They definitely blow away the bootleg FLV that's floating around the net, but by the same token, they don't have the excitement factor that it had (mainly, the reactions of the crowd to the knowledge that they're seeing the Tronverse and to the appearance of Jeff Bridges).

DISNEY ALSO HAD FLYNN'S FIFTH GENERATION LIGHTCYCLE ON DISPLAY AT SDCC.  TWENTY-SEVEN YEARS OF COMPUTER TECHNOLOGY WILL CHANGE THE WAY THINGS LOOK.  YOU DON'T WANT CIRCA 2009 COMPUTER TECHNOLOGY IN A MOVIE THAT IS BASED ON AND IN 1984 COMPUTER TECH.  

I think Tron could do with some minimal effect updates and rotoscoping.

If you watch the in-computer scenes, the faces often go from flesh toned to gray between shots. It seems to me that they wanted them to all be flesh tones but they ran out of time or money.

Someone did a reboot...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26W0zdJ1fds (Part One)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sufw0-2TjV4 (Part Two)

I love the szene where Flynn is in that spacey thing... I don't know its name.. with the conversation with the binary. I would like too see a improved binary... :)

"no no no no no no..."

I would either pick Clu's fight sequence from the memory road to his tank getting stuck or the lightcycle sequence.

Personally, I thought they were supposed to have GREY faces throughout the whole movie, not flesh-toned (being they are programs without blood and all).  If anything, try playing with the color correction and deepen the blacks and maybe use After Effects to play with the neon lighting aspects - either enhance and make a little stronger in those scenes where it seems a little weak, or add some fine "computer etching" to the walls or some of the outfits to make them less like outfits.

All of the guards with the gas masks I would remove any shots showing the actor's faces.  There are a few, but again I always thought that the face area was supposed to be all black.

Also consider playing with and adding extra sound effects - things like enhancing the bass.

For extra FX sequences, when the lightcycle scene begins, you could have an added 2 to 4 second "opener" better showing the other arenas with various battles going on -in fact, you could begin with following some recognizers as they are flying towards us, with the game grid looking as it does in the beginning screens of the TRON game.  When they fly closer to us, the camera pans down, showing the flat lightcycle grid, where we spin around and head down to where the programs teleport.  Extra shots like these wouldn't have to be long, but would add extra detail and depth to the TRON world say before or after certain sequences.

In the shots of the actors inside the lightcycles, I think you could add the background moving behind/around the lightcycles (I think it is just black currently), as well as give the lightcycle paths a slight glow.  Hell, you could even add a 2 to 4 second shot further overhead showing how all 6 lightcycles are interacting, and do something similar to above and have the camera drop into one of the original action scenes and flow into the movie sequence.

Maybe you could create a digital "canyon" and canyon walls using IMAX blu-rays (or even some of the end sequence of 2001) to layer over the canyon Flynn flys through in his recognizer.

You could add a transparent explosion "sphere" when the MCP blows up (more like a shock wave from high speed bomb test footage than STARGATE style "rings"), do something to tweek the MCP face or even have a transparent Flynn face overlap the MCP's when Flynn jumps in (or have the eyes slowly pulse back and forth between the MCPs and Flynn's - something to show that he is trying to actually take control as opposed to just turning him blue)

Also (a BIG one), do something with the grid spiders - you could have them shooting a "web" to connect with the solar sailer path ahead of them, as the recognizers are coming from behind.  You could show them scaling the energy beam ala Sylvester Stallone in CLIFFHANGER (upside down and moving fast) so at the least they aren't shown and then forgotten.  Even if that is all we see of them, to actually make them part of the threat and show them DOING something would definitely justify their appearance.

Also know that TRON is coming to blu-ray I believe later this year or next summer to coinside with TRON:LEGACY.  That means there will be a DVD-5 or DVD-9 sized MKV rip over at tehparadox to use as a base source for your edit.

TV's Frink said:

Monroville said:

Also (a BIG one), do something with the grid spiders

Oh man, do I ever hate how those things pop up and then...nothing.

 

Wow, I always hated how the grid spiders are animated in that stereotypical identifiably and silly Disney way.  This is "TRON", not "Bedknobs and Broomsticks" for Sagan's sake! When that movie came out, I remember the marketing campaign trying so hard to make people feel that this was going to be a more adult minded film that will appeal to a more mature audience.  When the grid spiders came on, I felt so lied to. 

DaMavieMan, I'll second Monroeville and suggest the lightcycle sequence. He has plenty of good ideas about how to spice that up.

Monroville said:

Personally, I thought they were supposed to have GREY faces throughout the whole movie, not flesh-toned (being they are programs without blood and all).

On the surface, that stands to reason. But remember that the in-computer scenes were shot in black and white, with all of the color added later. So they had to take extra steps to add the color to the faces. The flesh tone they used is a very muted sepia tone.

See this shot for example:

http://www.amoeba.com/dynamic-images/blog/Charles/tron-23-Jeff-Bridges-Flynn.jpg

And tone down that eye liner.

Okay, THERE you go, Johnny R (great image)!  "Solidify" the glowing lines on the programs, fix the sepia tone on all faces (short of the guards) and de-sepia the eyes.  That would be really cool to see.

Something else too: consider what to do with the "skies" behind the recognizers in the Clu scene much less all other virtual outside scenes.  Hell, would it be possible to show a transparent "underground" below the lightcycle field (as they are driving, show various layers under the field to give the illusion that the plain the lightcycles are on is transparent itself)

Not sure what can be done editing wise; yes, it is a bit slow after the lightcycles, but I can't think of what can be done (be it cutting entire scenes or even snipping scenes by a few seconds here and there) that can tighten the movie up.

I'll have to watch my TRON dvd and make some notes with time codes (minutes:seconds) to get a better idea of what could be done.

- just off the top of my head, when Tron and Sark are fighting at the end, why not have Sark's disc split three-ways, so when Tron does the "back block" you show three discs bouncing off.  Maybe Tron's disc could have some surprises too (when he uses it to block, it forms a transparent circular shield that extends from the edges of the disc).

If you can capture the sheer awesomeness and nostaljoy of the Falcon escape and the Last Battle from Ady's ANH:R in even just a few scenes, this will be worth the effort.

I know this is only test footage, but I like that they have done away with that heavy eyeliner and caked on make-up (silent movie) look.

Nice thread! I'm a big TRON fan, too. Any updates on your plans to freshen up a scene, DaMovieMan?

FanFiltration said:

TV's Frink said:

Monroville said:

Also (a BIG one), do something with the grid spiders

Oh man, do I ever hate how those things pop up and then...nothing.

 

Wow, I always hated how the grid spiders are animated in that stereotypical identifiably and silly Disney way.  This is "TRON", not "Bedknobs and Broomsticks" for Sagan's sake! When that movie came out, I remember the marketing campaign trying so hard to make people feel that this was going to be a more adult minded film that will appeal to a more mature audience.  When the grid spiders came on, I felt so lied to. 

 

 

 I couldn't agree more. I find the Grid Spider scene to be silly and takes you out of the film. Whimsical music cue included.

As far as choosing a scene to work on, except for the light cyle scene of course, I would choose the Clu scene or Flynn's first game inside.

^Well, no offense or anything, but we have no idea what you're capable of, right? You had planned at one point to post a clip, so maybe you could try a couple of things and we could say what we prefer? There's a big difference in changing colors and/or brightening the lighting, and "made to look real." ;)