“TRON”
Date
1982
Credits
- Robert Abel 4
- Syd Mead
- Kenny Mirman 4
- Richard Taylor 2
- Steven Lisberger Film Director
Format
- Motion Graphics 140
Type of Work
- Finished work 5481
Locations Made
- California 230
"The images featured here highlight the contributions of Mead, Taylor,
Robert Abel and Associates team member Mirman, as well as Abel
himself. Executed within the vocabulary of 2-D design, and combining photography with colorful illustrative techniques (such as the glowing effect that was added to the live-action figures), their work exemplifies the murky boundaries between disciplines that characterized early visual creativity in the computer age. The film tapped the skills of far-reaching artistic talent and reflects the many historical tangents that combined to build the field of motion graphics. Moments of visual abstraction in TRON seem to have been transported through the decades from the hands of visual-music pioneer Oskar Fischinger, with echoes of John Whitney and Doug Trumbull. And TRON’s vector graphics readily recall Dave Theurer’s arcade game designs. The narrative follows a software-engineering maverick named Flynn, whose authorship of the video game Space Paranoids has been poached by a power-hungry colleague. Seeking to right this wrong, Flynn is transported into the virtual world of digital gaming, where he battles programs and the game system’s master controller to gain the evidence to prove his ownership. He triumphs in a cityscape resembling San Francisco—a mirror of which had been featured in the electronic circuit-world of Flynn’s program."—Louise Sandhaus, Earthquakes, Mudslides, Fires & Riots: California and Graphic Design, 1936-1986, pp 198
Image: Page 199 from Earthquakes, Mudslides, Fires & Riots: California and Graphic Design, 1936-1986
