The surprising truth about Disney’s 1982 computer-game sci-fi film, Tron, is that it’s still visually impressive (though technologically quaint by later high-definition standards) and a lot of fun. Tron was the first movie to use CGI (computer generated graphics & special effects) incorporated into the normal film. To celebrate 20 years of the breakthrough in both Hollywood’s and computer’s standards, Disney has released the “Tron – 20th Anniversary Collector’s Edition” DVD with 5 hours of extra material on the making of the classic movie.
Twenty Years of TRON
About The Author
Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
Follow me on Twitter @EugeniaLoli
Hey bit do you like windows?
no
how about linux
yes yes yes
beos
yes yes yes yes
even been out with that amiga girl, you know the one with the long dark hair and green eyes……..
yes yes yes yes yes yes………….
bit are you okay ? You seem to be over heating……
end of line
So, which other movies had CGI in the ’80s?
I know “Who Framed Roger Rabbit” & “The Abyss” did, in 1988 & 1989. Any other movie?
To answer my own question, I did a search on Google.
So, here is http://www.usc.edu/isd/publications/networker/97-98/Sep_Oct_97/feat… of some of the movies in the ’80s which used CGIs.
Among them, there were also “http://www.accad.ohio-state.edu/~waynec/history/tree/images/starfig… ” in ’84, “Young Sherlock Holmes” in ’85, “2010” (Boss Films)and “Looker” (DP). In 1984, for the SuperBowl, there was the first 30 sec computer generated commercial aired. http://www.accad.ohio-state.edu/~waynec/history/tree/images/sexyrob… .
A more comprehensive list on movies with special effects (not just CGI though) http://www.artof3d.com/timelines.htm“>is for study.
Sorry to reply to myself again. http://www.cinefex.com/index/listings/backissues.html“>This of old magazine issues of CineFex is a real treasure. They mention all movies that had special effects over the years (1980-2002), but they do distinguish those that used CGIs specifically. Good reading.
I still think the makers of the “money for nothing” video wonder what they were thinking. It’s so funny how bad it aged (rather fun to watch though). Well for that matter many 80’s videos are funny for how what was cutting edge is so bad today. Makes you wonder what made today will be very sad in 10-20 years. Far as tron goes, I was for some reason addictied to that movie when little. Even then I found it cheesy but still watched it and when I got a computer all I thought about was relating what I did with it to the movie Tron. I think those tanks and stuff are the cause of computer crashes.
I got it via UPS today 🙂
It really has some nice making-of features and I like the sketches of scenes and characters they included. Well, it’s a /must/ for CGI fans, as well as for fans of electronic music: The soundtrack is from Wendy Carlos, she was one of the first who composed on synthesizers and was an academy awards nominee for the Tron soundrack.
No, I’m not paid by Disney, I’m just a CGI enthousiast – the other thing the UPS man brought today was Watt’s “Advanced Animation and Rendering Techniques”…
The 1984 Superbowl one (and no… not that stupid Apple one). Who did that, what was it for, and does anyone know if it’s available anywhere online?
heh, cool!
hmm, blade runner…. that was a good movie… very odd though. I wish that list you gave us the url for said which had CGI not just special effects…
I wish people would say CG instead of CGI when they are toaling about computer graphics because CGI also stands for common gateway interface (or something like that), so it gets confusing some times. lol…
Foo, I found it! It is called “Sexy Robot” (however, its official name is “Brilliance“) and the voice in the commecial is of Kathleen Turner’s.
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It took me a bit this morning (and I got a nasty flu atm), but I found it as a quicktime video (3.1 MB). http://www.vfxpro.com/article/printerfriendly/0,7226,101878,00.html… also has an interesting interview with the creator, Robert Abel (he passed away 2 years ago, I think).
hehe buzzlightyear, that bit was so cool. I saw Tron again the other day. It’s on sky movies regularly for anyone in UK/Ireland. I think it’s still really impressive, visually.. it doesn’t seem tacky at all, but maybe thats just me.
PS. CGI Doesn’t stand for Computer Generated Graphics
>PS. CGI Doesn’t stand for Computer Generated Graphics
I never said it did. I just explained the concept and even added that “& special effects”.
Doesn’t CGI stand for “Computer Generated Imagery?”
You got to love computers, especially when an acronym can mean different things.
CGI for Computer Generated Imagery or Common Gateway Interface,
and IDE for Integrated Drive Electronics or Integrated Development Environment
Isn’t the ‘map’ of the Death star that’s used to instruct the pilots in the end of the first Star Wars movie computer generated? I think I’ve read somewhere that it was, but since I can’t remember where I probably just dreamed it up
– Mikael
Empire Strikes Back(1977) had seriously pixelated CGI on Hoth. TechTV better check their sources.
TWAIN (as in the protocol for scanner input):
Technology Without An Interesting Name
Although, you gotta’ love the military’s humor, they were the one’s that coined “SNAFU”, which is an acronym that means:
Situation Normal All F%$(ed Up
As in well, means to basically be perpetually screwed up.
BTW, I like the Apple commercial (1984 I do believe was one of the best ads of all time, whether you like Orwell or not… and it’s amazing how accurate his ideas’ are becoming as we struggle to dethrone the monolith[s] that control[s] all, looms over all, and tries to monopolize us all), at least it was better than the 1985 Amiga commercial (although, that one couldn’t even beat the “Duuuuude, you’re gonna’ get a Dell” ads, I think that kid should try to talk to his agent and get out of that project… gonna’ ruin his acting career potentials LoL).
They were using Video Toaster on an A500 in the commercial (ain’t gonna’ work). It had that “Golly-gee willikers” Leave it to Beaver look and feel to it. Only saw the ad once, probably a good thing. Hmmm… wonder if that’s why Commodore tanked? Their own people had no idea what their own products did, not to mention they hadn’t a clue on how to market their products. Not to mention they marketed the C64/128 and left the Amiga to rot a miserable death after getting into a bidding war with Atari. I still have my A500 in a box someplace.
Golly-gee the memories…
Speaking of old computer commercials, this one is so funny:
http://www.atari-history.com/movies/howthecomputerbizworks.avi
Of course if you want to see a TON of atari 80’s commercials
http://www.atari-history.com/archives/movies.html
To bad PC companies aren’t that vicious today . . .
>>Not to mention they marketed the C64/128 and left the Amiga to rot a
miserable death after getting into a bidding war with Atari.<<
Actually, Atari thought they had Amiga Inc. in the bag. They had no idea Commodore was wanting Amiga. Amiga made a “midnight offer” at the last second and “stole” Amiga right out from under Atari. At least thats what I’ve always read . . .
You stole my favorite 80s movie…The Last Starfighter. If only I had posted much earlier. As an add-on to the Last Starfighter thing, it was all done on a Cray. The arcade machine was never actually made to look like the movie(that I know of anyway), but the makers of Raiden did a nice tribute to it by using the exact same take-off sequence in Raiden II. Just thought that I would add that in.
Regards,
Jason “Maverick” VanDerMark
Proud BeOS (and soon OBOS) User