IN THE PICTUREIN THE PICTURE
'Tron': Bruce Boxteitner as the rebellious video warrior.
Tron A new science fantasy puts computerised special effects through their paces.
George Lucas used the computer to guide his camera for the special effects in Star Wars, and it has been a staple of effects movies ever since. But a Disney film due for release in the United States in July and in Britain in December uses the computer in a way which could make obsolete much of what has always defined Hollywood: huge soundstages, big sets and armies of craftsmen. The film is Tron, directed by 30-year-old Steve Lisberger, and its story concerns a designer of computerised video games (Jeff Bridges). Somehow finding himself inside one of his own creations, he discovers a world populated by beings made of electricity and light. One of these is the warrior of the game 'Tron' whom he must fight to escape from the machine. Many of the sets, costumes and even background characters did not exist on the soundstage or even as special effects miniatures. The images were created by a computer, using advances made in the last decade in digital technology by defence contractors. 'We're using a combination of technologies for the first time. Never have backgrounds and ships and whole environments been computer simulated,' said Richard Taylor, who is supervising the Tron effects with Harrison Ellenshaw. The live action filming was almost incidental to its making; actors dressed in black went through their motions against a black background. Computers and other special effects techniques will add everything but their faces. Glows will seep through the seams of the special effects costumes, making the characters appear to be beams of energy. The Tron soundstages had no actors scurrying around in robes from their dressing rooms or technicians lugging cameras. The movie set of the future is an electronic console.
'I became interested in computers as a result of my interest in animation, in creating fantasy worlds,' Lisherger said. The computer could replace a lot of existing special effects work, and I think it will do away with expensive unskilled or semi-skilled labour. In this film it did replace whole sets. 'All this has grown out of hardware developed by us government contractors who have invented and refined systems for training airforce pilots. A trainee now views a screen which simulates a three-dimensional landscape.
One of the companies, Information International, used this kind of technology last year to synthesise the first actor. He is 'Adam Powers', a dapper little chap in tuxedo and top hat who juggles colourful objects while standing on a checkerboard tile floor. He moves with an astonishing human suppleness: the only tip off is his face, which his maker didn't bother to animate.
The Adam Powers test film is also a showpiece for the computer's ability to simulate everyday objects. Adam's black patent leather shoes and shiny top hat catch the light as the view changes and he casts subtle shadows. The floor looks like real tile. Adam's creator Richard Taylor winces at the thought that electronic actors could put the flesh and blood variety out of business, yet even conservative computer designers concede that a digitally produced character could be made in the very near future which could deceive an audience.
A group at the New York State Institute of Technology plans to go even further than Tron with an animated feature, a space fantasy called The Works, which will be entirely created by computer. It will have the first synthesised human in a major movie role. Other producers are beginning to ride this electronic wave, notably George Lucas who has formed his own research and development team to refine computer simulation as a director's tool.
One can only imagine the uses to which visionaries like Lucas could put computer imaging. 'We can create a body of any size, texture or shape and put it into any environment,' Taylor says. 'In Tron we have a vehicle called the "Solar Sailer". It has levitating steps, looks like a dragonfly with big gossamer wings and even carries computer-created passengers.' Computer imaging can view an object from any angle, and zoom in, around or through it.
Computer simulation also gives a film-maker powers of revision. Halfway through the production of Tron, Lisberger decided the colour of some blue robots veined with black lines was wrong. So he pushed a few buttons and the robots in all their scenes became black with blue and red lines. A director working in film would have had to reshoot the movie to make such a change. Will this turn the most collaborative of enterprises into a solitary effect at a control board? With the ability to create and revise the whole thing almost by himself, a director could continue changing characters, backgrounds, props, colours and lighting effects until the time of a movie's showing. Michael Cimino, whose $35 million epic Heaven's Gate barely breathed at the box-office, might have wished to be able to go back to an electronic drawing board. JIM SEALE
Thanks, Jim!
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