VisualEffects from the 1983 Movie Tron & Photoshop history data

[Bruce Morgan]

Issue-
My first exposure to photoshop was word of mouth at a very rare ILM conference in 1986 in Los Angeles .
Question -#1
Does anyone have the historical date when photoshop was available to the public ?

Issue -
I recently watched the dvd of the 1983 movie "Tron" with commentary .The film and computer effects were, of course, very interesting and few films make an attempt at such a look as what was seen in "Tron" the 1983 movie.

Question-#2
For those who know the "Tron" 1983 history what could you do with modern Photoshop to replicate the effect achieved in "Tron" .
I am imagining the key frames could be generated out of digitally aquired images THEN the many uses of "LAYERS"technology within the Adobe software .
in Photos shop starting with original digital photography and that the whole proces would be easier.
What would you photoshop experts DO (proceedurley) with this challenge?
1)digital photography of elements 2) sepearation of layers into color vs black and white ?(and how is this done most easily? in photoshop ).I am still a student level user of photoshop.
Issue -
it appears that the methods used in "Tron" were in someways ,behind the times even for 1983 and that technology existed THEN for an easier way.
question -#3
Is this correct?Was there an easier way in 1983 to make Tron?

Yet the production team involved is to be credited with working WITH the Disney infrastructure and available technology which housed the production.

Any and all thoughts on this are appreciated
Cheers
:beer: Bruce

 

[oneinfiniteloop]

few films make an attempt at such a look as what was seen in "Tron" the 1983 movie.

There's a very good reason for that.

 

[majormorgan]

The software at the time was non GUI based. In their own words in the making of of the 2disc dvd, they had to plot the 3d sequences on graph paper and wait for the computer output files printed to film to come back months later. Then they either had it right or it was re-calculated and re-output. And this was just the 3d simulated stuff.

Digital image manipultation was either not ready at that time or it was beyond their costs to cover. As it was the 3d stuff cost a fortune so all the background plates for the live action sequences were hand painted and photographed for compositing. Hence the two different styles.

I loved Tron and it was cutting edge for its time. For my eyes even though there were two styles [the CGI and the hand painted live action composites] it still blended into one long film and was beautiful.

Don't forget the first film quality GUI based painting program that wasn't a quantel came along in 1989 and was built on the apple macintosh platform by John and Thomas Knoll for ILM for the end sequence of Die Hard II. Even the quantel box used for Star Trek NExt Generation wasn't around until 1985/86 I believe. Plus the quantel was TV res I believe and not film res as yet.

Majormorgan