How the Original 'Tron' Changed Movies Forever, and Why It Didn't Win an Oscar in 1983

"In the late 1970s, filmmaker Steven Lisberger began experimenting with backlit animation, a process in which colored light shines through clear sections of animation cels to create unique and beautiful effects. Lisberger achieved success applying the technique to commercials and educational films, while also keeping a close eye on developments in the relatively young field of computer animation. During this time, he wondered: Was there a way to apply the technology to a feature film?"

"He wrote a treatment about a brilliant game creator named Flynn who was ripped off by his boss and had to hack his way into the company's computer system to find the evidence. When trying to break into the computer, Flynn is shot by a laser that digitizes him and places him inside the computer, where he must fight alongside "programs" - avatars for the programmers who created them - to get to the truth and find his way back out to the real world."

"Initially, Lisberger's plan was for everything that took place in the computer - in other words, most of the film - to combine computer-generated imagery and backlit animation. As he began to think seriously about the best way to tell his story, however, Lisberger came up with a more ambitious plan. The plan was to shoot live-action footage that would serve as the basis for the backlit animation - to have actual actors, not animated characters, on screen and integrated into a completely animated environment."

Steven Lisberger developed backlit animation techniques in the late 1970s, using colored light through clear cel sections to produce distinctive visual effects. He applied the technique successfully to commercials and educational films while monitoring advances in computer animation. He conceived a story about game designer Flynn who is digitized and trapped inside a computer, forced to fight alongside program-avatars to recover stolen evidence and return to the real world. Lisberger originally planned to mix computer-generated imagery with backlit animation and later decided to film live actors to be integrated into a fully animated environment. Disney accepted the project when other studios declined.

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