The I/O Tower

Greetings, and welcome to the I/O Tower: a podcast for all things TRON. I'm your host, David Fleming. As listeners of this podcast know, over the last 4 years I've had the honor of talking with many of TRON's creators, about their experiences on the Disney lot, friendships formed, skills learned and techniques discovered in creating a once-in-a-lifetime film. In 1982, this young crew of filmmakers...

Greetings and welcome to The I/O Tower: a podcast for all things TRON. I'm your host, David Fleming. In this episode, I talk with TRON effects animator Chris Casady. Chris had recently finished work on Star Wars before joining the effects animation team on TRON where he crafted 55 effects shots! Chris animated sparks in tank battle scenes. He created electric echos from Flynn's body when the guard...

Greetings and welcome to The I/O Tower: a podcast for all things TRON. I'm your host, David Fleming. In this episode, I talk with TRON storyboard artist and computer image choreographer Bill Kroyer. Bill was working at Disney when Steven Lisberger lured him away to work as animator on "Animalympics" (1980), and from there was among the first to begin working with Steven on TRON. Bill describes how...

Greetings and welcome to The I/O Tower: a podcast for all things TRON. I'm your host, David Fleming. This is Part 3 in my three-part series with TRON associate producer and co-visual effects supervisor Harrison Ellenshaw. Harrison reflects on conceptual artists Syd Mead, Jean "Moebius" Giraud, and Peter Lloyd, and how their combined talent and vision for TRON was both intimidating and exciting. He...

Greetings and welcome to The I/O Tower: a podcast for all things TRON. I'm your host, David Fleming. This is Part 2 in my three-part series with TRON associate producer and co-visual effects supervisor Harrison Ellenshaw. We pick up with Harrison joining the TRON team as they figure out how to do the special effects, what it will cost, and how long it will take. Problems quickly arise, such as ink...

Greetings and welcome to The I/O Tower: a podcast for all things TRON. I'm your host, David Fleming. This is Part 1 in my three-part series with TRON associate producer and co-visual effects supervisor Harrison Ellenshaw. Harrison tells us how he began at Disney as a matte painter, and how that work led him to Industrial Light and Magic to work on "Star Wars" and again later on "The Empire Strikes...

Greetings, programs, and welcome to The I/O Tower: a podcast for all things TRON. I'm your host, David Fleming. In this episode, I talk with TRON scene coordinator John Grower, who details how he and others made the effects pipeline that brought us so many of our favorites scenes in TRON, such as the light cycles and the MCP! John regales us with stories of good times and hard work at Disney. He r...

Greetings, programs, and welcome to The I/O Tower: a podcast for all things TRON. I'm your host, David Fleming. In part 3 of my interview with TRON visual effects supervisor Richard Taylor, we jump in with Jeff Bridges, Cindy Morgan and Bruce Boxleitner playing video games, and hear more about Syd Mead's and Moebius's designs and the challenges of creating the first film ever to take place in a co...

Greetings, programs, and welcome to The I/O Tower: a podcast for all things TRON. I'm your host, David Fleming. This is part two of my three-part interview with TRON visual effects supervisor Richard Taylor. Today, Richard picks right up from his work at Robert Abel & Associates, taking us on a deep dive into how that work found its way into TRON and the techniques used to create the special effec...

Greetings, programs, and welcome to The I/O Tower: a podcast for all things TRON. I'm your host, David Fleming. My fellow conscripts, we have scored! In this and the next two installments of The I/O Tower, my guest is TRON visual effects supervisor Richard Taylor. Richard and his team pioneered the photographic and computer effects techniques that made TRON a visual masterpiece which has only grow...