Tron: Legacy - Sam's ride into the city - Process (2007)
I came onto the Tron project fairly late in the game, so a lot had already been developed, such as Flynn's "retro" bike here designed by Daniel Simon. A lot of what I ended up doing was creating illustrations to define what the look and feel of final frames might be as a style guide for visual effects: Atmosphere, lighting, etc... This keyframe serves as a perfect example of the collaborative nature of the Art Department, as I was working with super-talented set designer Joe Hiura to develop the overhead towers Sam rides under on his way to the city.
The final image.
Work in progress with the bike painted in and a blocking-in of the environment.
Blocking in the generator pylons. Note the perspective grid to get the convergence right.
Simultaneously, Joe Hiura had been developing his ideas for the generators in Solidworks. Here they are matched to the perspective of the image and rendered in keyshot.
Joe's pylons dropped into the image and painted over. The design created too much of a "barn" feeling, so it was back to the drawing board.
Joe's next pass, based on the "hockey stick" shape I had been developing in my image. This pass ultimately was approved and is what you see in the final image.