As mentioned before, I joined the Tron art department later on in pre-production, so much of my work on the movie consisted of "look and feel" illustrations and keyframes to inform the visual effects department, and detail passes on Production Designer extraordinaire Darren Gilford's sketch-up models. An incredible and accomplished concept designer in his own right, Darren developed amazing block models for many of the sets and vehicles in the movie and passed them on to us to develop further so that he could focus on the big picture. The Portal Island from the climax of the movie was one of those that I got to really sink my teeth into. Initially the script called for the island to "unfold" from a simple form as our heroes approach it. Darren had blocked out the Portal in its final state, assigning me to refine the concept and develop the transformation. Unfortunately for whatever reason the "unfolding" idea was eventually dropped from the movie, but lead to functional design.
A portal transformation test in 3DS Max using Morph targets to simulate what would be a more mechanical transformation on the wings.
Top view of the transformation test showing the final iconic shape.