INTERVIEW WITH TRON UPRISING'S LEAD VEHICLE DESIGNER, DANIEL SIMON

Interview by Jean-Eric Hénault

For those who haven't heard about it yet, Tron Uprising is one of the latest TV shows with the highest ranking by both critics and viewers on IMDB with an average score around 8 and 9. You should definitely check it out.

Daniel Simon is probably the most in-demand vehicle designer in the entertainment world right now. He's the one that designed the new vehicles in the breakthrough and visually stunning film Tron Legacy, also, the retro and yet so futuristic machines in Captain America, along with the hero ship in the upcoming Universal film Oblivion, featuring Tom Cruise. We predict this guy is just getting started, remember his name, you'll hear about him a lot more over the years. We thought it woud be inspiring to ask someone also very well established in the film industry, the guy who helped design some of the most successful and highest-grossing films of the past decade to introduce Daniel to us, his name is Ryan Church.

How many vehicles did you work on for "TRON: Uprising"?

Daniel Simon: My vehicle team, Annis Naeem, Thang Le and Vaughan Ling created a large variety of new "TRON: Uprising" vehicles/machines for land, air and water. When the series first got picked up, Charlie Bean (Executive Producer/Director) hired me to create the Hero Light Cycle, Recognizer, Snowmobile, Train, Helicopter, Submarine and a Speed Boat. The first drawings date back to 2009. Disney also decided to use some vehicles I created for "TRON: Legacy" which didn’t make it into the feature film.

In a featurette produced for "TRON: Legacy," you mentioned the challenge of designing vehicles that look good from every angle, even from underneath. How do you approach this?

Daniel Simon: That was not an issue for "TRON: Uprising." The challenges we face on the series are very different to the ones I faced on the feature film. For a TV show there are many hours of visual entertainment that have to be created. There is not a lot of time to design individual vehicles. Some vehicles - like the submarine, were literally born within minutes. What helps is that no real actors had to fit into anything and nothing had to be built out of real materials. And most importantly, everything is simplified and beautifully stylized, which means we can get away with a lot. And that’s the fun of it. We focused on vehicle concepts rather than optimizing the smallest detail.

I remember when Charlie asked me to think up a snow mobile, and I just doodled something. The leaning system of the tracks for the train came up on paper too, and without further loops we animated it just like that. It was a lot of fun.

For highly featured vehicles, such as the Light Cycle and Recognizers, production managed more development time for Charlie and I until we were happy with the designs. Those two machines appear in every episode and I hope viewers can see our efforts. I am especially proud of our Light Cycle, it is very uncompromised and clean. And it looks cool with and without a rider – which was a personal goal.

When designing a new vehicle, what are the steps involved from the moment the project lands in your hands?

Daniel Simon: I came up with most of my ideas during meetings with Charlie Bean. I just doodled on some paper while listening to his descriptions (see the attached sketch for the snow mobile or submarine). Once I was back in my office, I went directly into 3D from those small sketches. Light lines would be sketched on overlays later and together with detail descriptions it was sent to the poly modeling department in Japan. I had one round of quick revisions via video conference or email to adjust radii, graphics and color coding. We has a stunningly fast turn over.

Later, when we started hiring more artists, we briefed everybody about what defines the design of TRON, such as volume philosophy and light line styling. It was great to see new talents bringing fresh ideas to the table. For example, I was excited to see the light jet designs by Annis Naeem, very cool Tessler cruiser concepts by Thang Le and cars and trucks by Vaughan Ling.

Looking back at some original Light Cycle designs Syd Mead created for the original Tron, the Light Cycle designs in Uprising seem to be somewhere between those and the ones in Legacy, is that correct?

Daniel Simon: Yes, and we hope that fans will also feel that way. I spent a lot of time finding the right forms and language to place the "TRON: Uprising" bike visually and logically between Syd Mead’s wonderful original bike in the original "TRON" and the "TRON: Legacy" bike. Simply put, the bike in the 1982 "TRON" had a canopy while "TRON: Legacy" had a rider that can freely move. Therefore, I designed the "TRON: Uprising" bike with a semi rigid armor for the rider, including a helmet that is fixed to the bike. Like a micro canopy if you will. For the design shapes, the visual weight is still in the front, like on Syd’s bike but the bike is unique with the placement of the engine in the rear wheel behind glass.

In your creation pipeline, how much do you experiment in 2D vs 3D?

Daniel Simon: On "TRON: Uprising" it was a clear workflow. Some quick concepts were laid out on Xerox paper in Charlie’s office bouncing ideas back and forth between the two of us. Then I modeled simplistic 3D versions to get a generic approval from Charlie. After 3D refinement, I would go back into 2D, painting maps for colors, materials, light lines, part lines and specularity.

The blend of 2D and 3D on a very loose level seems to be very popular today. All vehicle designers, Annis, Thang and Vaughan, are savvy 3D users and blend this seamlessly with their 2D illustration talents.

What can you tell us about the futuristic train design we see?

Daniel Simon: The attention that the train got, caught me by surprise. It was the quickest project, and in all honesty, only after I finished it I understood it will actually flip over and be featured in the story. So I added the round barrel interior that could justify those moves. I originally imagined it as a massive and slow steam machine in the background. Now it’s a windy agile speed racer. I might have styled it differently, but it still found many friends. The steam train inspired light drive system does not survive any serious questioning, but it is a lot of fun.