This article is within the scope of WikiProject Television, a collaborative effort to develop and improve Wikipedia articles about television programs. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page where you can join the discussion.
To improve this article, please refer to the style guidelines for the type of work.TelevisionWikipedia:WikiProject TelevisionTemplate:WikiProject Televisiontelevision articles
This article is within the scope of WikiProject Science Fiction, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of science fiction on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.Science FictionWikipedia:WikiProject Science FictionTemplate:WikiProject Science Fictionscience fiction articles
Can anyone find a photo or screenshot of Automan's plane? I only recall seeing it in one episode, and I have never seen another vehicle like it. -- BBlackmoor(talk)18:34, 21 October 2005 (UTC)[reply]
This statement: "The same technique used to create Tron's glowing body suit was used to bring Automan's costume to life." seems wrong. I was under the impression that the technique used to light scenes and suits in Tron was quite unique and never done again. It was a painstaking process of multiple layers of film or something. And Automan's suit looks more rendered than the ones in Tron. Almost like a cartoon was superimposed on his body. -- Suso14:24, 21 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]
As far as I can see, it was completely different. Automan's suit looks like the costume just had pannels of blue-screen or green-screen on it, and they just had the computer graphics pattern fill in the "blanks". However, the blue "glow" seen on the solid parts of the costume and around "Otto's" neck in any civilian clothing may have been similar to what they did with the Tron suits. I found the reference pretty unlikely sounding when I read it in the article, but I don't have source enough to rebuke it properly. Angel the Techrat23:25, 19 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Indeed, it looks just like a simple blue/green screen overlay, but there is a site claiming it was done using more complex means (maybe there would have been too many green/blue screens in non-controlled backgrounds?). I added a note about that and a link to the article. --Allen Huffman17:32, 23 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Well, it's similar, but not exactly the same... Automan came out on TV not to long after Tron. Although Tron pioneered some things, I doubt in a span of year or two new techniques would be made.
Tron glow explained What I understand is according to the Tron Special Edition DVD, they used a technique called back light animation which was popularized in the 70's. A similar technique was used when they did the credits for the Superman movies and about half the animated cartoons for Sesame Street. Animators drew an animation as normal, black lines on white paper, but kept their lines as thick as possible. They'd make a negative, so white shows up as black and black as white. Then they'd painstakingly transfer the negative image onto acetate layers affixed to glass panes and set up a light or lights behind it. They'd then make the white areas transparent so the light can shine past, then do this frame by frame. The result was animated glow effects.
In Tron, the characters wore suits with areas of blue reflective tape where the circuity was. The animators took the live footage and made a second set of negatives which only exposed for blue, leaving everything else solid black. They took that negative and refilmed it with a back light of blue or whatever color they wanted highlighted to glow, then they rotoscoped the glowing over the live action and thats how they got the effect. It was still a slow painstaking process because they also had to work with the digital elements and use a third set of negatives with those images and combined them all together.
In the case of Automan, I'm sure they used a far cheaper - less time-consuming procedure to get a similar effect since they didn't have a large Hollywood budget of a movie. You can achieve the same effect (although not as cool as Tron's) by filming a guy in a suit of reflective tape - same way they did in Tron. On film, the tape would be bright white which an animator later draws in the glows of the energy over by hand - frame by frame. This is exactly how lightsabers were done in the first Star Wars movies. The sabers had a rod of reflective tape, and animators drew in the beams by hand. The rods spun to get the jittery effect. If you have an original copy of "A New Hope" (not the cleaned up digital mastered one) you can see a goof during Obi-Wan and Vader's fight scene where they forgot to animate Obi's saber for a few frames. You can see his beam is a spinning rod covered in reflective tape. In the remaster they fixed it and drew in the beams Cyberia2300:19, 24 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Yes, having seen an actual TRON outfit (at a Planet Hollywood somewhere) and also seen photos from a Disney Auction a few years ago, they were just black and white suits - nothing special - and they hand animated all the glows and such like you described. I'm not sure I understand the projection technique for Automan, so that's the real tidbit we'd need to find to truly understand how this works. --Allen Huffman07:42, 25 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]
If you think I meant "film projectors" I never said that - They projected light from studio lamps from behind glass panels that the animations were placed upon. This caused the animations to glow. Cyberia2322:26, 18 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]
The show had used several visual effects. The costume itself had reflective plates stuck on it to give the holographic appearance, with a specific lighting system in place.
I just watched an episode and the effect is definitly not mirrors on a costume as the light effect across the character is a single image. The suit does have some sort of reflective material on it where the glow is. But were it mirrors and set lights it would show diffrent planes of light.
