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My Tron Build Part 2: Light Cycle, Solar Sailer, and Avatars

 

Capture from Tron City in Hubs. A light cycle is zooming down a road. Blue outlined buildings glow in the distance.

Tron Light Cycle

There are MANY fan art pieces for the Tron Light Cycle (Sketchfab Tron Light Cycle search results, ArtStation search results) showing many styles, emphasizing different elements. I did giggle at a model out there that used a human with bare feet. There is even a significant difference between the Light Cycles shown at Comic Con (green and blue) and in the Tron 2 movie (orange and blue). I picked the features that I wanted to for my 3D Light Cycle object which I made in blue and purple.

The Light Cycle was a two day build and I completely restarted it once. Relatively, this was a fast build but I had a lot of fun making it. It's too bad that it does whiz past in the actual scene, but I know it's cool. 😎

Collage of Tron Light Cycle images gathered from the internet. Elements highlighted are where the handlebars and footrests are, the engine, and the overall top view shape.


Capture from Blender of first attempt at a Tron Light Cycle. Gray tone of something motorcycle-like.

Lightcycle - Work in Progress, first attempt

In my first attempt, I started with the wheels which turned out pretty good. But I was primed by this video of a Light Cycle remake. But I didn't like that core which was a mesh cylinder.

In my second attempt, I just used a mesh cube because that was easier to use loop cuts to get faces that I could pull the arms, legs, and head from. I did add in a mesh cylinder, however, for the light "engine". I knew that it needed an added glowing tail, but I made the texture for the Solar Sailer and reused it for what Tron lore calls the Light Cycle Ghost Tail.


 
Capture from Blender of work in progress Tron Light Cycle. A shiny blocky figure drives a black and blue motorcycle.

Work in Progress Light Cycle, second attempt 




Capture from Tron City in Hubs. The driver leans forward and the motorcycle has a blue glowing tail.
Light Cycle in Hubs with the glowing tail. Transparent texture made in Gimp.

[POST SCRIPT: This section added.]

Similar but different


I realized after I pressed Publish (the world's greatest proofreader) that I had not fully explained what I meant by this build utilizing negative space. Also, I need to properly give credit for the light cycle animation, which goes to Hubs community member, Theanine. I did look at his Synthcity Blender file to find out how he animated his spaceships.  I was wondering: did he use a generator of some kind or did he use animation. The answer was animation.

However, while I was there looking at his blend file, I realize that there was a some common "look" from his Synthcity build and my Tron build-- both used glowing colors. However, I used a negative space idea and depended on my textures to carry the work and he actually HAS the heavy work in his build.

Here is an example. In Synthcity, windows are added planes that have their own glowing material shading. In Tron, any windows are created as a result of rectangular shapes in the texture. So I didn't build windows into my buildings.  I left my buildings (all of them) as plain shapes.  But when I applied the texture, I saw how Blender applied the 2D texture to a 3D shape and with little editing, I went with the results. The straight lines and dashes on the textures became apparent as windows and road paint.  So I didn't bother with the details that Theanine had, but I got a very similar result!  Synthcity is going for a video game city look and Tron is going for a city as circuit board look.  But Theanine was gracious to comment favorably on my Tron build and that should make all artists happy.

Collage of images comparing how Synthcity used added planes for windows and Tron just let the texture create the appearance of windows.


Tron Solar Sailer

Collage of images for the Tron Solar Sailer ship. Hexagonal shapes and the final ship, which has an organic bee or butterfly look.

In the Tron 2 movie (TRON: Legacy), it is implied that Sam and Quorra fall in love on the Solar Sailer-- which I find a bit rich. 😕 But the scene of them on the Solar Sailer sailing into Tron city is beautiful and I wanted to replicate that.


I used Blender make the shape of the solar sailer (easy, one day). I made the sail texture in Blender as well, which turned into what I call a happy accident when I'm making my art. I made a cylinder, shaped as a six-sided hexagon, made glowing beveled edges, duplicated it, snuggled them up to each other to fill the camera view with a good scale. I did a bit of tweaking to try to make the texture seamless but alas, no one really notices it so far into the sky.  But when I went to render a 2D image out of this 3D object set, you guessed it - completely black. I had not put ANY light into the scene so Blender was like "Nope, you get completely black as a result."  So I threw a "light" source haphazardly over the scene while saying something like "Give me SOMETHING lit" and Blender rendered the texture I show in the Inspiration image---it's a lit just a bit of left-center.  And I realized--- YES! That's how I see my Solar Sailer moving through the scene! It will float through on the right side of the city so it will be "lit" from the left.

What a cool, happy accident! I ran with that texture. It's actually one of my proudest accomplishments because instead of a flat texture, I had a texture that meant something real inside the scene (and I simply changed the color for a purple equivalent Solar Sailer). 


One Hubs note here: I thought about trying to put a waypoint on the Solar Sailer so that visitors could go up and sit on it (ride it?) just like the Inspiration image above.  But I did remember that Hubs doesn't do moving objects to ride on. Later, I asked a Hubs expert about it and he said that a visitor could go to the waypoint (utilize it) but then they'll stay on one place in space as the object the waypoint is attached to moves on.  Oh well, a future version of the software will accommodate moving waypoints, I'm sure.

Capture from Tron City in Hubs, Solar Sailer bulk transport ship. Insect-like wings at the front pull several bulk containers along a glowing line of blue light.
Tron Solar Sailer

 

Tron Avatar

No Tron avatar is complete without an identity disk so I attempted that first. 

Collage of Tron identity disk images. Disk colors, shapes, details, and forms.

Sketchfab models in wireframe mode are very helpful for building. 

 

Capture from Tron City in Hubs, Identity disk as my 3D object. Frisbee-like disk with a glowing blue outline.

Capture from Flynn's Hideout in Hubs, Identity disk as my 3D object. Frisbee-like disk with a glowing blue outline.  
My Identity Disk in blue

Collage of Tron avatar inspiration images. Some are from the movies and some from fan art. Suits are black with either red-orange or blue glowing outlines.

I customized an already available orange and white "Spaceman" avatar from Hubs, created by Jim Conrad. 

Capture of 3 Hubs avatars: Tron Blue, Tron Purple, or the original Spaceman orange and white. Avatars are head-heavy, floating above the ground.
 
I changed the base texture using Gimp and added a Tron Identity disk on the back. I removed the air supply hose.

Capture from Blender, Edit Mode of adding the identity disk to a Tron blue avatar.
Work in progress: Adding my Identity Disk in Blender


Capture from Tron City in Hubs of Tron Space person blue avatar with identity disk on the back.
Space person blue

Capture from Tron City in Hubs of Tron Space person purple avatar with identity disk on the back.
Space person purple

I made a blue avatar for all of my attendees by placing it up on my Hubs instance and taking all other avatars offline for guests via the Hubs Admin Panel. Then I made a purple avatar for me to wear as host (and it was a hint that a purple Grid was coming).

In Part 3, I'll cover the big reveal as this build was not even leaked to the public before the opening day, Halloween 2025.






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