Sunday, May 9, 2010

R2D2 Creator Makes Appearance at Flood Relief Benefit

On Saturday May 8 from 4 PM SL time to Midnight, “The Pocket” hosted a benefit concert. Their goal was to raise cash for Cypress Rosewood after his home and office in Nashville were hit by the flooding the previous week. Numerous personalities from the SL music industry such as CraigLyons Writer and OhMy Kidd were there to perform.

At 7:45 PM, a special guest appeared. He wasn’t a musician, but someone known for what he did for the motion picture industry in real life: Azar Shelman. In real life, he is Tony Dyson, a noted special effects artist, his most famed accomplishment being the designing of the droid R2D2 in “Star Wars.”

Azar took questions from the audience, which were IMed to an aide of his first. He did not use the sim’s radio to speak, but the voice function. Some couldn’t hear him, and some others had trouble doing so.

Azar was asked a number of questions, the majority concerning R2D2. Asked where did the idea for the droid come from, he answered that George Lucas wanted a robot that in contrast to the classic mechanical man of science fiction didn’t look human at all, so he designed something “turned into a practical object.” Asked how many robots were used in “Star Wars,” he answered there were “eight different R2s in a set,” each designed to perform different moves. He was asked if he had any movies in Second Life under development, and when they would be out. Azar responded, “Good question,” saying it was still “hard to say” what date his project would be ready.

At the event was an R2D2 unit anyone could pick up a copy of. There was also an unique R2D2 which was “signed by Tony Dyson.” The bidding continued for an hour until a winner was declared. Sanne Brune placed the winning bid of 12,500 Lindens.

Eventually, Azar bid farewell to everyone, and took his leave, and the benefit continued on with the next few musicians.

“Second Life ... this is the future.”

Bixyl Shuftan

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