Social platform AltspaceVR welcomed voice actor and creator of cult show Rick and Morty, Justin Roiland who joined a virtual audience inside the social VR platform where he drew, riffed and generally entertained everyone.
Justin Roiland is one of those voices actors, one you’ll have come across many times, without knowing it. If you’ve had the pleasure of watching some of the new wave of edgy, progressive children’s animated series of the last few years – the likes of Adventure Time for example – you’ll have likely heard his distinctive yet wide ranging voice skills in action. And as co-creator of the Rick and Morty animated series, Roiland has enjoyed cult success, finding an audience for his unique brand of slightly random, often surreal humour.
Not long back, we reported that Roiland had acquired an HTC Vive headset and that, as well as appearing to be generally enamoured with the SteamVR powered virtual reality system, he had plans to develop for VR specifically.
Last night, inside the AltspaceVR social VR platform, Roiland was a special guest along with Rick and Morty Storyboard Artist Erica Hayes at an unconventional, informal gathering which invited people to spend time in his virtual presence to watch him sketch live for the audience. Despite technical difficulties for some of the event, Roiland took the whole thing in his stride, even riffing as Rick and Morty whilst the issues were resolved and eventually having to leave somewhat inelegantly when he realises he’s late for a business call.
Check out some of the footage captured by an attendee of the event (credit to Plays.TV user Meleticus) above. For me, despite the obvious technical problems, it demonstrates the unique qualities immersive live entertainment offers. The ability for a participant (in potentially unlimited numbers) to be virtually present and close to a performer or presenter is pretty cool and as performance capture techniques improve the experiences will only get better.
