Aerosmith |
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Wed. June 20.2001 1:38 PM EDT |
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It's Aerosmith's World, We Just Live in Itby C. Bottomley |
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Thom Kidrin, president and CEO of Worlds.com, and I are standing in a bathroom stall reserved for the use of Aerosmith's Steven Tyler. Outside, the "Jaded" video plays on a TV perched high in the corner of the empty Mount Blue diner. Kidrin is
This is Aerosmith World, and if you're thinking from the above scenario that it might require a portion of the band's alleged '70s pharmaceutical diet to get into this head space, you're wrong. It's easily accessed from Aerosmith.com. In cahoots with Worlds.com, the band is in the process of creating one of the Internet's most ambitious projects, a virtual playground where its fans can meet, chat, listen to the Boston boys, and the group hopes, a whole lot more. See what the Aerosmith World Mount Blue environment looks like. "They wanted to have secret places that users would go to," explains Kidrin. "[Soon] we'll be launching the Boneyard, which is this studio in Joe Perry's house where they recorded Just Push Play. We took digital pictures of the space, and then replicated it graphically." "There was a lot of 'This is what we can do, guys; what do you want to do with it?'" Joe Perry recently explained to VH1.com's Joe D'Angelo. "The Boneyard section - where you go into my world - is exactly what my studio looks like. I'm knocked out by it. This is where the whole Internet thing is going. And we like being on the edge of that." Get a sneak preview of the Boneyard environment at Aerosmith World. A visitor to Aerosmith World can wander through environments like the Boneyard, the Mount Blue diner (modeled after a eatery near the band members' homes), an Oriental hall based on the "Jaded" video, and an avatar gallery where you can select a 3D icon, like a penguin, to represent you on your peregrinations. There are plans for separate worlds inspired by the whims of each band member. "Steven's studio is called the Bryer Patch," Kidrin said. "There are hidden icons. So when you hit on certain things like the soundboard, you'll be able to mix tracks. If you click on the fishtank in the studio, it will launch a media player, where there will be media clips of Steven and Joe and the band scuba-diving." But as well as curating an online museum where you meet 3D rock dudes, babes, and penguins, Aerosmith were determined to be part of the action. So Worlds.com made them personal avatars. Steve, Joe, and the guys donned Lycra body suits with 40 reflective nubs and were filmed by nine cameras doing their trademark movements. Using the films as a basis, animator Odette Plavinskas transformed them into 3D graphic representations. The online Steve Tyler does his trademark twirls; Joe Perry stares intently at his strumming hands. The only thing missing is the smell. See Steven Tyler strut his stuff to create a variety of moves for his 3D animated avatar. Watch Joe Perry being filmed smashing his guitar and getting turned into a 3D animated avatar. Tyler has surreptitiously slipped into Aerosmith World to chat with fans, but the bandmates might not be prepared for the sort of hysteria that greets them when their all-singing all-rocking avatars debut. In the Aerosmith World chat room, user Pandora 505 said that if she met Tyler in his Tron form, she would "Try my best to talk to him! Maybe faint!" The user deemed Sweetest_Emotion pledged to ask, "Hey baby, can I peel yer banana?" Good to see Steve understands the benefits of potassium. Right now most people are primarily using Aerosmith World to meet fellow fans and chat ("It's addicting - most of us pop in and out all day," said Pandora 505), but there are plans for a virtual concert sometime in August, and the group wants to take the concept even further. "Steven wants to incorporate the body suit in the stage show," said Kidrin. "So while he's playing, people will go online and see his avatar playing during a live performance. "We're trying now to work a scene into the show where he runs up the riser, dives into the screen, falls into a pit and his avatar will fly across the screen into the virtual world. He's trapped in a virtual world, and he starts to hang with these people." This penguin will have his banana ready. > Go to Aerosmith World. > Back to Aerosmith Artist of the Month page. |
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