The hundreds of people packing the Raleigh Civic Center on Monday saw a bit of the emerging future of real-time 3D manufacturing – with some “Star Wars” flavor.

Chris Anderson, chief executive officer at 3D Robotics, created one of the highlights of the Emerging Issues Forum on stage by printing out a 3D version of Darth Vader.

Is 3D manufacturing the dark or light side of future manufacturing?

Forget the fact that Darth Vader was red – not black.

And it was just his head.

The fact that 3D manufacturing is opening new avenues of development for companies worldwide was stressed by Anderson in his keynote speech.

Steve Exum of Exum Photography captured some images of Anderson and his machine as Darth materialized before the eyes of the audience.

The forum continues Tuesday.