"My favorite part of the job is the pure creativity of painting these worlds and scenarios all day long." As Concept Design Supervisor for Ep III, Ryan Church designs environments, architectures, vehicles and droids and then illustrates them in paintings that tell the story.

Church's path to Episode III began at the Art Center College of Design where he studied Transportation Design. A shift in interest from functional design to the entertainment industry landed Church at Universal Studios, Walt Disney Imagineering and later in the in the Digital Features department of Industrial Light & Magic.

While at ILM, Church was contacted by Iain McCaig of Episode II's Art Department. "Iain said that they were looking for painters, illustrators and designers, and he used the term 'Ralph McQuarrie-types.' He said I should submit my stuff. So I did, and got a call a while after that, to come up and join the team." Church joined on as one of the Episode II concept design supervisors.

In 2002 he shared his expertise at his alma mater where he instructed a class in Entertainment Design. Church credits artist Syd Mead, the original artists of Star Wars Joe Johnson and Ralph McQuarrie, and his father -- an industrial designer -- as his primary inspirations.