It was over two years ago when starwars.com first introduced you to the talented Episode III art department. Back then, we couldn't discuss any details about what they were working on... but with the release of The Art of Episode III book on April 2, and the movie less than a month away, seven of Revenge of the Sith's concept artists reunited at Celebration III on the Sagamore stage.

On hand were Ryan Church (Design Supervisor), Erik Tiemens (Design Supervisor), Derek Thompson (characters and storyboards), Feng Zhu (industrial design), Warren Fu (environments), Robert E. Barnes (sculptor), and Mike Murnane (sculptor) answering questions from host Jay Laga'aia and the audience.

The team had just come from attending Rick McCallum's presentation and special footage... the first final Episode III footage many had seen, and they were clearly very excited. "In a lot of ways, we're just like the fans here in the audience," said Zhu. "It's been two years since I moved on from the project, but now I have that Star Wars tingle."

When asked if being a Star Wars fan helped or hurt their task of Episode III design, Thompson was quick to conclude that a lifetime of watching the original trilogy served the team well. "Especially for this 'bridge' chapter," he explained. "We had screenings and visited the Lucasfilm archives to find things and tones to echo."

Church countered, "When we started on Episode II, we were sure we knew what Star Wars was about and what George [Lucas] would want. But we noticed early on the he was going for the craziest ideas. He told us he wanted to show the galaxy at its height before its corruption. When you think about the opening shot of Episode IV, it's a pretty dreary universe. We were directed to highlight that contrast."

Questions naturally led toward General Grievous, the new villain for Episode III. Tiemens described Grievous as "the most design intensive Star Wars character of all time".

"One Friday after a round of approvals," Church recalled. "George mentioned that he was looking for a leader of the droid army. The entire team immediately jumped in to work on it. Who can pass on a chance to design the next Star Wars icon?"

Almost 80 concept sketches later, including such varied ideas as a flying head and a surreal child, Lucas ultimately gravitated to a last-minute sketch by Warren Fu inspired by the shape of a water bottle spray lid.

But bringing that character to life became an entire ensemble effort. "We spoke a lot about his attitude... he's a vain droid," said Thompson. "We wanted Grievous to be the ultimate switch-blade, with an endless arsenal of surprises to keep the viewer off guard. We've seen the Jedi kill countless droids... we needed a droid who could legitimately challenge Jedi."

Rather than the upright body position in the original Grievous sketch, Church and Teimens challenged the entire team to give the General the strangest and most unnatural joints possible. Working out the intricate logistics fell to Zhu, Barnes and whoever had spare time to "figure out just how to make those crazy hands work."

The design was so complicated that it took a computer modeler at ILM an entire sixteen weeks of intensive hours to complete the model for the animation team to begin moving.

The Clone Wars animation series called to show a moving Grievous at the same time the art department was starting to work out those details. The team was able to communicate with Genndy Tartakovski at Cartoon Network to collaborate and share ideas.

Each member of the team has now moved on to other projects in video games, comic books and motion pictures, but they emphasized the rare unique collaborative environment that George Lucas provided them. And they, like you, can't wait for their first change to catch the final visuals of Revenge of the Sith.