Following in the influential footsteps of Ralph McQuarrie, Joe Johnston and Nilo Rodis-Jamero, Ryan Church's boundless imagination and master art skills produced a galaxy of concepts for Episode III. As one of the Concept Design Supervisors for Revenge of the Sith, Church's artwork focused on the new technology and environments. At an hour-long session on Thursday, Church went through a slideshow of some key pieces of his artwork.

"In 1977, I saw a movie," he began, "Maybe you saw that movie. I was five years old at the time and I began to get into the art side of things. Somewhere down the road, the other movies came out, and I kind of knew that was what I wanted to do. I was very inspired by that. I thought, the guy who had the fun job was the concept designer."

Church described how he followed his dream by studying traditional painting and industrial design, a stint at ILM, and his eventual role in as a Concept Design Supervisor on Episode II. As work began in Episode III, he thought he knew the parameters that George Lucas would set. He found out to let go of his expectations, and embrace the challenge of outdoing the amazing art of Episodes I and II.

"I kind of thought I knew where he wanted to go," Church recalls. "He wants something between Episode II and Episode IV, right? This is going to be an easy job, right? But he seemed to be responding to some of the more pushed designs. That's what makes him a visionary and a cool guy to work with: he's wary enough and wise enough to want to push the envelope and create something for today's audience. Everything we did was always respectful of the rich design heritage of the Star Wars movies, but he kept pushing it."

The artwork showcased included starship and weapon designs, such as starfighters, Grievous' flagship and Wookiee ornithopters. "Whenever I had a design problem, I always thought of the original trilogy as the Vietnam War with these Rebels running around fighting against a technologically superior enemy," says Church. "It just so happened that a lot of those designs came out of that. An X-wing is a big huge F-4 Phantom Jet, very angular, very brutal. For the designs of Episode III, since this was the galaxy-wide war, I wanted to cue off of World War II. So, with the ARC-170 fighter, the proto-X-wing fighter, has rounded corners and make things a little bit more dainty, a little bit more kluged together."

Church's environmental illustrations tracked the visual evolution of Clone Wars battlefields, from the crystalline and ash-strewn cityscapes of Mygeeto (what Church called "The Saving Private Ryan Planet"), Felucia ("the first real alien world in the movies,") and ever-changing Saleucami. His evocative landscape paintings are often very loose, very sketchy, but communicate a lot in their looseness.

"Instead of starting with a black and white line drawing, you end with a black and white line drawing," says Church. "It keeps you very honest, because if you can't sell an idea in a painting, how are you going to sell it when it's on the screen, has motion blur and an actor's head against the background?"

Church recounted the typical work week for the Art Department crew. Each artist aimed for five finished pieces per week, completed in time for George Lucas' Friday review meeting. This would mean a relatively relaxed Monday, which escalated in pressure to Thursday. "It was Red Bull and zany comedy-fueled all nighters," he describes. The reward to complete those five required drawings was simple. Fay David, Art Department Supervisor would keep them on track, and if they completed the week's tasks, the artists could then pitch their own, fun concepts.

"If you guys get all the stuff done that you have to do, you get to do your extra stuff to show George," Church said, quoting the incentive.

When asked tips on how to become a better artist, Church was candid in recommending that budding artists copy from the veterans that they admire. "Copy, copy, copy," he said. "Then throw those away. And note that I didn't say trace." Church himself learned by imitating Syd Mead and Ralph McQuarrie in his practice drawings, studying the thought process behind such skilled work, and coming to an understanding as to what drove the design.

But he did strongly recommend two key disciplines: perspective and draftsmanship. "Because they're not subjective," he says. "Those things are objective. If you can't do perspective or have poor draftsmanship, it will show."