When a young George Lucas was pitching his space opera movie to studios in the early 1970s, it was the paintings of Ralph McQuarrie that explained Lucas' vision to Fox executives and earned a green light. Those paintings were the first visual representations of the galaxy far, far away imagined in the pages of Lucas' screenplay. Now famous, those illustrations provided a look for the set builders, the costume designers, and the fledgling visual effects unit to follow. The Star Wars tradition of creating and utilizing concept art throughout the screenwriting process continues with the final chapter as the Episode III art department has been working on new imaginings for nearly a year.

Whether to inspire George Lucas' writing, Gavin Bocquet's set design and construction, Trisha Biggar's costumes, Nick Gillard's stunt planning, John Knoll's visual effects or Rob Coleman's team of animators, the Star Wars tradition of creating and utilizing concept art as the film's inception continues with Episode III.

"This is my favorite part of the process," says Concept Design Supervisor Iain McCaig. "Since we start before the script, anything we draw or imagine could possibly be in the movie. George is open to everything. Nothing is set in stone."

This small team of talented artists has been hard at work for nearly a year exploring what might, and might not, be part of the final episode. It will be a few years before we can show you their work, but these are the creative men shaping the first phase of the massive production.

Iain McCaig
The talent and warm personality of Iain McCaig is already familiar to Star Wars fans (see Drawing Attention, From Concept to Costume and Designing a Sith Lord) as the Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones veteran returns to close out the Anakin Skywalker saga.

As with Episode I and II, McCaig is taking the lead on conceptual character, creature and costume design efforts for Episode III. Collaboration with both Costume Designer Trisha Biggar and Animation Director Rob Coleman has already begun which is allowing even greater synergy between concept and those implementing the ideas than on previous episodes. McCaig was recruited by Industrial Light & Magic to work on Terminator 2 after beginning his career in cartoons for "Sesame Street" followed by several years of fantasy and science fiction book and record covers. Between his stint on Episodes II and III, McCaig kept his diverse interests going by directing an award-winning short film (The Face at AtomFilms), creating cover art for the Magic Time book series, and screenwriting for features and television including an animated feature for IMAX.

Favorite original trilogy moment? "I hate to sound so unoriginal, but it's Luke on Tatooine with the twin suns in the sky. I think it's the music. Does it every time."