Dan Gregoire, Iain McCaig, Dermot Power and Erik Tiemens spent an hour during Sunday's Celebration to elaborate on what it was to visually conceive Episode II. Lots of good stuff came out of their presentation: the Kaminoans are based on the classic "gray aliens" look that also inspired "Close Encouters Of The Third Kind", with eyes and nose from baby seals (altogether now: "Awwwwwwwe...") Animatic shots of the outside of Dexter's Diner and some very cool angles of the Jedi Temple and the Senate building. McCaig had MORE of his "Sith Witch" design (something he was asked during Friday if he had an obsession with) along with an early rendition of Anakin Skywalker: lots more leather, and a haircut that looked much like a certain Sith's helmet. One drawing shown was Doug Chiang's rendition of Dooku's speeder: made without the pen ever leaving the page.

For all the seriousness imbued these guys, they REALLY know how to have fun with their work: the presentation began the with "an image of all four of us and George", then the screen showed the members of N'SYNC: "that's George on the right." :-)