Because of the way ILM’s pipeline is set up, Church had to account for every single asset in a shot. For example, he had to argue for things like laying a cable in a shot or painting in some grime. Kashyyyk’s Hologram Room by Church is seen

EW: How did you arrive at the design for Felucia, the planet with the hydra-like flowers?

RC: That was a late addition that I came up with. We had the crystal planet, the sinkhole planet, the asteroid planet, but George kept saying, “Hey, there’s still time if anybody has ideas for another planet. I’m not done yet.” I thought it would be cool to do a jungle planet, but what is really an alien jungle? It’s not like Yoda’s earth swamp, but someplace where every flower and tree is designed and has a completely different evolutionary biology. But I wanted — and I don’t know where this came from — something that would be really hard for ILM to do! They’re always talking about their caustics and their bouncing light rays. So I designed plants on this planet to be gelatinous — there’s nothing like this on earth. It’s almost like it’s the Gummy Bear planet. It’s something I was especially proud of.

After working about a year to create the look of the movie, the conceptual art team was joined by the production designer and visual effects supervisors. Above is the planet Utapau.

EW: Another scene that appeared challenging for CG artists was when gelatinous shapes performed what looked like an otherworldly Cirque du Soleil routine. Where did that idea come from?

RC: The inspiration for that came on my birthday. My now-wife and I were going out to dinner and I got a call, which I rarely did, asking me develop ideas for a scene that George wanted to change. He wanted the scene to take place at a ballet or an opera. He said, “Think about it being Swan Lake, or Squid Lake with squid guys.” So I was thinking that we could do a space twist on a water ballet and have this giant ball of water in zero-gravity. So I sent these paintings over the next day and they ran with it.

Once the paintings got approved, George sent me to Vegas where they have the Cirque du Soleil show O. He sent me to take notes so we could really nail the final look. Again, it was something hard for ILM to do!

EW: It seems that this film has very complicated environments, with lots of life in the background.

RC: After reviewing Episodes I and II, it was my feeling that we needed to have a post-modern approach to our shots. The modern approach was to use technology to do a photorealistic shot virtually. Now the post-modern approach is to make it look like a photographic set, in that you’re not just reproducing the ideal but also the clutter and the randomness of a real set. Oddly enough, when it looks more crowed, it feels more realistic. That was quite a battle with ILM, because the way their pipeline is set up, you have to account for every single asset that’s in a shot. I found myself arguing for things like laying a cable in a shot or painting in some grime — things that would have been so easy in the real world to do. That was the toughest job. But when George reacted favorably, people realized that there is a difference.