The Official Star Wars Site has a new report on the animatics team including Bradley Alexander. Here's a clip from the feature:

As the Senior Animatics Visual FX Artist, Alexander is responsible for designing the look, mood, and timing of a shot. Throughout the workday, Alexander is completing a series of tasks including rigging and animating a digital character, texturing and lighting lavish realms, modeling a creature or character, and 2D/3D tracking.

"Everyone up here is a Jack-of-all-trades (no pun intended), so we pretty much all take full responsibility of a shot from start to end," Alexander explains. "Before I started here almost four years ago, I thought pre-visualization was an extremely simple means of filmmaking where one would animate a box or cube to represent a character, and a simple move to represent a camera; then voila - you have an animatic."

"As I have seen animatics develop from this talented team I am almost left speechless," Alexander continues. "We have gone so far beyond the quality of traditional animatics. I think the quality of some shots we have done is so high you could mistake them for a final shot in the film."

Is there a teaser trailer rumor? Yes! The first teaser trailer may not be out in November as the case with TPM and AOTC, instead the Episode III trailer may be out this May and most likely on the Memorial Day weekend. This may be a marketing ploy to help boost the sales for the Classic Trilogy DVDs that will arrive in September. Keep your eyes peeled!

Today The Digital Bits posted some rumors about some possible additions to the Original Trilogy DVD.

"Yeah, we know this is going to get some people's undies in a bunch again... but we can say with some confidence now that when Lucasfilm and Fox release the Star Wars Trilogy on DVD in September, the films ARE going to include new footage. We've confirmed "unofficially" with three separate sources, each in positions to know, that at least SOME new footage is being added to the films, and that more special effects enhancements, tweaks and fixes are being done. We're also told that Lucasfilm MAY include additional deleted scenes for the trilogy on the bonus disc, separate from the material added into the films themselves (rather like they've done with Episodes I & II). We've been told of at least a few changes that have been made, but we're going to wait to confirm them better before we post anything. So, okay... we're now officially intrigued. We'll post more when we can."

I have had a pretty strong feeling that the Lucas would be adding to the footage for the DVD. Hopefully they will confirm the newly added footage so we can update you as the story develops.

Craig Burt e-mailed his latest piece entitled "Lava Limb." Thanks Craig! This piece features Anakin Skywalker and continues his theme of the final battle with Obi-Wan. Be sure to see all of Craig Burt's Paintings on Page 1 and Page 2 along with Craig Burt's Cartoons! Also, you can find other great work at the Featured Artists section.