A big update on the third "Star Wars" film today from the official site in recent days, including several things about CGI villain General Grievous (voiced by Gary Oldman):

"Though the extremely complicated CG model of him [Grievous] is finished and approved, his final painted form has yet to be rendered. The image of him that graces the cover of the latest official UK Star Wars fan magazine and the soon-to-be published official French magazine, which can be found in the current issue of Cinefex isn't a finished form. The long lead times of print publications required that image of Grievous to be completed over a month ago, and Grievous has continued to evolve since then. That image is actually a combination of an unfinished render with 2-D digital paint applied by Concept Artist Alex Jaeger.

Grievous has yet to make an appearance in a finished Episode III shot. That's not to say the computer-generated character isn't getting a workout. Already, animation of Grievous and Obi-Wan Kenobi engaged in a bare-knuckle brawl (if something with metallic fingers can be said to be bare-knuckled) is being developed and approved.  Producer Rick McCallum says "There's still work left to do on him before we can add him to shots. It's not until we have a voice for him and can record a guide track for him next month that we can really start animating his character"."

Meanwhile the much-reported-on epic opening shot - OSB10 - was shown to George Lucas for approval the other week. The shot involves starfighters twisting between a pair of massive capital ships. OSB010 now joins dozens of other OSB shots already approved as the opening sequence of the movie shapes up. The Trade Federation vulture droids will be seen to turn, fold and transform on screen - a functionality incorporated into their design years ago for Episode I, but something we have yet to see on the big screen.

Thanks to 'Kenny'