The ILM Evolutions series continues in celebration of Industrial Light & Magic’s 50 years of innovative storytelling, with Jay Stobie talking to ILM artists from their global studios about the essential role concept art and storyboarding play in the filmmaking process.
From envisioning a look for cursed pirates to plotting out space battles, Industrial Light & Magic has an unparalleled reputation for working wonders in collaboration with filmmakers to bring the stories they envision to life. Built on a 50-year legacy of talent and tenacity, ILM’s Art Department has grown into a global hub for generating and executing the ideas that immerse audiences in the worlds they see on screen. In this installment of ILM Evolutions, we’re heading back to the drawing board to focus on conceptual art and storyboarding, as this indispensable imagery fuels the creative process by visualizing a filmmaker’s ideas in the earliest stages of production.
ILM Art Department creative director David “Nak” Nakabayashi sat down with ILM.com to share his insights on the history of concept art and storyboarding, as well as his own first-hand knowledge of the craft. With an esteemed resume featuring iconic films such as The Hunt for Red October (1990), Jurassic Park (1993), Men in Black (1997), Star Wars: The Phantom Menace (1999), A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001), Avatar (2009), Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015), and many more, Nakabayashi now oversees art directors, illustrators, and artists across ILM’s global studios. Additionally, artists Aaron McBride (San Francisco), Bimpe Alliu (London), Cody Gramstad (Sydney), and Chelsea Castro (Vancouver) joined the conversation to highlight their careers and the latest developments in their field.
Concept art for Star Wars: The Phantom Menace (1999) by David Nakabayashi (Credit: Lucasfilm & ILM).
Ideas and Intentions
Concept art and storyboards each serve unique purposes in the production pipeline. “Concept art depicts a scene, setting, place, location, robot, spaceship, weapon – they initially come from the script along with a brief description,” outlines Nakabayashi, who emphasizes the extent to which the art helps the crew visualize the project they will be creating. “These are the key beats in the film. Concept art establishes what we’re going to be doing. We’re showing everyone that this is the movie we’re going to be making when absolutely nobody has any idea what it will look like.”
Nakabayashi cites concept artist Ralph McQuarrie’s contributions to Star Wars: A New Hope (1977) as the perfect example of such art having an inspirational impact on a film. “They based everything on his art. It fed everybody’s imagination.” Today, concept artists regularly assist filmmakers as they design and seek green lights for their films. “Sometimes, ILM will do development or spec work, where we take concept art and show the studio what the movie will be with the same intention as Ralph did. We carried that on.”
While concept art focuses on design, storyboards define the action that occurs on-screen. “Storyboards are all about the cinematic motion, the energy of a visual effects shot. That’s why ILM’s Joe Johnston was such a great foundation for this department. He would draw storyboards with arrows that would be compressed in perspective, and you really understood the depth of what he was trying to say,” Nakabayashi notes. Over time, the advent of digital animatics altered the use of storyboards. “We hardly storyboard anymore these days because animatics act as the filler, but it’s the same principle.”
From a broader perspective, Nakabayashi is quick to point to the artistic value of concept art and storyboards. “A pencil drawing, for me, is as powerful as a Ralph McQuarrie gouache painting. I get consumed by the techniques sometimes, and how a person can draw this perfect angle of a little spaceship cruising through the columns of some weird planet. To draw that sequence helps the director make decisions. It’s about visualizing and timing the film before they actually shoot anything, though it’s all changed quite a bit with the whole animatics tool set.”
The Importance of Art
“When you look at the scope of what ILM has done,” Nakabayashi says, “obviously Star Wars was a flashpoint for concept art and storyboards because that was the first way of getting creativity into the movie and bringing visual life into the script.”
Of course, the benefits extend far beyond what is seen on-screen. “Art is important for many other reasons,” Nakabayashi explains. “For ILM, it is also about the budgeting process. Historically, the model shop would look at storyboards and concept art and have an idea of what was coming. Production is very budget-driven. ILM would storyboard their sequences, not just for the artistic impression of it, but for logistics and production. That was how a director would communicate with the visual effects supervisor. ‘We’re going to shoot this practical and this blue screen. We can save a lot of money if we do this with miniatures.’”
Nakabayashi boils the work down to its essence, relaying, “It’s about the artists believing that the future is possible and the creation of the cliche ‘Show me something I’ve never seen before,’ which is sort of a byline we usually get from our clients. We can do that because we have the right people – people who take inspiration from the artists who came before them. That’s ILM’s culture of concept art and storyboarding. I’m not a great storyboard artist, but I can communicate and do the work. To me, that is the most important part – communicating the ideas.”
Concept art for A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001) by David Nakabayashi (Credit: Warner Bros. & ILM).
Communicating Concepts
As an art director at ILM’s Sydney studio, Cody Gramstad (Sonic the Hedgehog 3 [2024]; Lilo & Stitch[2025]) affirms the significance of communication, stressing, “When it comes to being a concept artist, you’re not necessarily there to create artwork. You’re there to clarify and communicate ideas. My favorite part of the job is actually the conversation where I sit down with a bunch of creative people, brainstorm potential solutions to problems, and get everyone amped up as we figure out our creative direction. Painting and visuals are a part of that, but being able to talk, pitch ideas, and get people excited is one of the most important skill sets.”
Gramstad, whose parents were professional sculptors, takes the notion a step further, suggesting that prospective concept artists can bolster their abilities by balancing the dedication necessary to hone their craft with time off for real-life adventures. “Step away from your computer every now and then, have some experiences, meet people, and socialize,” declares Gramstad, placing value on the correlation between communicating ideas and relating to those around you. “It’s a lot easier to work with someone who has gotten out in the world and brings those stories into their artwork.”
The ILM Influence
Turning to Industrial Light & Magic’s unique place in the history of concept art and storyboarding, Nakabayashi states, “ILM is special because it all sort of started here. It’s special because of the people who believed and put their foot down – Colin Cantwell, Ralph McQuarrie, and Joe Johnston. There were others on the outside, like Syd Mead and Ron Cobb, all these illustrators who were doing sci-fi stuff, but ILM was the first one to take the visual effects art department and make it something that everybody wanted to be.”
San Francisco-based senior art director Aaron McBride notes ILM’s post-Star Wars permanence as a standout achievement for the company. “Before ILM, visual effects departments would start up for the duration of a film and be temporary. When the film was over, everyone would get scattered. It was almost nomadic,” McBride mentions. “There was a demand for the work that ILM was doing, and ILM was able to advance technologies because it was kept intact.”
By the time of Star Wars: Return of the Jedi (1983), Nakabayashi explains that directors began approaching ILM for innovative films like Poltergeist (1982), The Goonies (1985), Cocoon (1985), Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), and many others. From crafting concept art that gave those films their “first breath of life” to “feeding production with ideas,” Nakabayashi views the ILM Art Department’s past with distinction. “Historically, we’ve had some of the best concept artists ever – Doug Chiang, Harley Jessup, John Bell, Terryl Whitlach, Christian Alzmann, and James Clyne. A lot of the artwork that they created determined whether or not a movie was made. That kind of talent, to me, is the greatness of the department.”
As the visual effects art director on The Phantom Menace, Nakabayashi saw connections between his work and that of his predecessors. “We had all this concept art, and part of my job was to bring it into the real world. That’s what the ILM Art Department has always been at the forefront of back to the days of Joe Johnston because he wasn’t even a storyboard artist when he started. He also got into the model shop and built models. He loved making miniatures and setting up the stage. It was kind of the birth of the visual effects art director. We followed along that path. It’s not just doing the drawing or coming up with an idea, it’s implementing it, as well.”
Concept art for Pirates of Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest (2006) by Aaron McBride (Credit: Disney & ILM).
Concept for Rango (2011) by Aaron McBride (Credit: Paramount & ILM).
Executing the Ideas
Nakabayashi recalls his experience collaborating with director Barry Sonnenfeld on Men in Black II(2002). “I was tasked to take a trash can and turn it into a killer robot. I liked the idea that it opens up like a flower, and it comes with multiple gun turrets that are not necessarily normally situated in a standard military platform. Maybe it’s more like an orchid. With a few changes, the design went to computer graphics, and I helped develop it in dailies with the modelers, painters, and animators.”
Turning to his time on A.I. Artificial Intelligence, Nakabayashi posits, “Those worlds – Coney Island, the Rouge City, an underwater theme park – were all absorbed through storyboards that Chris Baker did with Stanley Kubrick for a couple years. We started with that as our inspiration, and then we started doing colored artwork – paintings, drawings, some storyboards for shot ideas – and pitched those to [visual effects supervisor] Dennis Muren and numerous other people. It became this whole world of miniatures, and it was also on the brink of the digital component coming into the workflow. There’s a real marriage of practical effects, which I will still say is the most fun to work on, with the digital component.”
Envisioning new worlds still requires references that ground them in reality. For The Phantom Menace, Nakabayashi saw a dry South Dakota riverbed as a perfect reference for the bottom of Naboo’s oceans, proposing a fresh take on how to approach the Gungan city to Dennis Muren. “I go, ‘What about a booming shot? You track over and dip down to see the top of the city as opposed to always looking up. We’re going underwater, right?’” Such insight and inspiration impressed director George Lucas. Nakabayashi touches on the Gungan shield that comes down on the battlefield, continuing, “I had this idea – it was a parasol and an umbrella, kind of like a sprinkler. George loved it.”
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