ILM shares concept art from their Star Wars: The Force Awakens portfolio

There's nothing like imagining the possibilities when creating a new work, but seeing it come to life visually is a complete game changer. Concept art is some of the most fun, creative, imaginitive, and inspiring art you can witness, as it helps shape the final work to come and guides the idea into full fruition. And, most of the time, it's pretty badass. Such is the case with ILM's recently released STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS portfolio of concept art, which features some great early designs of things that came to be (and things that didn't). Showing some of the now iconic moments from the latest franchise film in their early stages, it's cool to see how they eventually panned out on the big screen, while imagining what it would've been like had they followed down some of the other paths teased here.

There are 45 images in total at the official site, but I plucked some of my favorites to show off below. Take a look at the below and then head over to ILM and see the whole thing for yourself. Oh, and if you REALLY dig this sort of thing, I highly recommend picking up The Art of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, which has some of the featured art here and TONS more. If this is your bag, then it's worthy of your shelfspace.

STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS hits blu-ray/DVD on April 3rd. Preorder HERE!