If you've noticed an increasing amount of Diablo 3 news around the tubes recently, this is because developer Blizzard Entertainment hosted a beta preview session for select media and some lucky fan-sites last week, spilling more details and offering hands-on opportunities.

Our very own Steve Farrelly was among the fortunate few and has already shared a wealth of new information in his auction house impressions and follow-up Q&A with Game Director Jay Wilson. We still have a bit more to come from the event though -- including actual hands-on impressions from the beta gameplay -- so here's one for those interested in the art and character concept side of things: a video interview with Blizzard Lead Technical Artist Julian Love.

Julian describes the role of a Technical Artist and how they fit in to a game like Diablo 3 and shares some interesting insights into the creative process as he explains how the Barbarian class was inspired by characters such as The Incredible Hulk and God of War's Kratos, while the Monk borrows heavily from fighting games.

We didn’t necessarily want to do things that were exactly like The Incredible Hulk. We didn’t want him to turn green and “Hulk out” necessarily, but we wanted to get at that feeling that he’s all physical but he cannot be stopped. And we looked at some other places, like God of War for Kratos. He had a lot of the same kind of feeling and vibe that we were shooting for. So we take from those things, make them our own and twist them a little bit and get them in the Diablo game and really uniquify the Barbarian with that kind of feeling.

Click here for both a video and transcription of the complete interview.

Note: The new gameplay footage shown in the trailer can be found here in its entirety.