the first cuts

It feels good to have a blade between my fingers again. I’ve been taking Ellen’s character designs and doing some test cuts to start getting a feel for how they will translate to paper. They look so damn good. Lots to learn though, as we figure out how to break the characters apart into component parts and then reassemble them as puppets that can be animated. We will have to live with the decisions made here for many endless hours of animating, so best to take the time to do some tests and try to get it right! In one of my early films, Monkey & Sardine, we discovered too late that one of the main characters couldn’t really look down, which lead to many creative staging solutions and a lot of swearing. Always good to try and learn from one’s mistakes…