How “His Dark Materials“ Used Puppets And CGI To Create Realistic Animals | Movies Insider

Award-winning VFX company Framestore produced a number of daemons and polar bears for the HBO/BBC series “His Dark Materials.“ The project was overseen by senior effects designer Russell Dodgson.  The team worked alongside studio Painting Practice to cast many of the creatures in the series, which were then brought to life by Puppetry legend William Todd-Jones.  For close-ups, some of the puppets like Lyra’s daemon Pan, were sculpted heads. Other slinky-body styles of puppet were used for quadrupedal or b