It's always an opposite gender.

They're almost like various versions of your psyche.

And when you're a child it changes, 'cause you still change.

And then it fixes when you're an adult.

Lord Asriel's daemon decides to settle as a snow leopard.

Pretty cool.

They're vital to the piece, and without that it wouldn't be the show it is.

They have to be CGI. I mean that was really clear.

Full on furry critters, CGI photo-real.

Those daemon animals have to give a performance.

They are representing something of what the character is thinking or feeling.

No Lyra, don't! The retiring room is expressly forbidden.

To put that on screen is quite difficult, and costs a lot of money.

And in the end they decided that on the day we would have a series of puppets that would

help us, but also the camera team and also the CGI guys on the other side to work out

what our daemons are doing.

Making photo-real, nuanced visual effects creations as creatures

or characters is kind of our bread and butter, it's what we do.

The worry was the volume.

A show like this, it has what is undeniably an incredibly high level of visual effects

as it's baseline.

Having a reference for a performance or timing or rhythm in a scene

is really, really helpful. It's always really good to have the initial on set instinct of a puppeteer.

So, they were pivotal for us being able to get through the show.

So we had to build representations of those things,

that would give the actors an understanding of the space that they filled and the weight

that they might be and the interaction that had with them,

without it being too overly present.

But we have an emotional accuracy

in where it is at the right time and get the beats that are part of the story.

They're so amazing.

They really do help 'cause if not you're like 'Where's Pan?'

But then you do the pass and you're like 'Oh, this clears everything.'

And it's so fun working with them, 'cause the people who do it are really nice also.

Did I keep any?

I got -.

Especially with children around, it's really important those puppets were there I think.

It doesn't take long for a child to attach something to a puppet, you know?

Watching that's been really good fun.

We actually work together, and I love Stelmaria.

And I love the fact that we can work symbiotically as a duo.

To even just walking into a room, we're like who walks in first? Me or Stel?

I think it's a dangerous situation. I think Stel might go first, 'cause her senses are more a-tuned than mine.

Just decisions like that are really interesting to make.

Oh, I love my puppet! I love Brian, I love my puppet.

We're like 'Brian! Where are you?'

We worked together for about a week before, just working out.

He was giving me some monkey moves.

We worked out a very important psychological relationship between the two.

It informs everything. It's sort of the missing actors in the scene at any given time.

It's really wonderful and the puppeteers here are so incredible

that as soon as Hester's in their hands, she comes to life.

Yes, we are in a world of make believe and magic,

but it helps to have a little magical assistance shall we say?