Daemon Fight

The CBBC Newsround page are following the filming of The Golden Compass very closely. Above are some snaps they had of model Daemons being set out before a shot. These are likely for lighting reference, and will be replaced with CG models composited into an empty background plate for the finished shot, but they do give us some idea of how realistic the Daemons have been designed to look. The lead Daemons are to be animated by Rhythm and Hues, masters at critter lip-synching since the original Babe, with Cinesite on the secondary Daemons and Framestore-CFC handling the polar bears.

And, below, you can see our second look at the movie's Lyra, this time face-on. The image appears to have been scanned from a marketing catalogue and, at first, I thought it was fake... but now I buy it. Click on it to make it bigger, then tell me what you think.