Georgina Hayns Finds Happiness at LAIKA

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January 21, 2022

Georgina Hayns finds happiness as a Creative Supervisor at LAIKA Studios. She has twenty-years experience in all aspects of puppet fabrication for stop motion movies.

Kubo and the Two Strings marks her fourth film at this animation studio.

She also supervised puppet making projects for The Boxtrolls, ParaNorman and Coraline.Prior to working here, she worked on Oscar-nominated Periwig Maker, Corpse Bride, and Mars Attacks!

*Academy Originals interviews Hayns on the puppet making process for Stop Motion films.*
Photo Source: YouTube (Academy Originals)

Georgina’s Secret Sauce: Teamwork and Communication

In Academy Originals’ video, Hayns takes viewers behind the scenes of Kubo and the Two Strings and LAIKA’s other films.

Hayns believes that communication and teamwork are key to making the best puppets. At the start of production, Hayns and the Sculpt team design craft many prototypes of each character for three to six months.

Hayns designs a blueprint of each character’s puppet, directing her team on how to craft them.

With dozens of projects moving simultaneously, all team members need to communicate frequently.

The Armature group develops steel skeletons for each puppet. Afterwards, the Casting department uses the molds and the armatures to make the puppets’ face and body. For Kubo and the Two Strings, they used 3D printers to make millions facial expressions for each character. Finally, the Costume team designs each character’s clothes and puts them on each puppet.

It takes skill, dedication, patience, and teamwork to bring each puppet to life.