Framestore - has had the privilege of collaborating with director Paul King on developing many beloved and slightly eccentric characters. From Paddington and Aunt Lucy in both “Paddington” and “Paddington 2”, to the Oompa Loompa, Abigail the Giraffe, Bullmastiff Tiddles and fluttery Flamingos of “Wonka”.

In this episode of Directing the Invisible Art interviews, Paul discusses the journey of "finding" Paddington, describing the explorations from initial drawings to the meticulous handcrafted animation that brings him to life through movement. He reveals the challenge of injecting the "heart of the scene" after the live-action shoot has wrapped, emphasizing that restraint is key to audiences falling in love with his character.

“You have to get the actors to interact with this creature when you are not always sure what it’s going to be doing or quite how it’s going to be moving later. It’s a real back and forth process because you can discover some things on set and you can try and figure out as much as you can but really once you get into the animation it’s all going to change again. The timing of the scene will change, the mood of the scene will change. Things that you thought you might have needed with a line of dialogue to express you discover you can express with a look, or a turn of the head or a gust of wind blowing through their fur. It’s a very labour intensive and iterative process, you have to get everything in the scene as perfect as you can and especially with something like Paddington you have to put the heart of the scene in afterwards.”