The two worlds Coraline travels between are similar in form but have completely different tones: The real world is flat and more worn than the slightly glossier look of the Other World. Photo credit: Galvin Collins.

To create the 3-D effect, each shot is photographed using a digital camera that shoots a frame for one eye, then moves a very small, preprogrammed distance and shoots the other. The animator can check what's been shot on a computer monitor.

"The 3-D effect is kind of based on what's the distance between your eyes," says Selick. "Of course, Coraline's eyes are much closer together because she's much smaller, so we shoot a left eye and a right eye with the same camera. It travels very precisely in very small amounts."

Selick says they've tried to incorporate 3-D into the film to make it more than a gimmick, but he's sure that the 2D version that will be seen in most theaters around the world and on DVD will be satisfying too.

"It will work in 2D and work quite well -- that's actually how I deal with the film most of the time," he says. "But I think 3-D is just a more memorable experience."

Other animators working on shots include Travis Knight, who works on a scene set in the Orchard -- where cherry blossoms are made form painted popcorn. Animation supervisor Anthony Scott shoots a scene in the Other Mother's living room, and lead animator Eric Leighton works on the large and complicated set of the theater where Forcible and Spink put on shows for hundreds of little Scottie dogs. Leighton says the scenes are very challenging to animate, as each has so many elements to control and the set is so big that he has to move all around it and onto scaffolding behind it to reach every puppet, prop and set piece that needs to be set up for a single frame.

With the film's completion deadline looming, Selick says he spends most of his time going back and forth between two editing bays. The film will feature songs by alt rock band They Might Be Giants, and a score from French composer Bruno Coulais.

CG will be used on the film, mostly to erase in the puppets' faces the removable parts needed to make them appear to speak, as well as rig removal. Selick says there will be some additional visual effects done in-house by Laika, but he says they are shooting for a handmade look that matches the rest of the film and that they're "based on practical stuff that we then combine."

Character painter Angela Kiely paints the replacement faces for the character of Other Mother. Each puppet has two heads, each with a different expression. Photo Credit: Galvin Collins.

CG technology also can be used to occasionally alter or re-time scenes that would otherwise be too expensive or time-consuming to re-shoot, Selick says. "Once in a while, there's a disaster and we do have a great guy, the head of our visual effects, Brian Van't Hul. If there's a disaster and we really can't afford to re-shoot it, he can kind of make a fake in-between or smooth something out."

Selick says the experience of making the film has been rewarding. Gaiman has seen most of it and the author seems very happy with the results.

"The biggest challenge was always going to be bringing Coraline to life. That was the thing I was always most interested in doing. She's not an outlandish, cartoon character -- she's the straight man of the show," he says.

He's also pleased with the look of the film and thinks it will stand out with audiences for all the right reasons. "It's the imperfections (in stop-motion animation) that I think make it attractive, that bring the audience in," Selick says. "So we keep trying for perfection, but we'll never get it -- and it would be a mistake if we did, because then there would be no point. We would be doing CG."

Thomas J. McLean is a freelance journalist whose articles have appeared in Variety, Below the Line, Animation Magazine and Publishers Weekly. He writes a comic book blog for Variety.com called Bags and Boards, and is the author of Mutant Cinema: The X-Men Trilogy from Comics to Screen, forthcoming from Sequart.com Books.