Inside Laika studios, where stop-motion animation goes high tech

I'm standing between two boats — one intact, one cracked into two jagged halves. They're each about the size of a conventional canoe, but they have masts, rumpled sails, tiny handrails around the edges, and little decks connected with miniature stairs. Both ships are spangled with bright orange, yellow, and red spots, but up close, the spots resolve into tiny autumn-leaf decals, meticulously applied to every surface in thick layers. These are two of the sets for Laika Studios' new stop-mot