Well I shot the shot where I needed to sever a part of one of the puppets and there would be no turning back (at least no EASY turning back) if I were to actually cut off those parts of the puppet that need to get chopped in this take... so I cheated! I chose instead to alleviate my worries while shooting it by just not really cutting into my beloved puppet - choosing instead to put in some extra work in Photoshop later. That way, if I screwed up and needed to shoot it over again, all I would need to do is reshoot without needing to repair or worse, recast the puppet entirely.

I needed to spend some hours in Photoshop replacing parts of the puppet that were hidden behind the part that was allegedly chopped off. Good thing I've had lots of fun over the past few years doctoring goofy stuff in Photoshop, so that replacing the missing parts and removing what was supposedly chopped off was just a matter of spending the time and effort.

Maybe it was because I took that approach and was consequently more relaxed about animating it, that the shot came out good, was approved by the director and NOW I can get out the chain saw!