First of all, if you're not following Guillermo del Toro on Twitter, get your mind and your life right. Now that you've remedied that oversight, you may have noticed that the visionary filmmaker has been sharing some behind-the-scenes shots from his upcoming film, The Shape of Water. The images in question focus on both del Toro's famous concept art doodles in his collection of notebooks and more specifically on the artistic and technical process behind bringing practical creature effects to life.

This is the kind of thing that social media is actually good for; Twitter provides the filmmaker a platform to share a snippet of the many, many decisions and fractional steps that go into making a finished film, and fans get a glimpse behind the curtain and learn a little bit in the process. It's a win-win and del Toro does it better than most. Just be sure to reward all of his generous Tweeting by seeing The Shape of Water when it opens in U.S. theaters on December 8th.

Check out del Toro's behind-the-scenes looks below:

For more on The Shape of Water, be sure to get caught up with our coverage provided at the following links:

• Final ‘Shape of Water’ Trailer Teases One of the Best Films of 2017
• Exclusive: Guillermo del Toro Explains Why He’s Taking a Year Off Directing
• Guillermo del Toro’s ‘The Shape of Water’ Gets a Gorgeous New Poster
• ‘The Shape of Water’ Red-Band Trailer Features a Full-Frontal Fish Man
• ‘The Shape of Water’ Is a Major Oscar Contender Across the Board | TIFF 2017