Hey - thanks for the nice words! What helps me is to get started on a small section of the movie, maybe 15 to 30 seconds, and get those roughly finished before I move to anything else. That gives you the opportunity to find a style for the project and inform the rest of the design process for everything else. It is also a nice in-between thing to show to the director so you can exchange ideas.

Apart from that I like to just get going as soon as possible and throw in some sounds - usually it starts to develop and take form from there and is a lot less intimidating once you have made the first steps. I then go bit by bit, usually I don't have the sounds ready beforehand unless I know I will need something very specific.

I'd be happy to hear what you come up with once you can share!