Hello again.

It’s been a long time since I last wrote and things are really starting to hot up in the studio. The crew are working so hard that I swear I saw steam coming out of the studio the other day...

To help with the workload we’ve added a third animation director called Lee. He’s a veteran animator and director on “Shaun the Sheep” and has already slotted into the role with almost uncanny ease.

Out in the studio we’ve been working on an ingenious “rolling set” that moves under the puppets to make them look like they’re running along very fast. It’s been tricky to make it work properly but we’re nearly there now and I think it’s going to look really good on screen.

Meanwhile, I’ve been busy working with Dan the editor on the remaining stories scheduled to be shot towards the end of the series. Due to our increasingly tight schedule we’re being forced to cut a lot of material out of the episodes. It’s a heartbreaking process but not unusual on any shoot, especially series work. However, we’re actually finding that less story means more time to have fun with the animation, so I think we’re going to end up with even funnier episodes.

It’s an especially busy time for Dan as some of the episodes now have nearly all their shots completed and he is hard at work finalising the edits. This also means that the sound department have started work in earnest. Our composer Mark is working on the scores to four episodes while the sound effects and folley artists are adding the whistles, bells, bleats, barks and squeaks!

Finally and appropriately for spring, it’s been a period of marriages and babies. Assistant director Dave Button has left us temporarily as his first child (Alice) was born on Tuesday night. Our other assistant director Rich Bowen has recently married his partner Lorraine. Meanwhile, I managed to slip away to my friend’s Heather and Tom’s wedding in Scotland (and yes, I did wear a kilt).

Birthdays this week - Kitty (art director) and Mindell (Production Manager)

Congratulations to all!

Take care until next time.

Chris

Could you give us a month for when the new episodes will be broadcasting in the UK thanks.

do u guys work 7 days a week?

woo, thanks for the updates anymore sneaky peek pix coming soon please , wasnt there a rolling set used in Timmy Time, if i remember correctly.

i hope the cut footage could be an extra on the DVDs, as the first series had hardly any extras, or the ones that did they wernt long enough unfortunatly.

Hello Chris,

I like to read your postings cause there many little news about Shaun HQ and you tell it very funny. You can write very nice and interesting.
First lets say a big HELLO to Lee and give him a good start for his work on series 2. It seems that the people at Aardman are a very good team. Every people do a little part of the work and understand, he is a part of Aardman. In most companies the people does only her job and run out at five o clock. No one thinks about for what he work. I am not wondering that so many people (like me too) would work at Aardman.
When you told about the end of the series you mean 20 episodes or the whole 40 episodes? Do you bring out Series 2 in two parts (like series 1)? Maybe you shoot 20 episodes and them produced the next episodes of Timmy Time? Or is this produciong in the same time (in different studios?). It sounds very good that the first episodes will be finish in a short time.
About the cut outs of material i wish the same as Jordan to bring it out on DVD as special footage. It was too much work to forget this minutes on a harddisc.... And a second idea: make a little short movie about the production, so we can see how much wirk this is and how motivated the people are working. On Aardmans website there are very interested pictures of the working places but a movie is still better.
Congratulations to the birthday people and to Dave for his new "special interest" And when you dressd up in a Kilt, pls let us see a picture here I visited Scotland years ago but i dont see a Kilt (or a man wearing a kilt). But its a very nice country (maybe England too).

This lines for now, i enjoy your work and i like all people at Aardmans (when i come to England, i shake everybody hands ))
Greetings, Chris

singing sheep - We don't have a broadcast schedule at this time. That decision is up to individual broadcasters rather than Aardman, the production company.

Dobbydoodle - No!!!! (Well, not yet anyway...) Ugh, what a thought!

Jordan - I'm hoping to post some more photos soon.
Yes, you're quite correct about the rolling set used in "Timmy Time". We had a look at using that one actually but it wasn't quite right for us so we've come up with a slightly different solution.
We cut the footage before we film it, at the storyboard stage. It's very, very rare for animation to be cut after it has been filmed because the process is so long and expensive. That is why you hardly ever see "outakes" from an animated film. Sometimes production companies (notably PIXAR)will film extra outakes to go onto a DVD release but you need a lot of time and a very big budget to be able to do that.

legomatic - Thanks for another very kind posting.
When we refer to a "series" we usually mean 40 episodes. We shot 40 episodes for series one in 2006 and now we're shooting another 40 for series two.
It's got a bit confusing because some broadcasters released series one in two parts of 20 episodes each and called them series one and series two...

hey chris thanks for replying, how does the "rolling set" work? and how are the characters animated on it, cheers.

Sweet! Season 2 episodes! I know they will be awesome!

Jordan - It's a secret

Pfft lol. i only asked how does the "rolling set" work, and how are the characters animated on it, lol

like on timmy time episode i'm guessing

me upset i can not play youghurt mayhem
somebody please tell me
thanks
mitzie

Cool.