It’s pelting down with rain here in Bristol and as I sit at my desk I’m watching my car float out of the car park and down the road. Ah, another Beautiful English summer.

This month we had a visit from the German broadcasters WDR who were filming a “making of” documentary for their famous TV program, “Die Sendung mit der Maus” (which literally translates as “The TV show with the Mouse”). They were very intrigued as to why it’s always sunny in Shaun the sheep’s world when it’s almost always raining here in Bristol. “Wishful thinking” was my honest if fatalistic answer.

On the studio floor (where it’s always sunny!) we have been busy working through all the scenes involving the town set. We need to get them shot as quickly as possible so that we can dismantle it and set up more countryside units, things never stand still for long out there.

In edit, Dan is beginning to wear the haunted look of a man under pressure as he juggles fine cuts of nearly complete episodes and animatics still awaiting approval by broadcasters. Hopefully the last animatics will be completed over the next couple of weeks and we will finally be able to concentrate on editing finished episodes.

This morning I travelled down to Aardman’s new building down by the docks for a voice record. The actor John Sparkes, who plays Bitzer, the farmer and the pigs came over from London for his first recording session of this series. Everything went really well and John seemed impressed with how the series is looking so far, even suggesting that one particular episode was a potential award winner – let’s hope he’s right (I’ve always liked him).

See ya next time

Chris x

I just realised many people out there won't know what an "animatic" is.
In short, our storyboarders draw out each shot in an episode as a picture or series of pictures - this is the "Storyboard".
Then we send these pictures to Dan the editor and he sticks them together and makes a little film, just like the finished episode except the characters don't move. We even add sound effects and music at this point to help see if the jokes are working - This is call the "animatic".
At this point we send the animatic to broadcasters to check if we've done anything that we shouldn't (we can get a bit naughty sometimes).

cool, thanks. Its always nice to hear whats going on.

Thanks for the update!

thanks for the updates csadler

hey thanks chris for the updates, i know what an animatic is! XD ive been making animations since i was 12!, i hope we get to see a BTS video of series 2 thanks again for posting great read!

"Aardman’s new building" is that the new headquarters or a aardman recording studio?

thanx csadler

Thanks Chris for all the brilliant Shaun updates and photos, they really make my day

Jordan - Both actually, we have a small sound recording facility in the new HQ.

csadler please an u update youghurt mayhem or do some or give me some advise on what to do so that i can play yoghurt mayhem
Thanks
Mitzie

Love the updates and the show. We have all three DVDs and have a ton of episodes Tivoed as well. The whole family can always agree on watching Shaun the Sheep. We would love to see a full length feature as well. I'm sure the work that would take would be astronomical.

ah cool thanks chris, i bet aardman is glad it can now do everything "in house"

mitzie - please visit our help thread: http://www.shaunthesheep.com/forum/read/33597

Well Jordan, I still have to travel 13 miles across Bristol to get to HQ so it doesn't quite feel "in house" just yet! (and we don't get runners fetching us tea and biscuits any more)

oh dear, you could always make biscuits from foam plasticine & sculpey

Go make the next series yeah!!!

timmy!

Hey, aardman animators...
I wonder if with the charaters you ever thought of putting a box with mouth shapes by the sets, then you could swap mouth shapes on set...
It'll save time and having to decapitate the charaters and having to make sure their heads were in the same place each time...

when can we see the new series in germany? i love shaun and of course timmy : )!!

Just remember Shaun has fans here in America who have not seen all of series 1. Keep up the good work, anyway.

Cool this sounds great. Thanks for the update.

Why do you disable all buddies request?

Yes Sammy we have, in fact that's how we've been working since the early 1990s!
We still have to take the heads off to change the expressions though, even when using the mouth replacement method. If a puppet is well made then relocating the head back in the same position isn't a problem.

timmygirly13 - Yes the new series will be shown in Germany.

Grumblefish - I'm sorry you didn't get to see all of series one. Unfortunately it's down to TV companies in individual countries as to when and how often the series is shown. We would love for "Shaun the Sheep" to be shown more often in the US.

Thanks for the update.

Hey ! Could you tell me, please, what sort of materials do you use to do the wool of the sheeps ? It seems not to be cotton. So what is it ?
Thanks & byebye !

when is shaun the sheep coming back?

Awesome, whens it going to air?

http://tiny.cc/lookatthis500

the broadcast dates for Germany are out: 10 new episodes will air from October 16 on KIKA.

To make the waiting easier they are repeating the first 40 episodes starting September 26.

http://www.kika.de/scripts/fernsehen/a_z/index.cfm?b=s&a=3&i=1142

cool! 10 new episodes from shaun, in germany?!!!
thats great!

I wish we got Shaun in the US. I always have to try and find it online or wait for the DVD to come out. But I'm still excited to see the new episodes!

Prowling Sheep, Shaun's on Disney in the U.S. He's on each morning here, in California.

So, when will series 2 be on TV?

Hi Chris, a handfull of questions:

1) where is the August / September / Oktober update?
2) how far is the production for series 2? whats finished?
3) Air date for 10 new episodes are out for Germany. When will we see the other 30 episodes on TV?
4) Is there a production cut (like in series one) with 20 + 20 episodes? First and second season?
5) any date for DVD release in Germany (or England)?
6) are there another five DVDs for the complete series 2?
7) any change, to see short films from the NEW episodes here on the webiste/videos? This might be VERY GOOD!
on 18.October we can see in Germany the special about visiting Aardman and production of STS. I am very interested about to see most of the working peoples at Aardmans. And yes - you too! I had found a picture from the visit.

greetings from Germany from a big lover of the flock (and of yor work!)
Chris

There's one thing really cool about Shaun the Sheep show, it don't need to be translated !! So don't need to watch it on TV (TF1 and Playhouse Disney for Timmy, in France), I just need to buy the dvds when it comes out in UK.

Keep up the AWESOME job !

ive seen it too Die Sendung Mit Der Maus is my favorite german tv program and i saw it too they make the film with ruber characters i didn't miss the german program

oh yea and i also know when the series 3 comes out, in November