Three and a half years of painstaking animation preserve a tradition untouched by artificial intelligence.
BRISTOL, UNITED KINGDOM
Aardman Animations has created more than 100,000 individual stop-motion frames for Shaun the Sheep: The Beast of Mossy Bottom. The third feature film starring the mischievous sheep arrives as the British studio celebrates 50 years of handmade animation.
The production required approximately three and a half years of work across nearly 40 miniature sets. Animators carefully repositioned heads, limbs, eyelids and facial pieces before photographing each movement. A single second of finished footage contains 24 frames, while two days of work may produce only about two seconds of animation.
The film follows Shaun and his flock as they attempt to save Halloween after the Farmer destroys their pumpkin patch. Shaun turns to experimental science, but his solution creates further chaos when the Farmer disappears and a mysterious creature begins roaming the woods surrounding Mossy Bottom.
Characters are constructed around metal armatures and covered with clay or silicone. Puppet makers prepare interchangeable mouths, arms, ears and other components because the figures are constantly handled and frequently damaged during filming. Digital effects are used to refine certain images, but producer Richard Beek said no artificial intelligence was employed in the production.
Directed by Steve Cox and Matthew Walker, the film continues Aardman’s commitment to physical craftsmanship despite the dominance of computer-generated animation. Shaun first appeared in the 1995 Wallace and Gromit short A Close Shave before becoming the protagonist of a television series distributed across 170 countries. The Beast of Mossy Bottomopens in cinemas on September 18.
Detrás de cada dato, la intención. / Behind every data point, the intention.