<P> On October 16, 2013, the show failed to meet their production deadline for the first time ever, after a power outage on October 15 at the production studio prevented the episode, season 17's "Goth Kids 3: Dawn of the Posers", from being finished in time . The episode was rescheduled to air a week later on October 23, 2013 . In July 2015, South Park was renewed through 2019; extending the show through season 23 with 304 episodes overall . </P> <P> The show's style of animation is inspired by the paper cut - out cartoons made by Terry Gilliam for Monty Python's Flying Circus, of which Parker and Stone have been lifelong fans . Construction paper and traditional stop motion cutout animation techniques were used in the original animated shorts and in the pilot episode . Subsequent episodes have been produced by computer animation, providing a similar look to the originals while requiring a fraction of the time to produce . Before computer artists begin animating an episode, a series of animatics drawn in Toon Boom are provided by the show's storyboard artists . </P> <P> The characters and objects are composed of simple geometrical shapes and primary colors . Most child characters are the same size and shape, and are distinguished by their clothing, hair and skin colors, and headwear . Characters are mostly presented two - dimensionally and from only one angle . Their movements are animated in an intentionally jerky fashion, as they are purposely not offered the same free range of motion associated with hand - drawn characters . Occasionally, some non-fictional characters are depicted with photographic cutouts of their actual head and face in lieu of a face reminiscent of the show's traditional style . Canadians on the show are often portrayed in an even more minimalist fashion; they have simple beady eyes, and the top halves of their heads simply flap up and down when the characters speak . </P> <P> When the show began using computers, the cardboard cutouts were scanned and re-drawn with CorelDRAW, then imported into PowerAnimator, which was used with SGI workstations to animate the characters . The workstations were linked to a 54 - processor render farm that could render 10 to 15 shots an hour . Beginning with season five, the animators began using Maya instead of PowerAnimator . The studio now runs a 120 - processor render farm that can produce 30 or more shots an hour . </P>

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