It’s like washing your car to make sure that it rains. Posting the latest from Peter Jackson and The Hobbit movies earlier today just about guaranteed that his Production Video Blog would be released just afterwards. No matter, we’re thrilled to have the next installment of Peter Jackson‘s Hobbit video blog. This is numbered 11; 1-10 were for the first Hobbit movie.

It starts out with some bad news, though: no Comic-Con panel for The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. Last year’s Legendary panel for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey was easily one of the best of the con, so it’s particularly disappointing to do without them this year.

For details on why, and for all the good news and great visuals that follow, here you go:

Featurette: The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug – Production Diary 11

The Hobbit films star Ian McKellen, Martin Freeman, Andy Serkis, Richard Armitage, Cate Blanchette, Elijah Wood, Hugo Weaving, Sylvester McCoy, Aidan Turner, Graham McTavish, John Callen, Ken Stott, Mikael Persbrandt, Ryan Gage, Jed Brophy, William Kircher, Stephen Hunter, Ian Holm, Stephen Fry, Ryan Gage, Conan Stevens, Orlando Bloom, Luke Evans, Evangeline Lilly, Barry Humphries and Benedict Cumberbatch.

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is available now on Blu-ray and DVD.

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug will be released Dec. 13, 2013.

The Hobbit: There and Back Again, will hit theaters December 17, 2014.