A Hamster Valentine

I wanted to get a Valentine-themed animation out in the world on the day, but by Feb 13th I'd been busy with other things and hadn't had any great ideas for one. However this pope into my head and I set myself the challenge of making the film by the end of the day - which I just about managed to do (rendered it out at 1am on the 14th!) I'll be wary of attempting this again though as my wrist is still sore from those 700 drawings.

   

Things I Learnt From Bob Godfrey

When I was studying animation at Southampton, Bob Godfrey used to come down to teach once a week. I knew Bob’s name from the TV series “Roobarb and Custard”, which aired on BBC1 when I was about eight, and later learnt that he was a legendary creator of animated shorts, mostly slightly risque ones that were generally shown in front of ‘Carry On’ films. Bob was the embodiment of the ‘less is more’ school of animation – if you can make your point , or tell your story, just as effectively with fewer or simpler drawings, then do it that way. Don’t make work for yourself. Bob saw a film I’d made in my first semester called “Advice for Hamsters” and gave me his card. Once I’d finished studying he gave me my first job, on a satirical series called “Margaret Thatcher: Where Am I Now?”, written by Steve Bell. One of the key lessons I took from Bob was the importance – and delicacy – of timing. I’d animate a scene that needed to be funny, but for some reason wasn’t quite working. He’d check it, play it a few times, then tell me to add or remove a few frames – often only two or three – then suddenly the scene would be funny. As well as being a legendary animator, Bob was a legendary character. I’ve tried to capture some of that in a little tribute film. Here’s a trailer. The film itself in currently being submitted to festivals, so I can’t show the whole thing yet.

   

Dr Who Lego Timelapse

My friend Sam Wooldridge bought me this Lego kit for my birthday, somehow knowing exactly what I needed in my life. Whatever I'm doing, I'm constantly thinking "How can I turn this into animation, ideally without raking years to do it?" Obviously the solution here was to shoot a time-lapse of me building the kit, and adding a bit of stop-motion animation to the end.
 

Bad spelling

It seems that whenever the BBC make a documentary about polar exploration, they hire a narrator who doesn't know how to pronounce 'Antarctic'. Today they've gone a step further and hired someone who can't spell it either. I just thought I'd help them out a bit....

Things I Learnt from Bob Godfrey - trailer

My first job in TV animation was with Bob Godfrey, a legend in the industry, best know to my generation and younger for "Roobarb and Custard", though he'd been working for almost 50 years before I knew him. I prepared an earlier version of this film for a tribute evening at the Bradford Animation Festival two years ago, and recently remade and expanded it. I'm currently submitting it to festivals which means I can't put the whole film online, but here's a trailer.


     

Things I Learnt from Bob Godfrey: trailer from Dennis Sisterson on Vimeo.

My Vimeo page

My main website is acting up so I'm redirecting traffic here for the time being. My contact email is dennis@sisterson.co.uk.
Here's my showreel, and you can find more of my animation at my Vimeo page.
Showreel from Dennis Sisterson on Vimeo.

Batman v Superman

Just another fun little GIF in TVPaint.