The team, based in the heart of the town, consists of the Catlow sisters: Bryony (the Bear interviewed here), Caddi (working freelance in Edinburgh at the time) and Linnhe (who was busily preparing for marriage).

Bryony 'the bear' Catlow

 It was attending a local animation workshop in 1990 run by Peter Lord from Aardman Animations (or “going to see the man who made Morph” as Bryony recalls) that first got all three of the sisters interested in plasticine.

 Creating short films, the Bears also produced claymation sequences for adverts, with the Dulux ad probably being one of the Bears’ most recognised animations.

 The advert took ten days to make and was shown on television screens throughout the land in 2002, winning all sorts of awards for the Bears at the British Television Advertising Awards.

 “We got two complaints about it,” Bryony laughs. “We apparently advertised violence in schools.

 “We thought that was quite funny ourselves that people took the trouble to do that.”

Overly-sensitive complainers aside, the success helped the Bears to sustain further work in the commercial industry, producing animated adverts for The National Lotto and the Cumberland Building Society. And there are more upcoming projects on the way.

 Tongue Tied

 As the Dulux advert proved, the Bears have a fine eye for comedy, but a little known fact is that one of their first animations  brought to public attention was courtesy of the producers of the BBC2 sci-fi comedy, Red Dwarf.

 As fans of the show, 3 Bears Animation created claymation sequences for a special version of ‘Tongue Tied’ (one of the most popular moments from the show) which was included in a video released in 1996.

 The Red Dwarf link continued some years later in 2003 when Robert Llewellyn, better known as the neurotic cleaning android Kryten, lent his voice to play Don Ravioli in The Godson, following the plot of an accidentally decapitated racehorse and the subsequent brutal family retaliation afterwards.

It is less disturbing than it sounds.

 It remains Bryony’s favourite project to date, yet it was not without its stresses.

 “I think the fact it took us four years and we finished it without killing each other was quite an achievement.

One of the Bears' models

 “It took us four years to make it because we had to put it back to do paying work, we weren’t being paid to do that because it was our own little piece.”

 The next step: 3D animation

 Bryony’s typical working day - after the essential brew - involves working on any given scene on Maya, which is a particularly complicated looking piece of 3D animation software that has enough tools and functions to daunt even the most technologically computer competent.

 Fortunately, Bryony has an interest in exploring animation computer-wise - or as she puts it: “I’ve always kind of been a bit more nerdy.”

 In recent times each member of the team has begun to focus on different specialism; Bryony is mastering the art of 3D animation, Caddi has kept her hand in claymation with Haunted Hogmanay (first shown on BBC1 on New Year's Eve last year) and Linnhe produces websites and Flash animation.

Bryony working with Maya