Channel Frederator Blog

Oh Todd Ramsay. We love these little HonkBarners. They make us smile. ☺
This Interview with Todd will make you smile too.
For reals.

1) First of all, What are the Honkbarners, and how did they come into being?
I first got the idea for Honkbarn after a really bad snowboarding accident left me without the use of my drawing hand for about 6months.
There was only so much daytime TV that I could handle so I decided to start drawing with my left hand. I couldn’t draw with the same attention to detail that I had with my right hand so I had to simplify the designs.That’s when I came up with my first character line-up.

I’ve tried to come up with concepts for shows in the past but every idea seemed so contrived. All of my ideas were influenced by what was going on in mainstream animation and nothing felt true to what I wanted to do. Taking a few months off work was the best thing that ever happened to me. I stopped watching cartoons on TV and was basically locked in my house in the woods without the constant reminder of the rules and regulations associated with animation production.During that time I took a different approach to animation. I began recording idiot noises and found a few royalty free sound clips on the net and started animating a couple of the Honkbarn characters not knowing what would happen until actually drawing the next frame. I didn’t have an idea, a storyboard, or a script. I was just animating for fun, something I had never really done before. It was an experiment in animation, a way to convey my own sense of humor through an art form.

2) Who are some of your influences?
I’ve always been influenced by Jim Henson, Sesame Street, and Aardman. In the last decade I’ve been influenced by filmmakers Don Hertzfeldt, Marv Newland, and Jon Izen. I’ve always been drawn to unpolished animation that has a childish quality to it.

3) How long have you been animating?
I’ve been animating since film school in 99 and have worked in the industry since 2001.

4) I really want to see these little doods as vinyl designerey toys. Any interest in that sort of thing?
I’ve played around with some plushie designs (no, I’m not a furvert) but nothing vinyl yet. I don’t think there’s a big enough market yet to sell these toys so I haven’t pursued that avenue yet but you can buy a pretty sweet t-shirt from my website for only nineteen Canuck bucks.

5) What are you working on currently?
I’m animating some cartoons for pulitzer prize winning cartoonist Nick Anderson. I’m also waiting for a full-time freelance gig to start up.It’s for a company in NYC, that’s all I’m allowed to say right now. I hope it starts soon because I’m getting tired of eating potatoes for dinner every night of the week.

Thanks for making us smile today Todd! Please give the little honkbarners a hug and some love from Team Fred.
-Jeaux Janovsky