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Salt Lake creative spotlight: Ryan Hudson
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Salt Lake City is full of funny people. Some can be seen on stage acting their wits out, or trying their hand at stand-up. Others may be honing their comedic craft in classrooms or at family dinner tables. And there’s even some writing their own comics and animating their own cartoons. Such is the case with Mr. Ryan Hudson, a native Utahan beginning to make ripples in the web comedy ocean. This clever and charming jokester took some time recently to give a peek into the mind and soul (yes, cartoonists have a soul) of a working funnyman.
When did you first start creating cartoons? Do you see this as a career for you, or just something fun to do in spare time?
I've been drawing cartoons for as long as I can remember. My mom saved these comics I did of the Ghostbusters when I was just three years old. I did these crude drawings of the characters and told my Grandpa what I wanted them to say and he wrote in the dialogue for me. I had some sort of story project going on at any given moment from that point through junior high school, where I had a comic strip called “Kyle” in the school newspaper. I didn't pick up cartooning again until 2007 or so. My web comic has been an awesome hobby for me and it's been growing exponentially with each month that goes by. Even though it is just a hobby at the moment, I would certainly love to make it a more substantial source of income for me. The original reason I started the website was to have a place to showcase my animated cartoons. Animation has been a passion of mine since 2002 when I started taking college courses in computer animation. I have a couple of animations on the website right now, Greg is a Garden Gnome and channelATE Shorts: 01; but the comic has definitely been the most popular thing on there. The comic was originally my way of exercising my joke-writing skills for my cartoons and at the same time serving as a place holder on my site for the animated cartoons that weren't finished yet.
What inspires you? What were some of the cartoons you loved while growing up?
I'm usually most inspired by cartoons or movies with clever and well-crafted humor. Sure, good art is fun to look at, but in my opinion a well drawn cartoon is nothing without great content. In my opinion, Southpark has some of the greatest writing in television at the same time as having some of the worst animation, but nobody watches it for the animation. Southpark was one of my favorite cartoons growing up, as were The Simpsons and Family Guy. I didn't always watch them for entertainment. Sometimes I would watch a favorite episode of mine and try to figure out what made it so funny to me or what made it work so well. I've found inspiration in the show Robot Chicken, because of the quick joke telling. There is no story, just clip after clip of short gags. I think that kind of writing is the hardest to do, because without a structured story or character development to fall back on, the joke has got to be top notch. I think Robot Chicken is consistently funny; and something I respect a lot when it comes to comedy is consistency.
I'm also constantly inspired by my wife and our friends. We hang out with some really funny people and some of our absurd conversations have made there way in to my jokes. My wife, Vee, has even written a handful of the comics at times when I've had a creative mental block. I think she's hilarious and I keep telling her she needs to start her own web comic. I guess we'll have to wait and see.
What are some of your favorite software programs to use and why?
When it comes to software I just kind of go with what is available to me and works for the job. Like most college art students, I had the pirated Photoshop, but I decided to work with legal software once I graduated and realized I wanted to start making money with my art. I've been using some open source software recently that I have been really happy with. To draw my strip I use a program called GIMP. It's a lot like Photoshop, without some of the high end features, but it's totally free to use. I also use a program called Inkscape that is a lot like Adobe Illustrator, but is also open source and free. For all my animation work I use a program called XSI Softimage. For a while they sold a low end version of their software for $500, which is the one I own. It's a 3D animation program, but I have used it to get a simple 2D look, much like the way Southpark is done using the 3D software Maya. My website is run using the blogging software Wordpress, and the theme Comicpress by Tyler Martin, which I've modified. The design used to look all nice and flashy, but I've had a lot of traffic lately and had to strip the site to the bare bones to handle the load.
Any advice for people who think they're funny, but don't know how to express it?
Well, humor can be expressed in almost any way. If you're funny and you have a passion for music, the two can obviously go together. It's the same for stand-up comedians, actors, and cartoonists. If you want to share your jokes with the world, I'm sure they will find a way out of you one way or another. Because of the web, there has never been an easier time than now to get your work in front of people. If you make people laugh, they will come back for more. I guess the hardest part is knowing when you are actually funny and when you are only funny to your mom and yourself.
If you could have lunch with three dead people on any planet in our solar system, who would they be and on which planet?
I would wait until three of my best friends died and then take them to Mars for lunch, because if this is the only time I get to have lunch on Mars, why would I want to go with some dead strangers?
You can revel in Ryan’s hilarious work at http://channelate.com/ and http://youtube.com/channelatetv
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