Timbuktoons - Timbuktoons In the NEWS! -
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Published on: 8/21/2006
Last Visited: 7/5/2007
To see the colorful creations of Todd Hampson, just take a trip to Timbuktoons.Todd Hampson worked for the U.S. Department of the Interior before creating Hungry Monster and Clyde the Camel.
It's the pun-clever name of his animation business located in Columbia County off New Petersburg Drive, a place where his imagination and childhood dream have come to life in the form of such characters as the Hungry Monster and Clyde the Camel.
"Ten years ago, what I do would have taken five or six people.It's crazy,'' says Mr. Hampson.
He sits at a desk adorned with cartoon toys and looks over to a computer drawing tablet where he crafts his creativity into animated life using a digitized pen instead of the "old school'' pencil and paper.
With computer advancements of late, Mr. Hampson, an Evans resident, said he is able to create and produce his own cartoon shorts on DVD, and he does so with a specific purpose in mind.
"There's so many cartoons out there that don't teach anything,'' he said, adding that his goal is to produce cartoons that teach children about God and how to be a good person.
Already, Mr. Hampson has produced many cartoon "shorts'' with humorous representations of particular Bible verses.The animation is often used, he said, for ministry purposes in churches and comes with an accompanying lesson plan.
He said that a typical three- to four-minute cartoon can take him two to four months to produce, from writing the script to creating a story board, to sometimes recording his own audio.
Aside from animation, he also does logo and Web site design work for businesses, churches and organizations.
The logo work is a call back to a job he said he once had with the U.S. Department of the Interior.
While there, he said he got the opportunity to draw a logo for first lady Laura Bush for a national program called Preserve America, which seeks to give special designation to certain historic locations.
"It definitely was a privilege to be able to do something like that for the first lady,'' he said.
Eventually, though, Mr. Hampson said he felt a calling into the animation business and took a leap of faith.
He left the Interior job, taking a contract job with the Baptist Convention of Maryland and Delaware, while also starting his own animation business.
About a year ago, he also landed a job to create a couple of animated promotional spots for the Discovery Channel show MythBusters.
The spots included caricatures of the show's hosts.
The latest trek for Mr. Hampson was to move to Evans in March to continue his business, officially called Timbuktoons, An Entertainment Oasis, and to be closer to some of the best East Coast animation schools.
His business name, he says, was developed with the idea that "It's the fantasy thing.It's out there.''
And when it comes to dreams, Mr. Hampson says he's living one.
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