Skip to main content

Domo - Big In Japan

I haven't heard of Domo before but apparently this cute little monster (he's the one with the big, red gaping mouth and sharp teeth) is big in Japan.

My research reveals he started out as station mascot for a popular Japanese TV network and has kind of spring boarded into other things from there including ads for the shopping variety store, Target.

Domo has his own web site called Domonation where you can learn more about him and his friends, Mr Usaji (Grey Rabbit), Maya and her son Mario (the two bats), Tassanna (yellow 17 year old female weasel) and others.

The Domonation site has partnered with GoAnimate to create a section where you can create your own animations, using the GoAnimate Application, called Domo Animate. It's completely separate from GoAnimate's main site but works exactly the same (except that you can't upload your own custom props, backgrounds or sounds).

I was recently invited by GoAnimate staff to join the site and contribute to some already great content created by other highly regarded GoAnimate members so that the site would have plenty of inspiring content for its official launch.

After watching a few of the official Domo Animated shorts that can be seen on the homepage of the Domonation web site I got the impression that Domo's popularity has been garnered through thirty second short 'gag' animations. Hence this is what I decided to produce after noting that many of my contemporaries had gone the 'how Domo came to be' angle (possibly because they weren't that familiar with the character either?).

My first animation latches on to the idea that Domo just loves watching television. He's so addicted to it he'll even get interested in the snow between channels...

DomoNation.com: Channel Changer by etourist

Like it? Create your own at DomoNation.com. It's free and fun!

My second animation is an attempt to recreate an actual Domo Animated Short where Domo and Mr Usaji are playing baseball with Tassanna watching on. In the short Domo gets hit in the head with Mr Usaji's pitch...

DomoNation.com: Batter Up! by etourist

Like it? Create your own at DomoNation.com. It's free and fun!

My version does differ in that the story is changed slightly due to not being able to have a sports commentator narrating the scene... hence instead of the concluding slow motion replay I have Domo chase a smug Mr Usaji for hitting him in the head.

The actual challenge of creating the baseball animation was editing the pitch of the baseball so it looked much cooler than a simple side view. I think I achieved a much more effective and dynamic pitch of the baseball.

My final animation is using that old classic 'fart' humor. Let's face it, a well timed fart is funny. Since Domo farts when he's nervous I figure he'd probably be very nervous about appearing on the very first episode of his cooking show...

DomoNation.com: Domo Cooking (Internally) by etourist

Like it? Create your own at DomoNation.com. It's free and fun!

I actually don't like the Domo Cooking animation a heck of a lot because I would rather have done much more of a cooking show (as opposed to a fart joke). Unfortunately there are so few props, sound effects and character voices in the Domo Studio Library that I hit the limitations of the site really quickly.

At the moment that is the problem with the Domo Animate site. Not being able to upload your own props, backgrounds and sounds means that, creatively, you hit a wall of limitations very quickly. This is some what off putting but at the same time presents a challenge for how to get around the limitations and still be able to tell the story you want to tell.

For example, in my first animation, Channel Changer, I used Mr Usaji's ears as his arms to change the channel on the TV remote because there is no animated sequence for him even picking up the TV remote let alone using it.

However if you are a Domo Fan who wants to create your own Domo Animated Shorts then Domo Animate is probably the only place you'll be able to do it. I don't imagine a Domo Theme will be added to the original GoAnimate site since that would, ultimately, make Domo Animate obsolete.

Popular posts from this blog

Can You Learn Reallusion's Cartoon Animator 5 for Free Using Their 137 Official YouTube Video Tutorials Sorted Into a Logical Learning Order?

Or you could just buy The Lazy Animator Beginner's Guide to Cartoon Animator . While Reallusion's Cartoon Animator is one of the easiest 2D animation studios to get up and running with quickly, learning it from all of the official, free, video tutorials can be more overwhelming than helpful. With more than 137 videos totaling more than 28 and a half hours of tutorials, spread across three generations of the software (Cartoon Animator 3 through 5) it's hard to know if what you're learning is a current or legacy feature that you either need to know or can be skipped. Many of the official tutorials only teach specific features of the software and don't relate at all to previous or later tutorials. As a result there are many features either not mentioned or are hard to find. To make your learning easier, on this page, I've collected together all of the essential, official, free video tutorials and sorted them into a learning order that makes sense. Simply start at

Artbreeder - Using AI created Character and Background Content in your Animations

A selection of User/AI generated images from Artbreeder. If you're looking for an endless supply of 2D character and background images for your animations then Artbreeder , an online Artificial Intelligence (AI) that generates image mash-ups you can tweak as much as you like, could be the ultimate content library. What is Artbreeder? Artbreeder is free to use though there are various paid plans, that give you additional features, such as higher resolution download images or more settings to play with. All images created on the site are Public Domain (CC0 License) and can be used in commercial projects. Using Artbreeder's online app you can generate head shot portraits, full body characters, landscapes, and other scenes simply by choosing two or more existing images to mash together then, using a series of sliders, to select which traits from each image you wish to lean toward in the final image. Photo Comparison - Top is my original uploaded photo. Bottom is Artbreeder's ap

Jarrad Wright, The Big Lez Show - Who Would've thought Animating with MS Paint Could Take You So Far?

A friend of mine recommended I should check out The Big Lez Show after I mentioned to him I make animations for living. He said the show's creator, Australian animator, Jarrad Wright , just makes episodes from his home using MS Paint. Somewhat shamefully I hadn't heard of The Big Lez Show, but the fact that it was being made with MS Paint absolutely hooked me into checking out. If you've never heard or seen the show then you, like I was, are probably thinking how good could it be? MS Paint has kind of a cult following of hardcore animators but no one would use it as their primary animation tool on a series, right? WARNING - before going any further, you need to know The Big Lez Show and its humor contains some pretty strong language. By strong I mean it's peppered very liberally with the 'F' and 'C' words and is very every day Aussie, blue collar speak. Unapologetically, all of that, is part of why it's so good. There's a good chance you've

AE Juice - Animation Presets, Motion Graphics, Templates, Transitions for After Effects, Premiere Pro, and Other Video Applications

Level up you video edits and animations with AE Juice's motion graphics and templates. Some days you just don't have the time to create flashy motion graphics for your latest video or animation. For some of us it's more a question of our own artistic abilities being a little less than the awesome we'd like them to be. Whatever reason a resource like AE Juice's animation presets, motion graphics, templates, and transitions packs for After Effects , Premiere Pro , and other video applications can really make your work stand out very quickly. AE Juice gives you access to an instant library of free, premade content elements and sound effects, which you can add to with additional purchases of various themed packs from their store. There are three ways to manage their content, all of which can be used in commercial projects . The AE Juice Standalone Package Manager makes it easy to browse previews of all your pack contents and to download and find just the elements yo

Eric W. Schwartz: Cartoonist, Animator and Amiga Die Hard

July 1992 Edition, CU Amiga Featuring Amy the Squirrel. American Cartoonist, Eric W. Schwartz , (whose unofficial Amiga Icon, Amy the Squirrel, is pictured on the July 92 edition of CU Amiga cover on the right) is my only real animation hero. Sure there are the big names like Disney , Chuck Jones , Tex Avery and even Preston Blair whose influences can all be seen in my own cartoons but Eric did what none of the others could. He showed that really great 2D computer animation was within my reach with little more than an Amiga Computer , a copy of Deluxe Paint and Moviesetter . This was at a time when computer based animation was in its infancy (outside of computer game animation) and Flash was something that lights did. There were many great Amiga artists but Eric was really the only one consistently making very funny, traditional style animations. His humor and drawing style is heavily influenced by classic Warner Brothers and Disney cartoons but he managed to build on this,

Eleven Mostly Free Comic Book/Strip Resources For Your Next Motion Comic

Created with Lywi.com Comic Maker. One really exciting use for Cartoon Animator and other animation software is to assist in the production of creating motion comics. If you're not familiar with motion comics just think of them as a kind of video comic book that typically features (but not always) all of the dialogue in each panel read by voice actors along with limited animation to make the still images more dynamic and visually interesting. Below is a demonstration motion comic I made many years ago when I reviewed Smith Micro's Motion Artist software (which has since been discontinued but, if you can find a copy, its entire purpose was to create motion comics and other motion graphics). Follow the link to the review if you want to see how this was made. The great thing about motion comics is that they're much easier to animate than an animated cartoon short. Often much of the animation will be moving a a static image of a character, panning the camera across a scene cre

Make Disney/Pixar Style Characters with Reallusion's Character Creator and Toon Figure Bases

The Extraordinary Tourist Classic Coat outfit created using Reallusion's Toon Designer for CC3. I've talked before how I've wanted to get into 3D Disney/Pixar style character animation since I first saw the animated cutscenes for the very first Tomb Raider game back in 1996. It's why I initially bought Reallusion's iClone 3D studio app as soon as I could afford a computer that would run it. But then Reallusion released their 3D Character Creator (CC) for iClone and I wanted to create my characters with that (and I did try with Bat Storm ). But the focus of CC was realism, even with ToKoMotion's stylised body morphs . Now with Reallusion's Cartoon Designer bundle for CC3 which features two packs, Toon Figures , and Toon Hair , designing Disney/Pixar style 3D characters just got a whole lot quicker. The two packs are the bare essentials for creating Toon style characters. Five body morphs (2 male, 2 female, and one adolescent body morph that w