OUAN403 - Animation Skills:
Recently this evening I was researching my least favoured of the "genres" - so to speak - of animation: Stop-motion (or known by others as stop-action).
A few years back I vaguely remember being obsessed with a cute, brown, monster-looking Japanese mascot that went by the name of "Domo-kun". After scouring the internet for some short Domo animations, I came across this interesting little jewel on YouTube. This was an advertisement for the popular American supermarket chain, Target. I instantly fell in love with this as it has a lot of comical qualities such as exaggerated expressions, comedic sound effects and extremely animated characters!
In terms of history and context, Domo kun is the official mascot of Japan's television channel NHK (Nippon Hoso Kyokai - Japan Broadcasting Corporation). Domo first appeared as a mascot for NHK in short sketches lasting roughly 30 seconds each. Tsuneo Goda is the stop-motion genius director that works his magic from behind the camera to create these fun, quirky episodes!
Domo has recently broadened his publicity and name into Manga (Japanese comic books and graphic novels) and video games which makes him more accessible for his target audience - children.
I absolutely love this style of stop-motion as it seems clean and more consistent than most others I have seen and most of all... It's refreshingly fun and cheerful! What's not to love about these adorable little characters?
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