Omation Animation Studio

Background
Omation was an animation studio run by Steve Oedekerk as a subsidiary of his O Entertainment company. It produced the Barnyard franchise and the Jimmy Neutron spinoff Planet Sheen for Nickelodeon. It was founded in 2002 by Oedekerk, in conjuction with animators who formerly worked at DNA Productions. Omation was working on a new Mighty Mouse film for Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon Movies set for a release in 2013, but it appeared to have been cancelled, presumably due to the massive flop of Planet Sheen. The project was later revived in April 2019 as a live-action/animated hybrid film for Paramount Animation, albeit without the involvement of Omation or Nickelodeon.

1st Logo (September 29, 2007-November 12, 2011)


Visuals: The CGI "O" from the 1998 O Entertainment logo drops onto the center of the screen, but suddenly shrinks, turns yellow (perhaps referencing the first O logo), grows arms and legs, and changes into 2D. The text "mation", in the Jokerman LET font, jumps out of the O's mouth, which then jumps up and freezes.

Technique: CGI and traditional animation.

Audio: The "O!" from the O Entertainment logo at a slightly higher pitch, starting with a strange magical whirring sound, combined with whooshes/synth sounds from the classic Hanna-Barbera sound library. A high-pitched voice says "Mation!" and a snare drumbeat plays.

Audio Variants:
 * On split-screen Nickelodeon airings of Back at the Barnyard, the logo music was often followed by a short country tune, which played over the Nickelodeon logo at the time.
 * The original 1998 O Entertainment music was occasionally heard on earlier split-screen airings. This is probably because the show originally used the 1998 O Ent. logo, so Nickelodeon programmed the show's split-screen credits to have it. But when the Omation logo was rolled out, Nickelodeon followed suit and removed the 1998 logo, but forgot to use this logo's audio, as seen above.
 * On Polish dub of Back at the Barnyard, the "MATION" words are not heard.

Availability: Seen on Back at the Barnyard.

2nd Logo (October 2, 2010-February 15, 2013)


Visuals: It's a CGI remake of the first logo, but the black background and the color dots in the "mation" text are now white.

Variants:
 * An extended six-second version exists on the Omation Tour video, a promo for Omation itself.
 * On a reel for Omation Animation Studio itself, the background is now black and the dots in the "mation" text are glowing and colored again. Also, the color dots in the "a" and "n" letters are reversed.

Technique: CGI using Autodesk Maya.

Audio: A sped-up and shortened version of the previous logo's audio. The extended and reel versions use the full audio (the former variant had a slightly longer pause before the "Mation!").

Availability: Seen on Planet Sheen.