A D3.js tutorial demonstrates fundamental DOM manipulation by building a smiley face with animated eyebrows in an SVG canvas. Using D3's `select` and `append` methods, the code creates and styles SVG circles and other elements dynamically. The example relies on D3 v5's modular imports and shows how to set attributes like radius and position through chained method calls. The accompanying video explains the step-by-step process, while the working code is rendered directly in the browser using standard SVG elements within a 960×500 viewport.