A new series of Freedom Nissin cup noodles print advertisements now appearing in periodicals and billboards over Tokyo. Work on the these print ads usually involve only Freedom’s character designers/concept artists Sajiki-san and Somo-san, but this particular series was a little different because of the special call for entries from the entire Freedom committee team.

With the Freedom Nissin Cup Noodle design as the background template, we could choose from the Freedom series any character of our liking and get him/her to strike a neat pose inside LightWave. The best designs are then used as references for the illustrators to create the poster ads.

Response from the animators were overwhelming as everyone took a stab at it, with poses ranging from the chic, dashing to absolutely playful. Its a pity I can’t show the more outrageous ones here, but Ao’s Planet Terror parody, done by my lighting chief Matsui-san, was a hot favourite in the studio. Although it didn’t make the final selection, folks in the studio clearly adored it enough to use it for other purposes. (below)

(above) Instructions for the magazine ad design contest pasted on a “sticky board” in the studio. If you take a closer look you can see that characters from Akira were used as examples for some good poses to consider. Also check out this older post.