Oishi Friends Real World

Oishi Friends
Real World

Art Direction + Character Design + Storyboarding

A series of animated films where the Oishi Friends - a humorous set of characters for snack brand, Oishi - do what they do best: get eaten.

Project Background

The Oishi Friends

Years ago, TBWA launched the Oishi Friends - the hit comic strips featuring cute and friendly Oishi chips that were so delicious, they ate each other.

To create a bigger craving for Oishi snacks, we created the Oishi Friends Real World, a series of animated films where the Oishi Friends escape from the comics and enter reality.

We created a series of three animated films. In the first episode, two of the Oishi Friends arrive in the real world and talk about their plans. The second episode is a reunion between Hippy (a prawn cracker) and his mother from under the sea - a real prawn. The third features a playful game of hide-and-seek. In the end of every episode, the friends get eaten by a real person. They are chips, after all.

Watch the case study video below.

The Process

Here's a brief look on how the project panned out from character design to production. The team made a set of 3 films and by the third try, the look and our process was refined and tweaked enough to be the best it could:

Character Design

From 2D to 3D

The character design is fairly simple - it's just a direct translation of the existing design in 2D under a few constraints:

○ The production had to be easy to produce under a quick turnover;

○ We decided to use the real chips with motion-tracking; and

○ I had to design a range of expressions and hand gestures (pictured below).

Production

Pictured above (from left to right):

1.) The first concept frame using product mock-ups and stock photos;

2.) the shot frame using green screen & motion-tracking cues; and

3.) the final color-graded frame with the faces plugged-in.

Because of the quick turnover, the initial planning and storyboarding played a huge part on how smoothly the production went. It was a collaborative effort between the concept team, the director, and the animators.