Blue Zoo directed this commercial and the subsequent social videos for Nickelodeon, advertising Pedigree Small Dog Food, in a brand partnership with Paw Patrol.
The project involved creating a competition spot, where the lead character of the subsequent pieces would need to be chosen at a later date. In order to tackle the animation right away, we came up with a process that lent upon our 3D skills but achieved a 2D look the client wanted and wouldn't require the artists to redo tons of work.
We used a simplified 3D rendering technique combined with hand-drawn outlines and clean-up to create a traditional-looking style for the dog character. Beautiful matte paintings were then created for all of the backgrounds. This hybrid of mediums proved successful and also meant we could implement 2D effects in a seamless way.
The team at Nickelodeon gave the artists at Blue Zoo lots of creative freedom on this project, and working together to develop the scripts, we were able to develop a pretty action-packed story.