Once I decided to move forward with Pezzio, the first challenge was to define what the new FMP actually needed to communicate.
The original Pezzio project already had a clear identity and interface, but the audience for this film could not be expected to know any of that. The advert therefore needed to introduce the idea of Pezzio quickly while still working as an engaging piece of 3D motion design.
The new brief became:
What if Pezzio were a real product launching in the UK?
Rather than creating a conventional app advertisement based mainly around UI screens, I wanted to translate the existing graphic language of Pezzio into a three-dimensional world.
This would allow the project to retain a clear commercial purpose while giving me room to experiment with animation, transitions, characters, graphic systems and camera.
Expanding Pezzio’s Existing Visual Language
One of the advantages of returning to Pezzio was that I was not starting from a blank visual direction.
The original project already had a clearly established 3D language, including its colour palette, rounded forms, simplified characters, soft materials and a library of three-dimensional objects representing different aspects of the app.
These included locations, reviews, messages, calendars, search elements, social content and other pieces of Pezzio’s visual system.
The challenge for the FMP was therefore not to redesign Pezzio, but to understand how this existing identity could become a complete animated world.
The original assets had mostly been designed as individual illustrations and graphic elements. For the FMP, I wanted to expand that language spatially: giving the objects scale, introducing environments, creating relationships between elements and using animation and camera movement to connect them.
The aim is to expand the existing identity rather than replace it — keeping Pezzio recognisable while pushing its 3D language, motion and storytelling considerably further.
Building the beats for the storyboard
I started building the beats for the storyboard as well as thinking on a developing a possible voice-over for the film.
This can help me identify moments where the voice-over and animation were repeating the same information.
The intention is for the voice-over to support the visual narrative rather than describe exactly what is happening on screen.
It also helps me evaluate the pacing of each section before moving further into production.
BEAT 1 — THE PROBLEM
“Going out with your dog shouldn’t be this complicated.”
We establish the frustration quickly: wanting to go somewhere with your dog, but not knowing what is actually pet-friendly.
- Human + dog version: the character is unsure where to go.
- No-character version: the same problem is communicated through scattered / disconnected graphic elements.
- The world feels slightly disorganised and unresolved.
Purpose: establish the need for Pezzio without spending too long in a literal narrative.
BEAT 2 — Pezzio actives
“Meet Pezzio.”
Pezzio enters and becomes the mechanism that transforms the film.
- The orange Pezzio visual language takes over.
- A route / line begins to travel through the space.
- Scattered information starts reacting to it.
- We transition away from the literal opening into the graphic 3D world.
Purpose: Pezzio is not just shown as an app interface—it becomes the logic controlling the environment.
BEAT 3 — Discover
“Find pet-friendly places around you.”
The route leads us through different places.
- Buildings / location blocks emerge.
- Different forms can suggest cafés, restaurants, shops, parks, etc.
- Pins, markers or Pezzio graphic elements identify relevant locations.
- Camera follows the route through the environment.
This is where we keep the city / architectural section from the original storyboard that you liked.
Purpose: communicate the core function: discovery.
BEAT 4 — Know before you go
“See what other pet owners think.”
Finding a place is not enough—the information around it becomes organised.
- Review cards / flat panels appear.
- Ratings and useful information connect to specific locations.
- Elements that were previously scattered begin snapping into a clear system.
- We can move between close-ups of individual information and wider views of the whole Pezzio world.
Purpose: communicate trust + useful information, rather than making Pezzio look like just another map.
BEAT 5 — Everything connects
“Your city. More pet-friendly.”
The different elements now form one coherent network.
- Routes connect places.
- Locations settle into position.
- Reviews / information attach to them.
- Graphic elements become increasingly ordered.
- Camera pulls back to reveal the larger Pezzio system.
This is the payoff to the disorder established at the beginning: Pezzio turns disconnected information into something navigable.
BEAT 6 — End frame
PEZZIO
Final clean brand moment.
Possible supporting line:
“Find their kind of place.”
or
“Pet-friendly places, all in one place.”
Logo + app / CTA if we decide the advert needs one.
So structurally, the film is:
PROBLEM → PEZZIO → DISCOVER → TRUST → CONNECT → BRAND
In order to create and test different outcomes from the beats I thought about, this time I’m using AI to help me try different things on the storyboard and maybe add a 7th beat.
Questioning Whether I Needed Characters
Because introducing characters immediately increases production complexity, I also tested an alternative version of the storyboard without them.
I wanted to check whether the human and dog were genuinely contributing to the communication of the film or whether I was including them mainly because I liked the visual reference.
The completely character-free version simplified production considerably, but I felt that the opening lost some of the immediate relationship between Pezzio and the experience of owning a pet.
Instead, I think its better looking for a middle ground.
The characters could establish the context at the beginning and then disappear as the graphic motion system takes over.
For example, the dog does not need to remain present throughout every scene after it has served its purpose in the introduction. And the animation for the character stays simple for looking around.
This is another way I am trying to apply the scope decisions made during the previous stage: simplifying what does not need to be animated rather than automatically removing the idea altogether.
This comparison is useful evidence because it shows an actual scope decision rather than only saying that you are controlling scope.
First Previsualisation
Once Beat 1 was sufficiently clear on paper, I created the first rough previs.
At this stage, I was deliberately not concerned with materials, lighting or finished assets.
I wanted to test:
- composition
- camera
- timing
- character placement
- scale
- transitions
- when the characters should leave the film
The previs immediately made some storyboard decisions easier to evaluate spatially.
It also allowed me to begin thinking about the relationship between the graphic environment and the characters before committing to detailed animation.
This is something I want to maintain throughout Pezzio: solving the film broadly before polishing individual shots.
After the amount of technical exploration required by the scarf project, having a complete and readable previs is particularly important for keeping the new production under control.
Next Production Question
With the basic direction established, the next question was whether the character setup was actually viable.
Rather than continuing to storyboard a film that depended on characters without knowing whether I could animate them efficiently, I decided to test the rigging workflow immediately.
This became the next major R&D stage of the project.