How to Build an Environment of a City Suspended in Time Using Blender
Daniele Gasparini talked about the process behind the The Market project, explaining how he built the composition of the streets, and talking about the tools he used to scatter the props.
Introduction
My name is Daniele Gasparini, my project is Skiegraphicstudio, and I am a freelance 3D Artist driven by a deep passion for graphics and visual arts. I graduated in Architecture from the First Faculty of Architecture at "La Sapienza" University of Rome – Ludovico Quaroni.
For over ten years, I have been working in the field of 3D visualization. I began my career creating architectural renderings, and over time, I gradually transitioned toward a more artistic approach. By merging these two worlds, I developed a distinctive style that blends architectural precision with artistic expression, shaping the unique identity of my work.
I acquired my skills by taking private courses and master's degrees at schools here in Rome, as well as online courses and tutorials. I have contributed to many important freelance projects, working for Maserati, Tesla, and Genesis in the automotive sector, as well as products for Universal and other major companies.
The Market Project
Quite simply, while watching a YouTube documentary by HumanSafari, a travel creator who explores lesser-known places in Bangladesh and its neighboring regions, I was immediately captivated. The entire surrounding atmosphere inspired me: the waste, the crowded streets, the overwhelming sense of chaos and movement. There was a raw, vibrant energy that deeply resonated with me.
I wanted to experiment with a different mood. Most of my scenes are set at night, but this time I chose daylight, a successful challenge that allowed me to explore a new lighting approach and achieve a balanced, natural atmosphere. I relied heavily on Google Maps as a key reference tool. I virtually wandered through the city for days, absorbing its architectural structures, street layouts, textures, materials, lighting conditions, and everyday props, carefully studying and translating them into my own visual language.
The Composition
At its core, the composition is quite simple: a street framed by buildings on both sides. From there, I focused on enriching the scene with a high level of detail. I particularly enjoy concentrating on small elements, the subtle details that can elevate a scene and give it a truly professional feel. The initial blockout was very basic: a plane with cubes placed along the sides.
What I modeled from scratch were the storefronts, signs, awnings, windows, steel pipes, electrical devices, and sidewalks. The remaining assets were sourced and carefully assembled. One aspect I'm often complimented on is my ability to seamlessly blend props into the environment, making them feel cohesive and natural within the context.
The buildings themselves are modeled in low-poly. Most of the work went into developing convincing textures and materials. I don't have any tricks to save time, although I did use a tool for Unreal Engine called Dash by Polygonflow, which helped streamline parts of the workflow without compromising quality.
Texture and Assembling the Scene
Blender helped me so much in this task. I recreated the textures based on reference images, carefully redrawing them to preserve as much detail as possible. I then refined them in Blender, enhancing their depth and realism. By adding a simple Roughness Map and subtly adjusting the Normal Maps, I was able to achieve a highly convincing and realistic final result.
The scene was assembled in Unreal Engine, where I chose a central perspective to preserve the visibility of the architectural details on both sides of the street. For the social/Instagram reel version, I also created a full 360-degree camera movement to show that the environment is fully built on every side, not just a single framed view.
As mentioned earlier, the scattering process was greatly streamlined thanks to Dash by Polygonflow. One of its tools, called Physic Paint, is something I particularly love. It works similarly to a foliage system but offers far more control, detail, and customization possibilities, making the placement of assets both efficient and highly precise.
Lighting
As for the lighting, there isn't much to say: since it's a daytime scene, I simply used a high-quality HDRI, carefully adjusted the exposure, and added a few fill lights to balance the darker areas. The render was produced in Unreal Engine at 30 fps, 1920×1080 resolution. I applied some light color correction in post-production, but nothing too heavy or intrusive.
Conclusion
I spent about three weeks on this project. I had a short break between a couple of jobs, so I used that free time to challenge myself with a personal project like this. I had never really worked in a strongly daylight-driven environment before, and I have to say I enjoyed it quite a lot. The real challenge was definitely testing my patience.
This scene contains over 3,000 actors. I've learned that experimentation is essential. I'll use lighting as an example, since I consider myself more of a lighting artist than anything else: experimenting and running into obstacles helps you develop the ability to overcome them. What really matters is not the final result, but the process and how you get there. Never stop learning, and don't get discouraged. Results will come with passion and consistency.
