Concept artist Jaechan Gwon recently detailed his creative journey in developing a stunning 3D European cityscape project, demonstrating innovative techniques for using scanned assets and color grading to create atmospheric digital environments. The project showcases how modern digital artists are combining traditional artistic principles with cutting-edge 3D technology to produce compelling visual narratives.

Gwon, who specializes in creature, character, and hard-surface design while expanding into environment art, brings a unique perspective to his work. His background includes a filmmaking course during college where he developed expertise in cinematic techniques such as camera work, framing, and composition. This foundation in visual storytelling continues to influence his approach to creating immersive concept art, particularly in his understanding of how color grading can dramatically shape mood and atmosphere.

The artist's transition from exclusively 2D tools to 3D work came after recognizing how three-dimensional techniques could significantly accelerate his workflow and help explore complex ideas more effectively. Much of his 3D knowledge comes from self-directed study, online tutorials, and careful analysis of workflows used by artists he admires. While he hasn't yet taken on commissioned projects, Gwon has built an impressive portfolio of personal work that demonstrates his artistic growth and exploration.

For the European City project, Gwon established two clear objectives: experimenting with color variation during the Photoshop post-processing stage and integrating scanned 3D assets to quickly construct a convincing cityscape without modeling every element from scratch. He deliberately chose to focus on European architecture with ornate, historic details rather than modern buildings, as the decorative elements presented a greater creative challenge to recreate authentically.

The artist's research phase involved collecting extensive references that went beyond architectural and compositional examples to include photography capturing specific lighting and atmospheric qualities. Rather than replicating a specific real-world location, Gwon aimed to design a setting that would convey mood, historical depth, and narrative richness. His main focus centered on capturing the distinctive character of an old European city, complete with narrow winding streets, densely packed buildings, and architecture climbing up steep hillsides.

Gwon's workflow begins with creating rough 2D sketches from photographic references to establish overall composition. Once satisfied with the visual balance, he transitions into 3D work, using simple cubes to block out scenes and test spatial arrangements. After finalizing compositions, he replaces basic shapes with prepared assets. For sourcing materials, he typically browses Sketchfab for scanned models, then decimates them to reduce polygon counts while preserving essential forms.

The artist employs Boolean tools to break models into modular pieces, providing flexibility to reconstruct and reuse elements in ways that best fit each scene. For textures, he modifies original albedo maps to generate roughness and bump maps, adding surface variation and detail while adjusting colors and values to match project moods. Custom assets typically involve simple blockouts using Array modifiers, though curved architecture requires combining Array and Curve modifiers for more complex forms.

Since the project focused on concept art rather than real-time optimization, Gwon didn't invest time in retopologizing assets. Instead, he used Decimate modifiers to simplify heavy models while maintaining sufficient detail for rendering. For texturing, he manually unwrapped important assets but relied on procedural materials with object mapping in Blender for most self-created models, eliminating UV unwrapping needs and speeding up iteration processes.

Lighting plays a crucial role in Gwon's storytelling approach, beginning with research into photographic and cinematic references to establish appropriate moods. His lighting setup typically starts with selecting suitable HDRIs to establish realistic reflections and global illumination, followed by main light sources, subsidiary lights, and gobos for additional detail and variation. He maintains relatively simple setups, finding that overly complex lighting often produces unnatural results.

The artist frequently incorporates volumetrics and fog planes to add atmospheric depth, using emissive photographic textures for backgrounds to quickly achieve realistic moods. Final scene refinement occurs in Blender's compositor, where he adjusts values and adds effects like chromatic aberration and bloom. Color grading happens during Photoshop post-processing, utilizing Color Lookups and Camera Raw tools to procedurally refine values and hues until achieving desired atmospheres.

The complete project required approximately 40 hours of work, with nearly 16 hours dedicated to preparing scanned assets. The biggest challenge involved adding secondary shapes to buildings, which can become extremely time-consuming without proper planning. Through this process, Gwon gained deeper understanding of efficient asset reuse and discovered how significantly he could enhance final appearances during Photoshop phases.

Gwon found working with scanned assets particularly enjoyable, as they carry inherent detail levels that are difficult to replicate manually, allowing him to achieve convincing results early in the process. This approach provided more freedom to focus on composition, lighting, and atmosphere rather than worrying about whether projects would successfully come together. For artists interested in exploring Blender for concept art, he recommends tutorials by Jama Jurabaev, Danar Worya, and Piotr Krynski, whose workflows and techniques have been invaluable in shaping his own artistic process.