I make 3D worlds for games, film and architecture, from the first pencil line to the final frame.
Scroll to see the workSix crafts that feed into each other. Open one to see what it covers and where to find the work.
Character and creature design from first thumbnail to finished colour key — line art, silhouettes and turnarounds built to survive the jump into production.
For your projectCharacters and creatures for your game, book or brand, with line art you approve before any colour goes down.
For your teamSilhouettes, turnarounds and colour keys that hand over cleanly to modelling.
Detailed hard-surface and organic assets, props, vehicles and environments, modelled and textured to spec for games, product visuals and film.
For your projectProducts, vehicles, props and characters as clean 3D models, ready for stills, animation or a game engine.
For your teamHard-surface and organic assets built to budget, with sensible topology and textures to spec.
Character animation and cycles, plus motion graphics for brands and products — titles, logo stings, animated UI and short-form spots, animated and rendered in Blender and After Effects.
For your projectProduct spots, logo animations and short animated explainers, like the ones I made for ApplaudArt and VIBAS.
For your teamCharacter cycles and motion graphics, animated and rendered in Blender and After Effects.
Real-time environment art and technical art in Unreal Engine 5: lighting, look-dev, optimisation and the tools that keep a scene shippable.
For your projectReal-time scenes you can walk through rather than just look at, lit and tuned to run smoothly.
For your teamEnvironment art and tech art in UE5: lighting, look-dev, optimisation and the tools around them.
Architectural visualization for residential and luxury projects — interiors and exteriors rendered in real time with UE5.
For your projectInteriors, exteriors and furnished plans for sales material, listings and presentations.
For your teamArchviz in real time with UE5: residential and luxury interiors, exteriors and plans.
Layouts, brand systems and interface work in Figma — components, design tokens and dev-ready handoff, so what gets built matches what was drawn.
For your projectLayouts, brand systems and interfaces in Figma. The page you are reading is one of them.
For your teamFigma components, design tokens and dev-ready handoff.
Concept art, 3D models and architecture. Pick a category, or look at the images the way an art director does.
Drag to turn the room · hover to stop a picture · click to open it
01 / 18 · Jian — key art
Real-time environments built in Unreal Engine, character animation and motion design for clients. Pick a clip on the timeline, or drag the playhead along it.
Three small experiments, each one a real part of the job cut down to something you can try in ten seconds.
Line artColourFirst the lines, then the colour
Every character here started as clean line art. It gets approved before any colour goes down, because moving a line takes minutes and repainting takes days.
I'm Gianluca. I drawcharacters, modelmachines, buildworlds in Unreal Engine and renderhomes.
I'm a Senior 3D Environment and Technical Artist with an absolute dedication to creating high-impact digital worlds. Trained in illustration at the International School of Comics, i pair that artistic foundation with the technical craft of environment design, workflow optimisation and photorealistic rendering. Computer graphics isn't just about software — it's the ultimate medium for storytelling and for pushing the boundaries of reality. Let's build something incredible together!
- Concept pieces
- 16
- 3D models
- 42
- Architecture images
- 74
- Videos in the reel
- 14
- Articles on Backdrop
- 214
- Disciplines
- 6
Holding the look, and the people making it
Past a certain size, a project stops being a craft problem and becomes a coordination one. Ten people can each do excellent work and still hand you something that does not look like one film. Art direction is the job of making sure it does — and of getting there without burning the team out.
Art Direction
Setting the visual target and defending it: references, style guides, colour and lighting keys, and reviews that give artists something specific to act on rather than a vague "make it better".
Team Coordination
Briefs people can actually work from, milestones that mean something, and dependencies mapped before they become blockers. Most of the job is removing whatever is stopping someone from finishing.
Pipeline & Handoff
Naming conventions, review rounds and file structure agreed up front, so work moves between concept, 3D and engine without being rebuilt each time it changes hands.
- ClickUpTasks & milestones
- TrelloBoards & review flow
- SlackDay-to-day comms
- FigmaDesign & handoff
- MiroMoodboards & planning
AI isn't a shortcut bolted onto the pipeline — it's part of the craft. I direct models the way i'd direct a render: with intent, taste, and a clear picture of the result before the first prompt. From the opening concept to the final frame, it stays in the loop and i stay in charge of the decisions.
- 01BriefMeWhat are we making, and for whom?
- 02ExploreAI + meDozens of directions, quickly.
- 03ChooseMeTaste decides what survives.
- 04BuildAI + meCode, images and video, generated and steered.
- 05FinishMeChecked, fixed and signed off by hand.
Where a model helps, and where the decisions stay with me.
Vibe Coder
I build software by describing it. Agentic tools turn intent into working code while i steer the architecture, read every diff, and keep the taste calls mine.
AI Designer
Interfaces, layouts and brand systems shaped through fast iteration — a dozen directions explored in the time a single mockup used to take, then narrowed by eye.
AI Artist
Concepts, key art and moodboards generated, curated and retouched. The model proposes, i direct and finish. The result has to survive next to hand-made work.
What made things cost to make
Games, film, anime, 3D and the hardware underneath, read from the production side: what a decision cost and how the thing actually got built.
Rights, and how this site is made
The artwork is mine. Every render, concept, environment and animation shown in the portfolio is my own work, © 2026 Gianluca Scattarella, all rights reserved. Nothing on these pages may be reproduced, used for training, or passed off as another studio's work without my written permission. The design and build of the site are mine too.
Everything here is written and signed by me. I use research and drafting tooling the same way I use anything else in a pipeline, and nothing goes live until I have read it and approved it — there is no automatic publishing. What gets covered, what gets rejected, the angle, the corrections and the arrangement are mine, and so is the responsibility for them.
It can still be wrong.Fast-moving coverage carries a real risk of small inaccuracies — a date, a figure, a name. I check what I can and articles link their sources. If something here matters to a decision you are making, verify it at the source. Spotted a mistake? Tell me and I will fix it.
Other people's material.Screenshots, trailers and press images belong to their respective publishers and studios, and are used here for commentary and criticism, credited where they appear.
More on the bylines and how the blog is written:who writes here.