Summary:
- 3Dstudio.co, a Tallinn studio founded in 2013, quotes a fixed price and delivery date within 30 minutes of receiving drawings, with Corona as its main renderer for interiors and exteriors.
- For FT Architects, the studio produced four photorealistic images of its Blue Sky project, a sea-view villa in Saint-Tropez, to market the property before construction was complete.
- The images had to sell an unbuilt home in three weeks, so the team locked camera, lens, and light on a gray clay model, then used Corona's straightforward lighting and fast interactive start-up to bring materials, furniture, and landscaping to final quality.
- The studio delivered all four images on schedule, with revisions limited to details, and FT Architects has since returned for further projects.
3Dstudio.co is a Tallinn studio founded in 2013. Its team of architects and interior designers, based across the Nordics, the Baltics, and the UK, has since delivered 1,252 projects in 17 countries.
The studio builds its business on predictability: architects send drawings, and within 30 minutes during office hours, the studio replies with a fixed price and a firm delivery date. That model depends on a renderer that behaves the same way on every project, so the studio uses Chaos Corona for both interiors and exteriors.
“We get faster and better results with Corona,” says Sam Kostabi, Founder of 3Dstudio.co. “It prioritizes out-of-the-box simplicity, a faster interactive start-up and intuitive lighting controls, rather than complex technical adjustments. That saves time on every project.”
The challenge: selling a villa that doesn't exist yet
FT Architects needed images that could market the villa before the build was finished. The brief called for four views: the master bedroom seen from the terrace doors, the kitchen from the living room, the fireplace from the kitchen and entrance, and the terrace looking out to the sea. The architects supplied room drawings, a site plan of the landscaping, and a three-week deadline.
“The images had to look realistic enough to market a villa that was not built yet, so the light, furniture and finishes had to be right,” Sam says. On the Côte d'Azur, buyers weigh a property like this on its atmosphere and setting, and none of it could be photographed yet.
The brief was precise in some areas and open in others. “The client could say exactly which furniture and lights would be fitted, and we matched them,” Sam explains. “The landscaping was only a rough idea, so we built a garden dropping down to the sea with mature planting, from the brief and a photo of the existing view.”
Matching specified products indoors and inventing a convincing garden outdoors, on a fixed schedule, left little room for rework. 3Dstudio.co's clay-model process, combined with Corona, kept the project on track.
© 3Dstudio.co
The solution: a repeatable Corona workflow built on clay-model approval
Accurate quoting depends on a process that doesn't change from project to project. “We can do that because the process is the same on every project: we build from the architect's drawings, we know how long each stage takes for a given number of views, and two revision rounds are included to cover changes,” Sam explains.
Locking the composition first
Before any materials go in, the team agrees on camera, lens, and lighting with the client using an untextured grey clay model. “That removes the biggest source of rework: the client has already approved the composition, so later changes are about materials and details, not about moving the camera,” Sam says.
From clay to photoreal in Corona
With the views approved, the team built out the scene in stages. “We built the villa in 3D from the drawings, then added materials, furniture and the landscaping, rendered in Corona and finished the images in post.”
Since the light carried over from the approved clay model, materials and furniture were the main variables left to resolve in Corona. “The first full Corona preview is therefore close to the final image,” Sam notes.
Keeping feedback focused
Feedback followed the same pattern. “FT Architects sent notes in rounds, mostly about lights and furniture. We changed them on the 3D model and re-rendered.”
© 3Dstudio.co
The results: four marketing images, on time
3Dstudio.co delivered all four images in about three weeks, as FT Architects requested. FT Architects used them to market the villa ahead of completion. “They have since come back to us for further projects,” Sam says.
The Blue Sky project shows how a renderer with consistent, predictable behavior supports a business built on predictable pricing. With composition approved early and Corona handling the step from clay to photoreal, the studio could estimate each stage accurately and quote with confidence.
If your studio works to tight deadlines, find out why so many designers and artists choose Corona, or start a free Corona trial and test it on your next project.