August
Espresso Bar

“A great coffee place in the heart of Prague”

The Brief

The new espresso bar under the August brand in the heart of Prague. The new interior design and visuals were created by Anna Podroužková. By paring the space down to its bones, we let its true character shine. We paired dramatic, large-stone terrazzo with raw masonry vaults illuminated by wall-to-wall LED accents. At the heart of the design are two rippled stainless steel bars, inspired by the organic shapes of dough being kneaded.

The task was to create a couple of interior still images and one exterior — using a photograph of the actual location, across from the Palladium shopping center, right in the heart of Prague.

The Process

Because I needed the main facade of the building to place the bar into, I took several photos from across the street. We experimented with perspective views for a while, but the frontal view was the obvious one — it just works best. I also wanted to get a tram on the edge of the frame, so I shot multiple ones coming into view. Between the old and new tram designs, the old one was the winner — it pretty much defines the “Prague look”.

I also took images from the opposite side for the views outside of the bar. It’s right across from the Palladium shopping center designed by SIAL. With its iconic facade elements, I knew it would play nicely in the tall bar windows — even if we only saw a small part of it.

I shot everything during the day in overcast light because for the main exterior view I knew I could relight it with Nano Banana Pro into the right dusk/evening atmosphere, keep it under control, and dial it in as needed.

The main view also deserved some much-needed beauty retouch — we don’t want to straight up lie about the place, but we are in the pretty images business after all…

I got the design from her as a Datasmith export from Rhino. She also gave me some of her working cameras from the scene — cameras she creates during the design process to evaluate the space from important angles and perspectives. I also got a bunch of references from her Pinterest board, plus all the necessary info on materials and real products used — lamps, bar and coffee-making equipment, and so on.

We discussed and went back and forth on the colors and materials of the floor, chairs, and other elements as the scene came together. Working closely with an architect and understanding real-world products and surface materials — always a big learning experience for me.

The Assets

Some objects in the interior are actual products the client wants to use, or things Anna is placing into her design — lamps, coffee machines, washing basins, etc. For those, the manufacturer usually provides a 3D model, and it can be used directly — which is awesome.

Like this glorious pendant light that dominates the bar — the P376.

For other elements, I used models from the usual suspects — CGTrader, FAB, and Turbosquid. Similar to other archviz projects, I also got help from AI modeling tools for specific products I couldn’t find 3D models for. The brewing machine, milk machine, glass rinser, faucets, and one fruit tartlet :) were all AI-generated using the Hyper 3D Rodin model.

Camera Views, Rendering & Finishing

The biggest task was finding the best angles and agreeing on them with Anna — how to best showcase the space. She already provided a couple of working cameras as a starting point, and then I kept iterating until she was happy with the final selection.

I really enjoy being able to tweak the composition with all the elements and lighting in a full 3D scene inside Unreal Engine. Thanks to the local color-correcting windows in the scene and the overall grade, I got pretty close to the final look directly in-engine.

All renders are done in Lumen. I decided I didn’t want to first work in Lumen and then switch to Path Tracing and juggle two visual styles (and two sets of optimization). What I see while working in the scene is what I want to render. And honestly, in 5.6, Lumen is getting pretty fucking close to PT.

Final retouches were done in Photoshop — adding people using Nano Banana Pro (also inside PS), then upscaling with Magnific AI, and finishing with a final light color grade in DaVinci Resolve.

The Conclusion

This was a great chance to build on the workflow and things we figured out with Anna on the first project, August Bakery. I think I spent the most time figuring out the texture and look of the walls. They had to feel like scraped plaster with organic mistakes, but still look visually pleasing overall.

Oh — and I really enjoyed tenderly placing pastry on that giant wavy chrome! 😅

Thanks for checking out the project!