The process proved to add a quite realistic look to the scene but, at the same time, added a lot of size to the textures used in the project and demanded a lot of retouching e.g removing cables from the facades or getting rid of shiny materials on doors and windows.
The second option was to build all the locations from scratch using conventional 3D modelling and texturing techniques.
In the end, I decided to mostly do every asset from scratch to have enough flexibility to design the 3D environment, in total, it took me over three months to build a fragment of typical Colombian city spread across a 5 by 5 array of blocks.
It is worth mentioning that I did use google maps to navigate the cities of Medellín and Envigado to get inspired and also to get the footage I needed to replicate architectural features of two emblematic buildings.