Hi everyone! Sharing my latest hard-surface project: an industrial hydraulic actuator complete with an internal gear mechanism cutaway.
My main focus here was achieving a realistic heavy-industrial look, featuring worn and scratched cast-metal textures contrasted with machined steel rods and brass internal components.
A quick note on transparency: To be completely open, this was made with the help of AI tools in the workflow
Because of that, you might find some minor variations or quirks in the screws or small details (handling AI hallucinations was quite a ride!), but about 90% of the structure remains faithful to the final concept.
Modeled and textured in Blender. I’d love to hear your feedback on the texturing, wear details, and overall presentation!
Texturing & wear details look good. External pictures look good, did you use Cycles or Eevee for this?
The internal shot is where everything goes wrong. I mean, what am I looking at here? AI hallucinations? To me it looks like a bunch of random gears tossed around. The external pictures suggest it is a single-acting hydraulic cylinder which doesn’t have any gears inside. So the internal shot shows a complete lack of understanding what you are working with.
Can you share a couple of screenshots from blender with this model?
Hey Khamurai! To be completely transparent, I used Gemini to generate the concepts and other AI tools to upscale them to high resolution. No Blender modeling was involved—it’s part of an experiment creating visual reference packs for artists!
Hey Randy! Great eye. You nailed it—it’s entirely AI-generated (using Gemini and upscaled) rather than a traditional Blender mesh, which explains why the internal mechanics don’t align with real hydraulic physics! My goal with these is to build high-res visual reference packs for artists focusing on look-dev, texturing styles, and industrial aesthetics rather than accurate engineering CAD. Really appreciate the sharp feedback!
