Breakdown of a garbage truck creation

Srl1 · May 9, 2026, 9:26pm

2026 week 19 Blender collaboration “Futuristic/Cyberpunk vehicle” after deciding to participate, I knew that I wanted to make some kind of big utility vehicle, and a garbage truck felt like an interesting idea. I big fan of grounded style vehicle design, so with all those constraints in mind and trying to refresh my memory of lessons learned through courses, the process started.

Process walkthrough

-Step 1:
To make the idea clearer, I took “Brief builder” to develop the idea further, and these are 9 random words that it gave to add more constraints to the project:

Tracked
Thick
Dusty
Reinforced
Suspension
Winch
Cargo
Utility
Cockpit

-Step 2:
Reference gathering

-Step 3:
Sketch some ideas

-Step 4:
The next step I did was a block out in Blender.

-Step 5:
After that took an image of it and, in an image manipulation app, did some overpainting to visualise the style of the vehicle, main details, and forms. This type of idea generation I adopted from one of the design courses I took, and it works very well for me personally. These images are usually only for my eyes, so it doesn’t matter how it looks. Usually, the main purpose is to get ideas flowing, and this is a very fast process of doing so. For the images, I usually use the GIMP app, but lately started experimenting with this new app called ArcBrush, which lets me do everything with nodes and wires, so that interesting process by itself.

I do this every time I feel stuck or a new round of details needs to be added. By the way, details are usually added in 3 rounds (main forms, middle details, and tertiary details). If going deeper into the process, the best is to keep the 70-30 rule, to not overcomplicate the model. And there are a lot more designing guides that I myself am still digging into, so not enough experience to talk about them.
Also, to save time, some of the repeating details are used from the JROtools hard surface kit bashing pack.

-Step 6:
Time to decide end look (COLORS)

Here I experimented with colors by trying to copy real-life examples, also done in an image manipulation app for time-saving. After that, all coloring was done in Blender shader nodes.

-Step 7:
Final renders and some post-processing. A few 3D renders to show the design.

It was a fun project to participate in, and while I’m not fully happy with it, this was one hell of an experience to do everything in such a short time. The thing that saved the most time was the decision to do everything in Blender only (everything that involves the model) and use procedural materials, because of no need to do UVs, probably the biggest time saver, for this project.
This is a very compressed breakdown of the process. I’m not a big writer, but I made this in the hope that it helps or inspires someone into the creative process of their own.

For the ending words, if anyone is interested, No AI was used in the process. While I’m not against AI, I also don’t use it in creative processes of anything, because I just like the whole process of creation to do myself.

I hope it was a good read. Now go create something!

FedPete · May 10, 2026, 9:30am

AirBrush, a very interesting approach. Unfortunately not available for Linux, but perhaps a clone will be released.

It aligns somewhat with Blender post-processing.

By the way, details are usually added in 3 rounds (main forms, middle details, and tertiary details). If going deeper into the process, the best is to keep the 70-30 rule, to not overcomplicate the model.

true!

Composition

Cinematic Composition ~ Studio binder

Rule of thirds
Balance (left vs right)
Depth - for example: blurring the background, object in front (leaves).
Leading lines - like bridges, line on floor, ceiling, streets.
Symmetry -
Dominant subject - fill the frame without distractions
Head room / Leading room - like eyes on 2/3 of the frame (top line of rule of thirds), but still some room above the head. leading room, where people look to.
Break the rules

Just, my two cents …
Pete

Srl1 · May 10, 2026, 12:05pm

The developer of Arcbrush is working on the Linux version, and he lets test it in discord.
Though it’s not very Blender-like, more Photoshop (or gimp), but in nodes, and more limited for now, but Blender can do everything, that’s true

NP5 · May 10, 2026, 4:45pm

Very organised and planned. Great process if your mind works that way.

I am not convinced the future would use tracked vehicles, we could now but no one does for road vehicles. It does though give it a very different so futuristic, look!

In the near future they will probably be autonomously driven, and bins collected by robots in some form, to move standard bins to the loading end.

They will definitely be Electric, not duel oil powered.

Very good end result with all the texturing as well.

Srl1 · May 10, 2026, 5:39pm

Thank you
That’s the workflow I adopted last year after taking two different hard-surface design courses at Learn Squared. I took the parts that worked best for me and combined them into my own process. Of course, in practice it’s a bit looser than it looks here, but it helps me a lot, especially the overpaint parts on top of the images. Those are a literal gold mine for the brain.
Mainly use it when creating something original. If there’s a strong reference to follow, then this kind of planning doesn’t really have much use.
I think this is only the third time I’ve worked like this, but it’s the first project that actually reached something close to a finish line, if I’m being honest. The more I think about it, the more I feel that having a proper deadline probably helped the most.

Dwayne · May 10, 2026, 8:17pm

This is great and I think it will help some people in trying to figure out their own workflows. The end result looks great. To continue the education on the

Just a few notes on tools that people may not be aware that blender has.

Under windows menu in the top bar, you have save screenshot and save screenshot(Editor). The editor one will let you select the editor window and screenshot that one instead of the entire blender window.
In the 3D Viewport in the view menu, you have render viewport image.
My personal favorite. Annotation tool. This can be done inside of blender. No need for another program. The pencil icon on the toolbar when in object mode. Change the placement from 3D cursor to surface. This allows you to draw on the mesh. I do each side as a separate layer. Note: once you have surface set you can go back to the select tool and then just hold D and hold left mouse button down. Then you can let go of D and draw until you let go of the left mouse button.
For more advance drawing using the mesh as the canvas, you can use Grease Pencil. Add a grease pencil object. Switch to draw mode. Change the Stroke placement(In the header) from the default of Origin to Surface.
There is also quick edit in texture paint mode that allows a quick way to switch back and forth from a 2D graphic program. This does require some setup, but is very handy in some case. For quick sketching, I wouldn’t use it but it is an option often overlooked. If you want more info here is a youtube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oW7zKbylReI&t=6s
Side Note: The quick edit options can also be access from options drop down in the header and Options panel on the Tools tab of the n-Panel. The video does show this.
Just because someone will point it out, Yes you can use texture paint mode. Again I’m just mentioning tools that are often overlooked or not known to new users.

Srl1 · May 11, 2026, 8:48am

Thanks for the great add-up, Dwayne. I personally always forget that the annotation tool even exists.

On another note, ArcBrush has just been released on Linux. That was fast.
@FedPete also just finished watching that youtube video you shared earlier, good stuff to think about, thank you for sharing

FedPete · May 11, 2026, 9:59am

ArcBrush works on Linux, but could not find the features I’m looking for.
But I played with it for 5 min.

It feels like being a beta version.

Srl1 · May 11, 2026, 10:41am

Yeah, I got the same feeling about it feeling like a beta, but it just released. I think it has potential. Also, in the documentation, there’s a section called “Workflow Recipes.” That one is very helpful.