Overview / Usage

Intel's new Arc GPUs are poised to be absolute powerhouses. This is good news for gamers, but also AI-enthusiasts, because as we all know, AI loves to eat up GPU power. As such, I created what I envision an AI-powered robot would look like. The body is plated in modern-looking armor to protect the complex circuitry. The tubing is the cooling that I imagine a machine of this caliber would need -- it's glowing in the Arc color palette. The face has a smoothly-integrated display that is used for communication with the world -- the glowing purplish-blue is a powered-on indicator (also Arc-themed). As for the hands, they are a sort of mesh material that I would think would be necessary for complicated hand movement.

The potential use cases of a robot like this are practically unlimited. Assuming it has the range of motion of a human, it could be used for anything from manufacturing to search and rescue to home security.

We will eventually reach a point where AI robots like the concept I created will become a reality, and Intel Arc, combined with the new insanely-fast Alder Lake CPUs, are a huge leap in that direction.

If I win, I'm going to make a complex rig for this robot concept and use it for an AI/Arc-themed 3D short film.

Methodology / Approach

First, I sculpted a basic human form. Then, unwrapped the mesh and textured it with the circuitry texture as shown in the renders. After, I created the armor plates procedurally and manually with several modifiers (mirror, solidify, bevel). I applied a plastic material, added the Intel logo, then got to work on the head materials. I created the head materials in such a way that I could animate the face screen if I wanted to. Finally, I added the tubing using Bezier curves.

Technologies Used

Blender, Intel i7-4790k, GTX 970