Water-cooled iPhone

Progress so far:
https://streamable.com/hu3hs

The Idea: To create an animation similar to a previous animation i did called Notifications.

https://gfycat.com/radiantnextbichonfrise

But have a water cooled pc built into the phone. Or a more accurate term would be a mineral oil PC i guess as the phone parts will be totally submerged inside the casing.

The goal is to have some sort of cominbation of actual iPhone internals and PC parts like GPU and motherboard.

Once the internals are modeled i’ll create a fluid sim using Flip Fluids. Then have an imessage notification drop into the water. I have already done a small test for that.

https://gfycat.com/sandylegitimateegret

Then i’ll either track the animation to my actual phone similar to this. Or i will just create the whole environment in 3d.

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Im using a iPhone x model which can be downloaded here. and i just deleted the front and back faces and extruding to make a casing.

01_2

For reference for the iPhone internals i found this image…

I just dragged that image into blender and started modelling the shapes out using the image as a guide. For the materials i just either projected the image onto the part or just used a principled shader.

taptics

Added the battery. The next step is to somehow adapt some of the aspects of a pc to integrate with the phone parts.

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So i decided having a more 3-dimensional bottom half would look better as if the space is there no point in everything being flat. Added some wires and redesigned the Taptic Engine. Still undecided if thats how the finished render will look, still a WIP.

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For references for the processor and motherboard i found these cool renders for the iphone a11 chip.

apple-a11-tex

I particularly like how the 2nd one is backlit and you just see a little bit of what looks like a motherboard or electronics.

So i set about trying to recreate that. I found this PC model on turbosquid that was made in Blender and couldnt resist buying it. I have been meaning to learn hard surface modelling, i have a few courses earmarked but i havent got round to it yet and have yet to find someone with those skills who would like to collaborate. So the easy option it is. I feel like i will probably have future uses for it as well so i’m willing to part with $35. Especially for something this detailed that would take me forever to make.

I added in the motherboard with some ram and changed the processor to an a15 cause you know this is supposed to be high tech. I backlit it just like the reference.

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Just a small update. Designed a graphics cards. I had to slot it in at the side as cant really have anything obstructing the centre area. Ive started covering up some of the motherbaord as i plan to have a screen displaying some stats in the centre of the phone so want to hide some detail.

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Started adding in the top 3rd. Some based on actual iphone parts with slight modifications.

Upgraded the look of the processor to something a bit newer and added in more wires. Still a few more wires to be added in and some more components. Added in the screen as well with date and time but will modify that as well at some point.

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I really like the concept of the project.
Solid hard surface modeling in here :slight_smile:
The only thing which bothers me is knowing about how big gpus and mainboards+ram are. That breaks the illusion of an phone for me :frowning:

Thanks for the comment!

I know what you mean. I have an obsession with miniature things though so thought it would be cool to have a mini GPU and motherboard. Once I have done a proper environment for the phone i think it will stop any idea of the phone being giant sized though.

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Put together a composite of the phone screen on my real phone. Still need to finish adding some details to the inside but hope to start simulating the water this week.

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After a long hiatus had some time to work on this. did a little motion tracking…

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Can’t believe so few comments - your work is amazing and concept is very creative/fascinating. Thanks for sharing with us!

No problem. I appreciate the nice comment.

Some more footage…

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Wow, really impressive !
Sad my firefox is bugged those days, can’t watch every videos you posted :frowning:

amazing work !

Yeah neither can I and i’m using chrome! What’s up with that?

Dont know why that is but i post all the videos on my Instagram as well @offshootuk

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@offshootuk is the work still in wip ?

It is, still a few things i want to do to it.