The Glow channel in textures, combined with Raydiosity rendering enables us to create area lights. This tutorial deals with creating a simple neon sign using several path extrudes and glowing textures.The scene has no lights whatsoever. Delete the default directional light or click on its Make Construction checkbox.
The first –and fun– part of this tutorial is “writing” our own neon sign with the pen tool. Some suggestions:
- Keep it simple
- Beware self-intersection. Real glass tubes don’t self -intersect
- Be prepared for editing the path after extruding
After the sign is drawn, create a small circle and then make several copies of it, to make sure the tubes are of a consistent width. I suggest Alt+dragging several copies of the circle.
Path extrude the circle along the pen drawing and make any necessary edits you decide. A good suggestion is increasing the Number of Ribs per Segment if you have trouble with the path extrusion. Another good suggestion is creating the simplest path you can.
Aside from the neon sign, there are some wires, also path extruded, and small extruded pieces used to keep the pieces attached to the wall. The walls themselves are filled squares with a brick texture.
The Texture
The texture is simply an orange texture with a high glow value.
A Raytracing render will do us no good here. See what happens.
We need Raydiosity.
You can experiment with different glow values to create neon tubes with different intensities. In the example above, the “1”s have a glow value of 1000% and the “0” a value of 600%
That’s it. Easy, eh? 🙂
