Maxwell Render | Official public forum

Hi all,

A quick note to ask if anyone has developed a good material for neon signs. I saw one material that relies on producing a bitmap (which may very well work), but I am curious to know if anyone actually modeled the tubes, etc...

Here is a picture of what I am looking for...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/brianbutko/2454463048/

Cheers,

Tom.

You could model those tubes in reasonable time, at least with a polygon modeler.

Hi Adrian,

Modeling the tubes themselves is not a problem - its getting the quality of the light correctly, and the texture.

If you look at the link below you will see that there is a lot more to these tubes than simply modeling the tube!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cyberspace/27551125/

T.

i think that's something you'd have to explore in order to find out.... here's simball with pink emitter and ags casing.... a good starting point....
if you're wanting to mimic it exactly, you'd probably want a tube for your emitter, and a tube for your glass casement (obviously). glass casement would probably need to have correct thickness with some sss in it to simulate the light that's falling off inside the glass casement itself as seen in the links you have posted.... simplest solution is probably a glass material with emitter embedded in it, rendered with an aperture and scattering map (slight glowing effect), otherwise you're sign will be in the oven for years trying to clean itself up..... fun project nonetheless!

Did you see the latest v2 announcement? Specifically mentions how much easier neon will be. But I know that doesn't help you now!