Neon lights anyone?

Neon lights anyone?#303350

By piroshki - Tue Jun 30, 2009 6:31 pm

- Tue Jun 30, 2009 6:31 pm #303350

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.

Re: Neon lights anyone?#303354

By -Adrian - Tue Jun 30, 2009 6:50 pm

- Tue Jun 30, 2009 6:50 pm #303354

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

If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe
-Carl Sagan

Re: Neon lights anyone?#303379

By piroshki - Tue Jun 30, 2009 9:26 pm

- Tue Jun 30, 2009 9:26 pm #303379

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.

Re: Neon lights anyone?#303443

By rusteberg - Wed Jul 01, 2009 4:57 pm

- Wed Jul 01, 2009 4:57 pm #303443

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!