Create a glowing neon sign
Posted on 09. May, 2009 by Andrew Price in Compositing, Lighting, Modeling, Tutorials
Perfect for advertisements, logos and animations! This tutorial teaches you useful techniques such as modeling with curves, creating a glow effect and making a curve emit light.
Today we’re going to learn how to create this cool neon sign:
The tutorial will take approximately 30 minutes to complete, and you will learn the following:
- Modelling with curves
- Make a curve emit light
- Isolate a render layer
- Using glow and glare effects
Ready? Let’s begin…
Creating the Neon Tube
Add a Bezier Circle and move it to last layer. This will be the radius of our tube.
Add a Bezier Curve to the first layer, and make the Bev Object “Curve Circle”
As you can see the result is circle is far too big for our curve, so enter the edit mode and press Alt+S to scale it down to a more realistic size.
Forming the letters
This step is by far the most time consuming task. Using your path forming skills, form the shape by adding and arranging handles to suit.
If you are new to curves, you might like to check out the BlenderWiki curve guide.
But if you want to wing it, these are the important keys to remember:
Ctrl+Click – Add handle
R – Rotate handle
G – Move handle
Ctrl (whilst rotating) – Rotate in increments of 5 degrees.
Repeat this for the rest of the letters. To save time, try duplicating the first letter and moving the handles around as needed.
Half an hour later...
Adding the neon material
Select your first letter and add a new material as follows:
Rather than selecting each letter one by one and applying the material we are going to use the ‘Make Links’ function to save time. Hold down Shift and select the rest of the word, making sure you select the first letter last. Then hit Ctrl+L and click Materials from the popup menu.
Because the word ‘guru’ in our sign is a different color, we are going to be assigning a different material to the blue one. Select the first letter and add the blue neon material we just created. Click the number next to the material name to make it a single user and rename it to PinkNeon. Then change the color as follows:
Just like we did above, hold down shift and select the rest of the letters in ‘guru’ and press Ctrl+L and select Materials. Each letter should now have a material and be looking something like this:
Creating the highlights
To give the neon tube a more three dimensional appearance, add two spotlights and position one above the words and one below the words as follows:
Set the energy for the top spotlight to 0.9 and 0.4 for the bottom spotlight and select ‘Layer’ for both. This will make the spotlights only affect the neons, instead of the entire scene.
Making the Neons emit light
Add a lamp and parent it to the first letter by first selecting the lamp then the letter and hitting Ctrl+P. Select the letter and go to the Editing Panel (F9) and select ‘CurvePath‘
Clear the origin of the lamp by pressing Alt+O. The lamp should have snapped into place at the start of the curve.
With the lamp still selected go to the Object Panel (F7) and select DupliFrames and set DupOff to 1
This will create duplicates of the lamp along the curve. The DupOff value decreases the number of those duplicates by half so there aren’t so many.
Go to the Shader settings (F5) and change the color and energy settings as follows:
Make sure you click 'Layer'
Now if we render the neon against a plane we should see a faint glow.
Perfect!
Repeat this step for all other letters. Then select all the lamps you just created (making sure the lamp you created first, is selected last) hit Ctrl+L and select ‘Lamp Data‘. That will make every lamp have the same data, so if we want to change the lamp settings in the future it is a lot easier.
Finally move all the spherical lamps to the second layer. The first layer should only contain the words and the spotlights we created earlier.
Your scene should now look like this:
Creating the scene
The scene you want to create is entirely up to you, but mine was essentially two planes, one for the floor and one the wall. For added realism, I also made a metal frame and added some cables as well as black neon backing tubes, but this is optional. Once you have your scene setup the way you want, move everything to the second layer so that the first layer only contains the neons and highlighting lamps.
If you want the exact textures I used for the wall and floor you can download them here: Floor texture – Wall texture
Your scene should now look like this:
Creating the final composition
Click the Render Layers tab in the Scene Panel (F10) and change the name of the scene to ‘Neon’.
Add a new scene by selecting ‘ADD NEW’ from the drop down menu. Change the name of this layer to ‘Scene’. In the second row of layer boxes, deselect the first layer and select the second layer instead.
We are now going to switch over to the node compositor, so change the 3d view to the ‘Node Editor‘.
Click the button with a picture of a face on it. This will switch from Material Nodes to Composite Nodes
Delete the connection between the layer and composition by dragging your mouse over the connection. Then add two blur nodes (Add>Filter>Blur) with the following settings:
Merge the two blur node effects by connecting them to an AlphaOver node (Add>Color>AlphaOver) and set the Fac value to 0.60
Add a Glare node (Add>Filter>Glare) and connect it to the renderlayer with the following settings:
Now we are going to connect the Glare node with the output from the two blur nodes, so add another AlphaOver node and set the Fac value to 0.50. This will make the blur glow effect not as strong:
Now add a Mix node (Add>Color>Mix) and from the drop down menu select Screen. Then connec it with the output from the AlphaOver node, and the output from the render layer.
Now add an RGB curve (Add>Color>RGB Curves) and create a slight ‘S’ shape with the curve. This will increase both the brightness and contrast, giving it a more vivid glow.
We are now going to adding the render layer which contains the Wall and Floor. So go to Add>Input>Render Layers, and change the active layer to scene.
Now add an RGB curve (Add>Color>RGB Curves) after this layer and bend the curve down slightly in the middle which will make the scene slightly darker.
We are now going to connect the two scenes together, so add another Mix node (Add>Color>Mix) and again, change it to Screen from the drop down menu. Connect the output from the two RGB curves like so:
For an added touch of step we are going to add a lens distortion node (Add>Distort>Lens Distortion). This will mimic a reversed fisheye lens and add some slight chromatic abbreation. Connect the output from the last AlphaOver node to the lens distortion node and apply these settings:
Connect the output from the Lens Distortion to the Composite node and your composite is complete!
The finished setup (click for big)
Now go to the Scene panel (F10) and hit ‘Do Composite’ then render! If you can see a blue background at all, then you will need to change that to black in the World settings panel (F5).
If you enjoyed this tutorial, please leave me a comment. If you got stuck at any steps along the way let me know and I’ll be happy to help.
89 Responses to “Create a glowing neon sign”
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16. Jun, 2010
[...] http://www.blenderguru.com/create-a-glowing-neon-sign/ — the past few days, I’ve been trying to learn Blender. This really got me started on letters, title intro graphics, etc. [...]
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Cybercoolable
27. Apr, 2010
Can you plz make a video tutorial because i’m new to blender and and this is very complex!!
Ickathu
30. Apr, 2010
On the pink neon lights, should i set the light color as the same as my pink letters? I hope that makes sense lol, btw, love this website! awesome tuts
Thomas
01. May, 2010
Thanks, very precise and informative !
mark foley
04. May, 2010
Thanks! It looks great, but like the earlier person I did get lost quite a bit – a video tutorial would be fantastic!
Blendboom
10. May, 2010
Maybe it would be easyier for someone to use Text, convert it to a curve and set the bevel-object. I used this and just added the other tho tubes. You get the Main shape easier and faster ; )
Blendboom
christian
15. May, 2010
this is great but i hit a roadblock. when i cannot select the letters of my sign individually to make a glow for each of them. PLEASE HELP!!!
Will
15. May, 2010
i cant get everything to work perfectly But!! the floor texture can you assist me by any chance
Will
15. May, 2010
i can get everything to work perfectly But!! the floor texture can you assist me by any chance
Type-o
Taylor
16. May, 2010
Well it was certainly a step up from just drawing cubes. Like many other people have stated, a video would be great. I can’t select the letter individually either so I was only able to make the glow for the ‘b’, and it was kinda red even though I made it blue???
Something good though to do when bored. :)
Will
16. May, 2010
Nevermind i got it working thanks yall
Jono
16. May, 2010
It would be nice to be able to download your text tutorials in PDF format…Can this be done?
Missxu
17. May, 2010
Great tutorial. I have a real trouble with the curves, is there any way to have get them straight and stuff? Do you have to type the rotation degree?
–
Missxu
JB
22. May, 2010
A video tutorial please! because I am new to blender
Sharni
01. Jun, 2010
Hey Andrew, just wondering, how did you get the spacing so exact between each of the rows of neon in each letter? Is there something I have missed? My letter (I’ve only done one!) looks like someone took it out, ran it over and then got it put back into shape by a panel-beater!
Chichox
02. Jun, 2010
CAPOO
Chlak Droy
02. Jun, 2010
Personally, I think I would press the No Specularity button for the lamp that is supposed to “emit” light.
Andrew, Uganda
04. Jun, 2010
Great tutorial Andrew. But problem is if there are many letters you want to glow, there is no way you can make individual curves for each one. Is there a way of just getting the text, convert it to curves and then apply the bevel?
Please help!
Almart
08. Jun, 2010
What Blender version do I need to make this work ?
Isak
09. Jun, 2010
Hi, I just mapped materials to the wall and floor instead of using textures and that went well.
But when I render the whole thing with the “do composite” on and the nodes in order I can just see the letters, nothing else.
D:
Please help me on this issue!
It’s really annoying having just the letters hanging there!
Isak
09. Jun, 2010
Sorry, a typo:
Used basic marble textures instead of the pictures.
Isak
10. Jun, 2010
Never mind it fixed itself! ;D
Jack
11. Jun, 2010
Sir,how can I make the “cables” and ” black neon backing tubes” ?
I just do the steps to the “creating the scene” , and I can’t follow the steps after that .
Pavan
14. Jun, 2010
Video Plz
Antor
15. Jun, 2010
I’d like a video! :)
I just downloaded Blender yesterday (but knew about it long ago)….or maybe this just isn’t a beginner tutorial?
Varun
26. Jun, 2010
Hey man can you please teach me Node Editor please,please,please,please
Mike
29. Jun, 2010
I do admit that I find myself wondering whether this tutorial is a bit more complicated than it needs to be … specifically with regard to “the actual source of the light.”
In my puny experience, I find that “making the object appear to emit light” and “providing the light that the object would (in the real world…) emit” are actually two entirely different things. The strategy adopted by this tutorial makes the tubes “literally, THE source of the light.” But I suspect that an equally convincing effect could have been achieved by taking advantage of the fact that “a CG light source” can be right there in plain view and not be seen.
Mitchel
30. Jun, 2010
how do i make it a curve circle in 2.5?
yusuf
06. Jul, 2010
thank very much for your teaching
arkidillo
10. Jul, 2010
For some reason,for the render layers, I cant select both the first and second, only 1.
carla
18. Jul, 2010
bueno me parecio super malo
no entendi nadaaa
creo ke el tutorial no sirve
o ke volaaa
:s
ya xaooo
prefiero photoshop
ajsajsjjajsjsj
xD
Corey Reynolds
31. Jul, 2010
Here’s what I did with you tutorial: http://shard.truebaptist.org/images/wallpaper/ShardTubes.jpg
I saw in another place that you like to see what others do with your lessons.
Thank you so much for your work!
Arne Uten
11. Aug, 2010
I think the website of blender is out of use it’s really slow. Maybe they’re doing a maintenance. But anyway I like your lessons but when I try to make something like this neon lights, I can’t work with that handles.
But I’m trying and trying!!!
Thank you!!
Virion
23. Aug, 2010
I think you can convert this tutorial into version 2.5 and use mesh lighting! much easier!
Miki
27. Aug, 2010
Hello, I have problem, when I made some letters and go to Object Mode, so I couldn´t choose one letter (click on it), but it automatically chose all letters, WHY? pls answer
Here is screen: http://img826.imageshack.us/img826/2626/screeniu.jpg
I am sorry for my low English level.
Muslis
28. Aug, 2010
Miki, Probably you ad the besier curve in edit mode. That made the letters the same mesh. You have to duplicate each curve in object mode. Sorry for the english level too!
Roy Tousignant
01. Sep, 2010
This tutorial was exactly the right speed for my intermediate level of Blender knowledge. I’ve never worked on multiple layers before, nor have I ever used nodes to process and composite. Nevertheless, the tutorial held my hand just enough to get me over the bigger humps without holding me back to explain the simple stuff.
A very good tutorial, Mr. Price, thank you.
I’ll only pause to mention that, choosing a different color for my neon bulb, I ended up with some splotches of color corruption in the form of hot pink, over-exposed areas. I wasn’t sure how to deal with it, but I achieved some success by bringing back the emitter value to .9 and lowering the energy of the spots on layer 1.
Now that I think of it, though, maybe I should’ve just chosen a darker hue for my bulb…
Roy Tousignant
01. Sep, 2010
By the bye… Here’s what I used it for:
http://tvopiate.blogspot.com/2010/08/simple-neon-arrow.html
oscar
10. Sep, 2010
damn! this is good.. its a bit difficult doing it and I haven’t finish it yet!..