More Advanced Neon Signs
Added 2020-09-03 09:49:50 +0000 UTCH'OKAY SO yes, it's fairly easy to make a text outline glow and call it a day. But what if you want to make something that holds up to some sort of scrutiny?? I wanted to make a HyperBole neon sign with a few more polygons, so if you're interested in that, here's a video!
Also, I was fairly proud of my "linear-gradient-to-separate-the-front-bits-from-the-back" solution, but on a dark whim I just decided to check out how Andrew Price did it and he tackled that specific issue the EXACT same way (and I suspect he explained it better)- but EH! That's just gonna happen sometimes!
And such as they are, here are the little bits I said I'd release in the video (the transformer/mounts):
Right click save as:
Blender version
FBX
Additional notes!
- Adding a subtle solidify modifier on the glass tube can increase the realism a tad (though at a cost to render time, I believe)
-At one point I wanted to bevel the glass tube once I'd converted it into a mesh, and had trouble. A quick "merge by distance" pass fixed all of that in an instant.
- The original version of this video was over an hour and a half long, so I decided to record it- half of that original time was spent trying to create a dust particle system, which ended up being alright, but I think I want to try to optimize it a bit before I put it in a tut (it brought my machine to a crawl, which is a hefty price to pay for dust, haha)
Comments
Hi Ian. Great stuff. I also had that "which way is it" when doing gradients with the mapping node. Now I always use generated coords through a seperate xyz node and then put a colorramp/map range/less than on the desired local axis. In this case you would have thought Y, but actually Z because the Text is rotated by 90 degrees. And because your using generated coords, it uses the object's bounds ranging from 0 to 1.Keep up the wildly entertaining tuts!
2020-11-10 13:14:54 +0000 UTCReally enjoyed this tutorial, I managed to make a massive improvement on the neon signs I made from the lazy tutorial and found the texture projection step very useful for adding little bits of detail to objects and scenes!
2020-10-28 22:08:57 +0000 UTCExcellent!
Phillip Park
2020-09-13 23:32:31 +0000 UTC20:20 --- i actually lol'ed
Luke L
2020-09-09 23:32:50 +0000 UTCnice! You can get a better "feel" for the vectors in the Mapping node by using Normal balls . I have an example if you would like to try - you can also animate the vectors easier this way since the normal ball changes all 3 parts of the vector instead of just one part https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Ial4z83DwO7aW_iy4eyylE1Qywn6HniQ/view?usp=sharing
2020-09-09 05:34:45 +0000 UTCSince i'm on "GO EEVEE!" team doing this with volumes doesn't quite work, BUT I found out that using facing input as transparency factor can give similar results. It looks kinda funky if you're looking at it up close at 45 degree angle, but i think it's very much usable. https://youtu.be/0RsGCSOoIyY
Kennisoan
2020-09-07 09:55:13 +0000 UTCThe Texty army will rise up
Kai Christensen
2020-09-05 23:03:59 +0000 UTChey thanks for reply me! I solved the problem, volumetric emitter value was too low, now is perferct! so can I ask you if possibile some tuts to improve rendering? i dont know maibe how to use render pass or composing...
2020-09-05 14:24:48 +0000 UTCThat's another great one too though make yourself repeat the same creative task over and over and boredom/desire for the new forces you to evolve. Great image to have burnt into your muscle memory! Have a great weekend.
Dewi
2020-09-05 12:52:05 +0000 UTCNathan this is just one of my many many regrets.
Ian Hubert
2020-09-05 10:41:17 +0000 UTCYou mean in my render, or results you're getting? Because for my render, I agree- it kind of just looks like a solid wire. Right now it's two volumetric layers, a super bright core, and an outer softer layer. I suspect if I added a few more gradations it might make it look a bit softer/better.
Ian Hubert
2020-09-05 10:40:50 +0000 UTCThis is crazy cool. (Though I'm a little disappointed you didn't go with "Texty", ha ha.)
Nathan Vegdahl
2020-09-04 13:01:18 +0000 UTCI love it but I ve some problems with emission, i dont know is super fake light ... not plasma and I dont know why
2020-09-04 10:55:48 +0000 UTCYes!! And so much of it is based on habit. I have all these little 6 poly "solutions" to problems I invented back in like 2010, and I just haven't bothered to update how I do things since then. In high school I took an art class, and we had to draw portraits of some famous person over and over, so I drew Louis Armstrong like 20 times, and that's just the only way I draw faces now. Everyone's kinda Louis Armstrong playing a trumpet.
Ian Hubert
2020-09-03 21:11:38 +0000 UTCSuper cool!
Phillip Park
2020-09-03 21:00:01 +0000 UTCHis Making A Shot Part 2 actually goes pretty far into lighting, and he’s got a great video on a few basic compositing techniques (I think it’s called a bit of post production or something like that)
Kai Christensen
2020-09-03 18:22:36 +0000 UTCAwesome as always! tons of little tricks constantly. love it. One thing for why the axis changes everytime, could it be because you're on generated? If you use Normal (or object?), I believe it will use the object's "local" space to determine axis, that way you can rotate it and move it and it'll keep the same direction. Not at my computer atm, but can double check later.
Gehrig Campbell-Dempsey
2020-09-03 16:12:07 +0000 UTCthank you ian for the great tuts but... i was wondering if you could do an full in depth lighting and compositing tutorial
2020-09-03 15:44:57 +0000 UTCThank you for this!
2020-09-03 14:09:21 +0000 UTCGreat tutorial. Loved it from the image preview onwards. That concept that quality is really a function of being bothered to do what you already can resonates forever.
Dewi
2020-09-03 12:26:59 +0000 UTCThese look great, especially close-up! Will definitely use this in a few projects to make my super un-cool city look cooler. Is the particle system something you'd also be up for sharing? Because that looks really solid too.
KaJuPe
2020-09-03 12:14:27 +0000 UTCSoooo good tutorial. I loved the one from Andrew for sure, but then I was more inexperienced, I dig this concise stuff now :D
Mornarion
2020-09-03 12:09:52 +0000 UTCYes. Yeass.
Zachary Macintyre
2020-09-03 11:03:21 +0000 UTC
