| TUTORIAL
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ILLUSTRATOR • CINEMA 4D • PHOTOSHOP
NEON TYPE EFFECTS TIME NEEDED
10 hours INFO
Chris Weston is a recent design graduate whose worked appeared in last year’s Computer Arts Graduate Showcase. He is now an art director at Billington Cartmell, an integrated marketing agency in London. Find out more about his work at www.chrisweston designs.com.
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June 2006
Ever wanted to have your very own neon sign, but don’t fancy paying £800 for it? Imaging guru Chris Weston shows you how to recreate neon effects using Cinema 4D’s powerful 3D toolset and a little help from Photoshop Neon comes in all shapes and sizes and has become an iconic form of communication all over the world – from the glitzy attention-grabbing signs synonymous with Las Vegas, to the understated seediness of London’s Soho. Most designers have attempted to recreate these neon effects, but it can be hard to make the results look entirely realistic. The goal here is for you to follow the basic guidelines provided to create a neon sign with your own personal touches. Recreating signs you’ve seen around your home town is a great place to start and should give you plenty of inspiration. The best way to start this
tutorial is with your own textures. Here I’ve used a photograph of a wall outside my house and adjusted it in Photoshop. The bulk of this sign was created using Cinema 4D and its built-in tools, which enable you to create simple 3D shapes. But here you’ll add the all-important finishing touches – the smoke and graffiti – in Photoshop. The skills you’ll learn are transferable to many different 3D projects, so once you’ve finished this tutorial you’ll be able to create more complex and adventurous neon signs. Illustration and tutorial by Chris Weston www.chriswestondesigns.com
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Start by creating the wording of your sign in a vector app like Illustrator or by using Cinema 4D’s Spline tool. Alternatively, use the file Design Royale.ai on the CD. Create outlines for the neon and the metal casing. Import your vector lines into Cinema 4D and you can start making the basic shapes.
TUTORIAL |
MATERIAL EDITOR
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Focus on building the metal casing first, because this will be the boundary for any stray neon piping. Drag your vector line into Extrude NURBS to give it a polygon form. Next, give your polygon form a capped edge using the Extrude NURBS settings.
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Now create the neon piping that follows the edge of your metal casing. Take your vector line and drag it into Sweep NURBS. Now add a circular spline and change the circle’s width to fit within your metal casing.
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Pull the points and sections of your neon pipe backwards. This will enable you to fit the neon sign on to the wall later in this tutorial. Try to break your neon outline as often as possible because this seems to work well with this type of sign.
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Now let’s fit the neon to a wall. This is made from a simple plane, which can be found in the Cinema 4D presets by going to Objects>Primative>Plane. Position the sign so the neon piping is able to go through the back, hiding any unnecessary piping as you go.
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Now it’s time to add the bulbs. This can be a little boring, but line them up well and you will reap the rewards later. The bulbs are made up of small spheres – another simple preset built into Cinema 4D. Go to Objects>Primative>Sphere, then Copy and Paste the spheres into the metal casing.
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You’re now coming to the final stages, so you’ll need to add two textures before going into Photoshop. To add a texture to the wall and the metal casing, open the Material Editor and change the colour settings to an image. Now select wall.jpg on the CD or add your own background. Use the same method to add metal.jpg (also on the CD) to the casing.
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To light your moody brick wall, simply add a light with a target, change the Shadow settings to Soft Shadow and the Visible Light to Volumetric. This will give a soft shadow behind the sign and still give light to the wall. Now you’re ready to render the image.
The Material Editor is an integral part of this process and gives you the opportunity to texturise and apply colours to your object. It can be found at the bottom of the Cinema 4D default layout. Each section within the Editor gives you a different effect. When working on your neon sign, try altering your combinations for more varied results.
NURBS NURBS are the basis of simple modelling in Cinema 4D. They allow you to change options such as shape, size, width, capping and the number of polygons, to name but a few. If you want to change the size or shape of your object while you are following this tutorial, simply click on the NURBS object and a list of options will be shown in the bottom right-hand panel.
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You can now start adding textures. The glass-type textures required for the neon and bulbs should be a pretty easy job. Simply open up the Materials Editor and apply the following settings: Colour – Any, Luminance – 20 per cent, Transparency – 26 per cent and Reflection – 84 per cent. Next add a low level of glow and any other extras you want.
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For the final stage you will need to open Photoshop. Open your rendered image and up the contrast. Now add a few finishing touches such as the smoke and graffiti shown here. Use a soft brush to create the smoke effect and then scan in your own piece of graffiti and position it as required. And that’s it, your high-impact neon sign is complete.
June 2006
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