http://www2.indigorenderer.com/joomla/i ... emId=16133
How I did it: (I'd like to share the knowledge, as I have needed the knowledge of others in the past
)1. Create a text object in blender.
2. Convert it to a curve (ALT+C).
3. Create a small bezier circle, that has diameter=thickness of the neon tube that you want. Call it BevelCircle.
4. In the editing panel of your text (curve object) type BevelCircle in the BevOb: Field. The text now looks like soe closed tubes
5. Convert it to a mesh (ALT+C again).
6. Faff about for ages making all the breaks/joins, extra bits of tubes to make it all one piece. (this step took me the longest to complete).
What you now have is the outer, coloured part of the tubing.
I gave it this material:
Specular, glossy_transparent: exponent 400, precedence 10, ior 1.40, absorption RGB (1.0, 0.4, 0.05), SSS Uniform 7.0.
To make it glow:
1. Duplicate your tube mesh.
2. Go into edit mode, select all and Shrink/Fatten to make it smaller (ALT+S).
3. due to the conversion form curves, you may find that some of the mesh oes a bit weird or inside out. I spent time here tidying it up by hand. (this was the 2nd longest part of the procedure).
4. Give this thinner tube a LIGHT material: Blackbody gain 0.1, temperature 5000.
That's it. You may have to change your light gain according to your scene, of course. Mine was balanced against an EXR of gain 15.
The black parts of the tube I created in the same way, except using ALT+S to make it a bit larger, and then used a black diffuse material.
