Hey I’m trying to make this look like a neon sign as a demo for a client. Any brilliant ideas on how to make the extruded bit look like tube?
I guess glowing effect would be cool too if blender does that? maybe light sources are a whole different can of worms. I’m mostly concerned with modeling the tube
Thanks, thats a beautiful file. I apologize but I don’t know what to look for.
Two questions:
Is it possible to convert an existing imported illustrator file (i know how to import) into that tube look or do I have to start designing it from scratch in blender? Most of our design work is already done in illustrator.
Could you point out the important parts to me?
I googled Bezier Curve, but I’m not sure what else I’m looking at. And I don’t know where to find the Bezier curve setting. It doesn’t seem to be under add modifier where I would expect it.
I think there is a way, but my head is kind of scattered right now. I think it would involve seperating your curve into pieces, and changing the settings. But the important settings on the bezier curve are ‘fill’ which is set to ‘none’, and bevel ‘resolution’, and ‘depth’.
(edit) there is also another function you may wish to look into called ‘bev ob’ where you use one curve to define the profile of another curve.
huh ok… this is all helpful. Can you tell me where I you got to Bezier curve since its not under add modifiers?
it’s in the add menu. same as adding a monkey or a cube, but look under the curve options instead of the mesh options.
cool thanks. I’ll play with it.
Thanks so uch for your help guys. I have played with this a bit. I can’t seem to find a way to convert an .ai design into this tube. It doesn’t really help me to draw it from scratch. Does anyone know how?
I don’t understand why you can’t do it from scratch. It seems like it’s just a matter of extruding and adjusting curves.
There’s no import plugin for .ai files in Blender that I’m aware of, but if I recall correctly Illustrator does export to .svg.
So save to .svg from Illustrator, and import .svg in Blender. If I’m thinking right, that should give you the kind of path you’re looking for. Also you might need to play with a few settings for export and import to get it right.
---- Edit after testing ----
Does work. 
Default settings for import/export seem ok.
One last thing… SVG imports somewhat tiny. You may want to select it from the outliner and scale up. Then apply the bevel under curve settings, not with the modifier. That way you’ll have the tube that’ll render instead of a plain path that doesn’t.
Oh no I have the .ai file imported into Blender as .svg already. Its flat. I want to turn it into 3D tube. I’ve learned how to extrude but thats not round like tube.
Do you understand what I’m asking? How do I take a line and convert it to tube - instead of - selecting the tube and then drawing the line from scratch like that guys example earlier.
For example heres a project… I’ve got this imported file. And the H is selected. How do I make it tube? Please refer to attached image.
Ahhhhh In case anyone else wants to know this is how you do it:
Blend Swap you tube neon tut by KBeres:http://www.blendswap.com/blends/view/72675
3:10 min in
Shift + A
text - type in what you want
properties panel
right side font settings
align origin to center
change the font. he is not using a default font. provides download link
then convert into a spline/curve
Alt + C curve from mesh or text - nothing appears to change but then if you change to edit mode you can see the dots and curves
in edit mode please select the B
scroll down on properties panel un-select The U box
it gets rid of faces. do this for all the faces.
Once they are all gone then you want to extrude it just slightly.
in Geometery modification push twice for .002 under extrude
add solidify modifier
add subdivision surface modifier
change thickness to something thinner and then add subdivision for smooth curve
you can thicken by changing extrude or thickness
done.
out of edit mode
Alt +C changes it to mesh surface
8:30 into video:
no lights in the scene. he deleted something with the green blue red arrows
select the neon sign
split view
arrow is automatically selected in his demo on bottom menu
select node editor which is next to view
N add a new material
name it neon light on right in panel
delete diffuse black box on left
create new shader - emission shader
connect the black box to the pink box he refers to as the surface
strength 25 in black box
color box
set up as white emitted auto.
up the saturation a bit in that same color boxx just a different tab
you can adda glass shader onto it but he did not do that.
then he goes into how to do the brick wall background
sweet thanks Otto. Thats super rad but how do you think I should use it for neon signs?
