Neon Light (boy racer?)

[Sinbad]

I know this may sound a little tacky, but I'm looking to create a neon light under a car
(like the ones used on film fast and furious or in the game need for speed)
It needs to be like a strip light and be able to project the light down onto the road
and not through the side of the car.

Is there an easy way to get this effect?

Will I have to use multiple lights in a row?

Or is this just to boy racer?

Any help with this would be most appreciated.

Cheers

Sinbad

[pheonex]

for 3dsmax:
if you dont mind using advanced light calculations:
make the neon tube:
make a spline in the shape of the light tube,
make it renderable, set its width params etc

make it a neon:
assign a material to it,
turn up the self illumination to 100
make the difuse, ambient, and specular a nice fluoro colour, like bright green
assign an effect id to it
in the "effects" panel add a lens effect:glow, and set the properties to however you like them (but set source colour to 100) and set it to affect the mat id you set for the fluoro material.

as long as you have radiosity enabled this should look pretty swish, other wise you will see nothing from above the car.

[Sinbad]

THX pheonex I tried that but found that it wouldn't glow if it wasn't visible and as the light is under the car it didn't work for me (I could have do something wrong I don't now)
I discovered that you can have a rectangular light and alter the aspect ratio, so messed about with the settings and came up with this.
http://img137.exs.cx/img137/7498/neon9vq.jpg

Cheers

Sinbad

[pheonex]

ya cool, if that works for you then great!

as with the way i described, ya really got to fiddle around with settings to get it to do anything (its probly more trouble than its worth).
sorry it didnt work for you, glad you found a way to make it work.

looks a little like spraypaint on the ground...if you want a neon effect I highly recommend this free plugin.The results are almost exact to neon and it looks very nice.Is easy to use also.....

http://plugins.angstraum.at/index.htm

ciao

made this with simple material and light setup...no radiosity needed.If you want the file let me know

ciao

[Sinbad]

pheonex >>> THX m8 like I said it was problebly my fault , but thanks again.

[Sinbad]

Lorenzo Maggi >>> Just downloaded the file I'll let you know how I get on. Got to be better than mine.

Cheers

ok...the image I posted isi`nt from the plugin.It`s something I made myself.
My method takes less time to render as there`s no radiosity solution to calculate.
It`s just skylight and bounces and a standard material with illumination set to output.If you want my sample file just lemme know....

ciao

[Sinbad]

Yes please
just had a go with the plugin but its just black no light at all, I wonder if its not for max 6. I'll use pm to send my address to you

Cheers

no it works fine for Max5....you have to turn on raytracer in advanced light perameters.Then calculate a solution then you can render your scene.
To get a decent result can take a long time.
Sure I`ll send the file no problem....any comments or questions about it just lemme know

ciao

[Sinbad]

Thank i've managed to get the effect I was looking for. I had to use default scanline though, It may work with mental ray but not managed it yet. I'll post an image shortly.

Many thanks to Lorenzo Maggi and all

[Sinbad]

Here

[pheonex]

hey lorenzo... you use max right???

yes.....

ciao