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Autodesk VIZ: Creating Neon Lights and Fluorescent Panels

By Nancy Fulton
Just when you think you have Autodesk VIZ all figured out, you discover it has
another trick up its sleeve. You may know how to create omni lights, point lights,
and area lights, but did you know that you can turn any object into a light source?
By the time you complete this article, you will know how to create objects that
don't just accept illumination, but actually emit light that illuminates other
elements in a scene.
You can use the techniques demonstrated in this project to create light sources as
diverse as neon signs and fluorescent panels.
Self-Illumination Versus Truly Illuminating
Even previous versions of VIZ let you create a material that, when applied to an
object, makes it look like a light source. This material will not actually create light
in the scene, but it will itself appear to be brightly lit. To create a self-illuminated
material:
1. Type M to display the Material Editor.
2. Select a sample sphere.
3. On the Blinn Basic Parameters pane, select the rectangle to the right of Diffuse
(called the Diffuse color swatch). The Color Selection dialog box opens.
4. Use the options in this dialog box to specify a bright color.
5. Choose Close to exit the Color Selection dialog box.
The color you selected will appear in the color swatch (see Figure 1).

Figure 1: Assigning a white color to the Diffuse color swatch is the first step in
creating a white self-illuminated material.
6. In the Self-Illumination area, select the Color check box.
7. Drag the Diffuse color swatch on to the Self-Illumination color swatch. Choose
Copy to copy the color (see Figure 2).

Figure 2: Drag and drop the Diffuse color swatch on to the SelfIllumination color swatch.

Drag and drop this material on to an object in the scene, and then render. Notice
that although the object you applied the material to looks like a light source, it
doesn't actually illuminate any objects other than itself (see Figure 3).

Figure 3: The letters V, I, and Z have had a self-illuminated material applied to

them. When rendered, they appear illuminated, but the object behind them does
not.

How do you make a self-illuminated material actually give off light? Well, in
Autodesk VIZ 4, you do the following. 1. After creating a self-illuminated
material, select the Standard button located just under the sample spheres (see
Figure 4). The Material/Map Browser dialog box opens.

Figure 4: Select the Standard button to choose from a list of other

material types.

2. Double-click Radiosity Override (see Figure 5) so that you can modify the
properties of the material to directly control how it responds when you render with
radiosity.

Figure 5: Radiosity Override lets you modify a simple material to

determine how it will affect illumination in a scene when you
render with radiosity.

3. Choose OK to keep the old self-illuminated material as a component of the new

material.
4. On the Special Effects pane, enter a value in the Luminance Scale spinner. This
value determines how many candles per square meter the light will broadcast. I
entered 2500 (see Figure 6). 5. Close the Material Editor.

Figure 6: Entering a value in the Luminance Scale spinner makes

a self-illuminated material give off light. The color of the SelfIllumination color swatch determines the color of the light.

6. In the main MAX window, from the Rendering menu, choose Radiosity, which
opens the Radiosity dialog box (see Figure 7). 7. On the Interactive Tools pane,
choose Setup. 8. Choose No Exposure Control from the list of exposure control
options. In most cases, exposure control is used to even out illumination in a
scene. When you are using neon or fluorescent panels to illuminate a scene, you
usually don't want even illumination. You want dramatic or high-contrast
illumination. After all, neon doesn't look very spectacular in broad daylight. It
looks best at night when everything around it is dark.

View Larger Image

Figure 7: When you are creating neon (or other
illuminating materials), make sure you turn off
exposure control. This ensures that VIZ doesn't
"even out" the illumination for you and ruin the
contrast between the bright neon and the objects that
are not so bright behind it.

9. Choose Start on the Radiosity Processing Parameters pane to calculate a

radiosity solution.

Note: If you make changes to the self-illuminated material, you must

choose Reset on this pane, and then choose Start again to calculate a
new radiosity solution. When you make changes to lights or objects,
VIZ software warns you that your radiosity calculation must be
updated. It does not warn you when you just make changes to
materials.
10. Render the scene and you will see that the material now appears to give off
light (see Figure 8).

Figure 8: The material applied to the letters makes them give off light,
illuminating the object behind them.

You can easily enhance the effect. For one thing, you can change the selfillumination color (see Figure 9).

Figure 9: Neon effects often look best when you make the self-illumination a
bright color other than white. Remember to make the object or objects behind
the neon a light color as well. Placing a dark object, or no object at all, behind
neon won't give you the glow characteristic of neon.

To more accurately calculate the illumination cast by a light-emitting object,

increase the Initial Quality value on the Process pane in the Radiosity dialog box.
Increase the Filtering value on the Interactive Tools pane to more evenly light the
object behind the light-emitting object (see Figure 10).

Figure 10: Increasing the Filtering value in the Radiosity dialog box disperses
illumination more evenly on background objects. Note that you can now see the
edges of the plane behind the neon letters.

Conclusion
Typically, you don't work with neon every day, but there are very few
environments where fluorescent tubes and panels aren't used. You may need, for
example, to create panels or tubes to illuminate shelves or coves in a scene (see
Figure 11). Just create the shapes you need, and then use the techniques described
in this lesson to apply illuminating materials to them.

Figure 11: Create fluorescent panels that actually

emit light to illuminate objects in coves or dark areas
in a scene.

Take time to experiment with the techniques demonstrated in this article, and you
will find yourself using them frequently.