Neon signs

[fugazi301282]

Hello, Does anyone know how to make letters look lik a neon sign.. I'v searched for neon signs on google, then tried to develop a technique myself, but they looked more like balloon letters than they looked like a neon sign. I thought about drawing the core(lamp) of the letters in illustrator and paste it in photoshop. I'll see.

TIPS?? The PT logo looks kind of neon sign..

[austizmo]

Hmmm... Do you want to know how to make the shape? or the glow effect? or both?

The Shape:

First I'd try to find a font as that would be easiest. Just hit google up for 'free fonts'.
Failing that I'd find a reasonably substitute, convert the type to a path, and edit it with the pen tools. That might be a little more time intensive that what you might want. Illustrator might work better, but I don't know the program, so personally I wouldn't use that.

The Glow:

There are several ways to go about this. The one I would use is a blur of the duplicated text set to screen.
I also think I remember seeing somthing about this effect on these forums before. Try using the search function to see if you can dredg anything up.

[venivedi]

Here's a thread about neon-sign.

neon-sign (http://www.photoshoptechniques.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=2122)

And a reference image by CoolMac
neon by CoolMac (http://coolmack.net/misc/neontext.htm)
Hope that help.

[TracyP]

Here is a cool retro font for neon:
http://www.dafont.com/en/theme.php?cat=806&page=4

[madster]

Nice font, TracyP!
Fun to play with. Although it started as "bookmark," coloring it is time consuming, hence "boo"...B)

[plaf]

There seems to be quite a few of these threads around in various groups. Anyway : I use inner glow, outer glow and drop shadow set to screen instead of multiply. Example and 7kb psd below - just use white to draw in any neoncolour layer.

http://www.skjoldbroder.dk/temp/neontest.jpg
psd file (http://www.skjoldbroder.dk/temp/neonbase.zip)

[venivedi]

I like it, plat. not...cigar ^^(cough*2 from a flu)

[sPECtre]

It looks very realistic, thanks for sharing the psd!

I had no time to try it but it looks worthy!

Did you come with the idea yourself?

[plaf]

Thanks, I think it came out sorta semi-realistic looking anyways.

Yeah, I came up with it when we needed some neonsigns for our game. People were beginning to talk about doing the signs in 3d and then rendering them to textures which made me think "huh?".

Anyways. I hope it's of some use to whoever needs it.




All the best.
/plaf

[frayedknot]

plaf - that rules!

madster - 2 things: what font is that? how did you get the metalic looking texture on it?

I usually use a layer style to do neon glows. I have a couple that I like. Outer glow, inner glow, stoke, drop shadow...

[madster]

frayedknot, THAT is the $20,000 question!
I pulled it from the link posted above by TracyP, but evidently it is no longer there, as when I clicked the link, I could not find that font on the site...%(

I e-mailed TracyP about a week ago when this thread got bumped, to see what the name of that font was, but have not yet heard back...
The metallic texture was simply done with layer styles as described a few posts prior to mine.

Please let ME know if and when you find that font! It IS cool for neon effects, and I have a project coming up that I could sure use it on!

[Xjfella95]

I'll see if i can post mine

[venivedi]

Wow cool.
May I come in, XJ? ;}

[Xjfella95]

haha, We're closed for business today due to inclimate weather.

[Ammar Midani]

frayedknot glad you got your target. Nice to have some one from lovley Cobenhagen plaf.

That Rocks Xjfella95.

Welcome to the forum.


Ammar

[TracyP]

I'm here. Madster, yes I got your email but have been swamped with non cg busy making. The font is called Neon Lights and can be found if you go to DaFont site and type in neon in a search.
Here is what I got:
http://www.dafont.com/en/search.php?nq=1&q=neon

[sPECtre]

I saw that font in the ones that are bundled with corel.
remember that some free fonts sites have copies of original creations... and it can take a VERY long time to create a font!

I know original fonts are expensive, but we won't start the high prices= piracy game, the snake would eat his tail again...

[madster]

TracyP, THANKS SO MUCH!
I just had my hard drive lock hard with a CPU overload of 100% that would not clear. Would you believe ADOBE READER 6 was the problem??? Looks that way - Word to the Wise, Stick with the older versions if you have them...

So, although I lost far less this time, I still lost enough to be very, VERY grateful to you for sharing that font with us again!!! Combined with Layer Styles as described above, this can create some GREAT effects!

[sPECtre]

Madster, have you updated it lately? what build is it?

[madster]

11/23/1996 9:30 AM.

It's a True Type, Pierre. Does this present a problem?
EDIT: This is about as helpful as a shovel for a flashlight. Let me check a couple of things and get back.
Nope. The date is when it was compressed, and it is a .TTF for what that is worth.

[Ammar Midani]

Glad to see you happy mAdster, looking too see your version of it.


Ammar

[TracyP]

The font was created, as far as I can see, by Fenotype:
http://www.fenotype.com/
As often as possible I notice DaFont provides a link to the original creator, they list many Larabie and Shy fonts as well as others.
I wonder how is one to know whether a typeface is "pirated"?

[sPECtre]

Madster, I was talking about your acrobat reader :lol:

TracyP , I didn't target this site in particular, I just wanted to warn our posters that free fonts are not always the best, some RIPs are still choking at that idea...

I think that the typography experts can tell it*. But for instance, most movie font are not the original creations, but it can ge close to fanart for me, especially if they are given for free.

Or visitors/customers of http://www.fontshop.com/ http://www.fonts.com/ http://www.adobe.com/type/main.jhtml etc...

[Defenestration]

i tried to go for that whole neon effect..but im not sure what happened..i think my ADD kicked in and took me in a diff direction because i came up with this.

Im going to name it Wet Neon...

http://img10.imageshack.us/img10/6103/wetneon.jpg

[Xjfella95]

Defenestration nice sig. how did you make that? come colorize layers and the liquify tool?

[Defenestration]

Originally posted by Xjfella95
Defenestration nice sig. how did you make that? come colorize layers and the liquify tool?

heh.im going to start a new thread for this one Xj..this might take a while lol.%/

[TracyP]

looks delicious!

[Defenestration]

what looks delicious? my "Wet Neon"? or my sig?...i still cant figure out how i did my sig...i got the basics down..but i think i missed something..not sure...just doesnt look right when i redo it.

[TracyP]

hehe, the wet neon. Care to share technique?

[venivedi]

yum yum :p) That looks sweet,Defenestration!

[Defenestration]

Originally posted by TracyP
hehe, the wet neon. Care to share technique?

I really need to write down what i do as im doing it....because again..not sure how i did the first one ...thankfully i saved it in psd (i forget to do this sometimes) but i think i figured how to recreat it..this shows all the steps done.

http://img7.imageshack.us/img7/5605/WetNeon_Tut.jpg

Ok...Black BG, Neon Lights font in Red #760303 (all other Red used is: #FF0000) w/ Small Caps on.
now Duplicate it and turn one off cuz we will work with it after the top layer is finished.

Top Layer Styles-
D.Shadow-
Blend/Normal/Black at 75% Opac...0 Angle use Global Light... Dist-5 Spread-0 Size-5
O.Glow-
Blend/Diff at 75% Opac..Solid/Red...Tech/Softer at Spread-0 Size-5
I.Glow-
Blend/Screen/100% Opac/0% Noise...Tech/Softer at Choke-0 Size-5
B&E-
Style/Pillow/Smooth...Depth 100%...Direction Up..Size:5 Soften:0...Angle:101 Alt:62 no global light..Cone Gloss Contour w/ AA off..Highlight/Normal/White/75% Opac..Shadow/Multi/Black/ 100% Opac
Stroke-
Size:3..Pos/Outside..Blend/Exclusion/100% Opac..Fill/Color/Red

ok..now with the top layer finished turn it off so we can now work with the bottom.

Gauss Blurr:1.5 on the Text before anything is done then apply styles.

Bottom Layer Styles-
D.Shadow-
Blend/Normal/Red at 100% Opac...0 Angle use Global Light... Dist-5 Spread-0 Size-5
O.Glow-
Blend/Normal/100% Opac/0% Noise...Solid/Red...Tech/Softer/Spread-0 Size-5
I.Glow-
Blend/Normal/100% Opac/0% Noise...Solid/Red..Tech/Softer/Edge/Choke-0 Size-5

[venivedi]

Thanks for sharing your technique. ;}

p.s. By the figures you've attached, I guessed difference mode used somewhere in the steps...I see it's in the top layers outer glow. :lol:

[Defenestration]

yeah..i think this technique really only works well with hollow fonts...i tried it with a sold font..just didnt turn out as nice i think. it still has a cool effect..but not as fun as a hollow font.

as u can tell red is my fav color :~ id love to see some other fonts with diff colors using this technique ;}

[TracyP]

http://www.crackedimages.biz/neo1.jpg
http://www.crackedimages.biz/neo2.jpg
http://www.crackedimages.biz/neo3.jpg
http://www.crackedimages.biz/neo4.jpg

You could always use the mask text or apply the text, select, add a new layer, stroke outside :)

Fun project.