How to create neon material but with shiny reflection ? see image

V-Ray V-Ray for 3ds Max General
1

I recently had to create an interior with a lot of glowing acrylic type materials - I used a variety of VRayLight (Mesh Object) and VRayLightMaterial.

But I saw this image (see torus on right) and would really like to know how to do this using VRay 3.0 in 3DS Max ?

Any ideas anyone ?

self_illum_comparison.jpg
self_illum_comparison.jpg540×345 73 KB

2

You can achieve a similar effect with the self illumination parameter of the VRay material.

Self Illumination Test.jpg
Self Illumination Test.jpg800×600 57.2 KB

3

Like daniel said you can get same effect with the self illumination option inside the vray material + a falloff map set to “shadow/light” and a small tweak with the curve.
In my example I used a vray blend material with vraymtl = base + vray light material as coat. But only because in the 3.00.08 version the self illumination parameter is bugged. You should be able to create the same effect without the need for a blend mat.

turous.jpeg
turous.jpeg640×480 66.2 KB

4

If you use a texture for the self-illumination, like VRayColor, the multiplier will work fine.

Best regards,
Vlado

5

Really? Great! Thanks for the info Vlado! :slight_smile:

6

Thanks guys, this is great, can’t wait to try this out :slight_smile:

7

Isn’t the shadow/light mode of the falloff map unsupported by Vray? I think Vray even prints a warning about this.

8

Should work fine in V-Ray 3 for this setup thought, there are few improvements since version 2.

9

Nice results ralphr! I’m having fun experimenting with this material.. Not sure how to make this work without blend material and just a Vray Color map in the Self Illumination slot- I get that far but don’t know how to integrate the falloff map? Does the Vray Color go inside the Vray Falloff map?

10

I don’t have the scene in front of me right now but you should pick the colors you want to “blend” between inside the falloff map and place that inside the self-illumination slot. The rest of the material I think should have a blueish diffuse(depending on the look) and reflection parameter as needed. This should give you the same look without the need for a blend material. The only thing I remember why playing around without a blend material is that I got a little bit more noise inside my render and the same render settings. Probably because inside my light material I checked “direct light” which the self illumination doesn’t offer.

If needed I can post the scene or screenshots of the material settings later today or tomorrow because I’m not in front of my pc right now.

11

Sorry Vlado, I don’t find that to be the case. Assigned a texture to the self-illumination (VRayColor) and the multiplier does nothing.

12

<shrug> works for me. If you have a scene where it doesn’t, please send it to support@chaosgroup.com so that we can figure out what’s wrong.

Best regards,
Vlado