3D Neon Signs for the Environment

To help fill the environment, I was told that I was going to create 3D neon signs that would be scattered around the map. I immediately went to look for inspiration, where the city-scapes of china really did give me something to think about. One thing that immediately grabs my attention is the fact that not all of the neon sign is lite up, only the wording and perhaps an image to go along with it. 

Neon Signs in a city.

The first sign that I create was one that would sit on top of a pharmacy. A few years ago, I took a trip to France and everywhere where we traveled, these signs would be on almost every street corner. They really stood out and think that it would be interesting trying to achieve the same results here. The tubes which make up the illuminating cross where fairly easy to construct, with the tube cut in half to save on tries. To make them seem slightly realistic, I had I had to put an end point to the tube, which I feel suits the model well. The box in where the tube sits was fairly easy to construct, though I was measuring to make sure all the sides where the same size.

The Pharmacy Sign.

This sign was inspired by the film Blade Runner in which taboo's such as sex are waved in common areas. As the area that we are creating is in a disused shopping center, I thought that it would be interesting to have the shop above a seedy shop. I managed to find a material which showed the wire frame of the model, this is so you can see how low the models had to be when it came to the environment in this game. Again this really did build on the first idea, however, I used a background picture, which helped me create the type out of the tubes I had created earlier.

"Sex Shop" Along with wire frame.

These Open Signs would common on some of the shops, with them situated in the window of the building at the front. The idea is that these signs would sit in the front of the shop, just like real life shops. I like the simple design of this neon sign, with it feeling slightly like a cheap motel and defiantly gives me a template to work upon.

Open sign fitted on the front of shops. 

This was more of an advancement on the previous sign, what with me adding extra type to the sign and making it more sign that would stick out of the building that the player would not miss, especially if it was luminous. I really liked the previous design, so I felt that I could improve upon it. After we looked at the environment, most of the shops had shutters which would cover the windows of the shops anyway, so the above sign was pretty much rendered useless, however, I still wanted to keep it in the game, so I constructed one that would sit outside of a building. After I had created the sign, I was pretty happy with what the sign had looked like.

An advancement on the Open Sign fitted on top of shops.

This has been rather interesting to create. The signs were not easy to make as there was no type face that I could use that represent tubes that I wanted to create. I had to create these signs from scratch, but with what I got, I am fairly happy. Im looking forward to seeing what these look like when they are put in the game and how they affect the gameplay.

Neon Signs around the map.