How To Create Realistic Neon Light Effect In Adobe Illustrator Tutorial Part. 4

This is the 4th part of How To Create Realistic Neon Light Effect In Adobe Illustrator Tutorial I'm gonna show you how to put brick background like this:

Realistic Neon Light Effect with Brick Background

In the first part How To Create Realistic Neon Light Effect In Adobe Illustrator Tutorial Part. 1, I talked about how color Dodge Works and how to use it to create realistic Neon Light.

In the 2nd episode How To Create Realistic Neon Light Effect In Adobe Illustrator Tutorial Part. 2, I showed how to apply this realistic neon effect to geometric shapes, and because the techniques in this second part can only work perfectly only on geometric shapes and cannot work properly on complex shapes, so, I created the 3rd part How To Create Realistic Neon Light Effect In Adobe Illustrator Tutorial Part. 3, where In the third part I show how to create this Neon Light Effect using Color Dodge to work well with text or more complex geometric shapes with using brush.

And if you pay attention to these all parts you will find that the resulting neon color is only based on the background color. So if we make a dark red color background, the neon color will also in red. Likewise, if the background is orange, then the neon color will also follow the background color.

The reason is because that's how Blending Mode works. We can't separate the background color from the Neon Color. Because the Result Color is generated by the Base Color which here is the background combined with the Blend Color which here we make it like a Neon.

So the resulting neon color will depend on the background color that has been made.

There are some questions about this:

That can this neon effect work with other images? 

Or can it be made into PNG?.

The answer is NO.

But it does not mean it is impossible to do, it can be possible if we know the tools that we use and what their capabilities are. So in today's tutorial I’ll show you how we can do that.

Previews Part:
How To Create Realistic Neon Light Effect In Adobe Illustrator Tutorial Part. 1
How To Create Realistic Neon Light Effect In Adobe Illustrator Tutorial Part. 2
How To Create Realistic Neon Light Effect In Adobe Illustrator Tutorial Part. 3

OK let's get started.

As example I have prepared the neon text that I made in the previous tutorial And I have also prepared an example image that we will use.

Neon Text Effect with Brick Background Image

Before I continue this tutorial, I need to remind you once again that the Color Dodge works with

Color Base + Color Blend = Result Color.

If we refer to this formula we will make this brick image as the Base Color and the neon light text as the Blend Color. So we just need to place this neon text on top of this brick image and change the blending mode of this neon light text to Color Dodge.

And the result looks like this.

Neon Text With Brick Background Image Are Blended

How come it looks like that?.

That's because the Color Base in this case the brick image consists of several dots of color which are called Pixel. Even though we use an image that is almost black, the Result Color still follows the Base Color.

Once again, Color Dodge works by producing a bright effect on the Result Color by reducing the contrast between the Base Color and the Blend Color will Resulting in saturated mid-tones and blown highlights.

You can go the How To Create Realistic Neon Light Effect In Adobe Illustrator Tutorial Part. 1 if you want to get a brief explanation of how this Color Dodge works.

So at this point we can't make this neon work with images yet. Because here we are still working with Color Dodge and if we want to make it work with images we have to think that this neon light as a finished artwork. And lock it.

And one more thing, because this is a finished artwork the Base Color and Blend Color are an inseparable unity.

So to make it work with other images we have to make it as a Raster Image not a Vector Image.

And to make it as a Raster Image in the Adobe Illustrator we have to select this Base And Blend Color, then go to the Object Menu and click Rasterize.

Rasterize

In this way, an object that was originally a vector will be turn into a Raster Image.

And we can see here in the Control Panel Overview that this object type is an image, So it's no longer a vector.

The Content Is An Image

The next step is we are going to blend this neon image into our brick image. By putting the Neon Image above the Brick Image.

At first glance, this method does not work. Because the Black Color in this Neon Image covers the Brick Image behind it, So we have to get rid of the black color in the neon image.

And the only way to remove this black color and leave the neon light is use the Blending Mode. But we no longer using Color Dodge.

The dropdown menu on the Transparency Panel consists of many types of Blending Modes, One of them is the Color Dodge that we have used.

Blending Mode Dropdown Menu On The Transparency Panel

And to get rid of the black color in this neon light image we use the Lighten Blending Mode.

This Lighten Blending Mode works by making the black color in the result color will be invisible and only colors other than black will be visible.

So the result will be like this:

The Neon Text Image With Lighten Blending Mode

The black color will be 100% transparent and any color other than black will remain there.

In this way we don't need to make it as PNG, we just have to blend it with lighten to make it transparent. So, for the artwork that you make you don't have to make it into PNG. From Illustrator you just have to make it as a Raster Image or export it into JPG if you want to work in Photoshop And use Lighten Blending Mode there.

And to make it look a little more realistic, we just have to make this brick image a little darker at the edges and lighter in the middle and add more light to each letter.

And the end result is like this:

Neon Text Effect With Brick Background

The conclusion is, this neon light effect can still work with other images. But first, we have to make it as a raster image and change the blending mode to Lighten.

 

Previews Part:
How To Create Realistic Neon Light Effect In Adobe Illustrator Tutorial Part. 1
How To Create Realistic Neon Light Effect In Adobe Illustrator Tutorial Part. 2
How To Create Realistic Neon Light Effect In Adobe Illustrator Tutorial Part. 3

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5 Powerful Ways to Quickly Master Adobe Illustrator

Everything You Should Know About Selection Tools In Adobe Illustrator

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