From retro music video aesthetics to dazzling sci-fi cityscapes, neon lighting effects bring an eye-catching atmosphere that can elevate your project to a whole new level.

Today, we're taking a look at four innovative ways you can add illuminating VFX to your next scene!

This first tutorial showcases a clever way of generating a stylish look with only a minimal amount of time and assets. 

Perfect for an animated neon sign in a futuristic city or a music video, this stop-motion effect can also be paired with 3D camera movements to create a stunning composition that's deceptively simple to achieve.

Beyond using this effect for outlines of people, you can also utilize this effect for creating neon buildings and other objects.  

Like almost every effect on this list, the possibilities with this technique are limitless!

A staple in futuristic settings are neon signs. Creating a 3D neon sign in Blender is actually a fairly straightforward process, but you may have to pause this ultra-fast tutorial more than once to follow along!

This can also work great for creating classic neon signs with a vintage/noir vibe.

Especially useful in VFX sequences that emphasize music, adding glowing neon brush strokes creates a flowing dynamic throughout the environment, perfect for highlighting dancers or objects.

Taking this technique a step further, you can even apply glowing edge accents to create Tron-inspired futuristic vehicles as in this tutorial.

Blacklights are so cool, but if you've ever tried shooting with them, you'll know it can be a major challenge to adequately capture all the details you want.  

In this tutorial, you'll actually find three different techniques for implementing a post-production workflow for faking the "blacklight" look.

This gives you full creative control over which areas of the scene are affected by your imaginary blacklight (from color to intensity). 

Similar to day-for-night shooting, it also allows you to shoot a well-lit subject and preserve any details you want while applying the perfect amount of the blacklight effect in post.

All these effects can yield incredibly powerful results with infinite customization, and very little time in post-production!

We hope you're inspired for your next creative lighting project!

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