Research & Development - Neon Signs in Maya

My film will contain several neon signs, some outside and some inside the diner. I've been researching how neon lights work in different weather conditions and have found that they don't really appear any different whether the conditions are warm, cold, wet or foggy.

My exterior shots (the very first and the very last shots) take place outside in New York City during mid winter. The average temperature of New York is around 6 to -3 oC during December and January.

Average weather conditions for New York during the year

I decided to have a go at testing Maya's paint effects tool to create some neon lights of my own.

To do these, I created some text as curves and attached a neonBlue paint effect using the brush tool to the curves.

I also attempted to apply Lamberts to the geometry and increase the glow intensity to see how it looked but I don't think it captured the same magic about them.