How To: Create & manipulate shape lights in 3ds Max 2010

In this clip, you'll see how to create custom shaped light sources using simple meshes and adding an Arch&Design shader to it to render the scene with Mental Ray. Whether you're new to Autodesk's popular modeling software or a seasoned 3D artist just looking to better acquaint yourself with the application, you're sure to be well served by this video tutorial. For more information, and to get started using shape lights in your own Max projects, take a look!

We'll see how to use the self illumination channel changing color temperature, luminance parameters, using custom procedural maps to control look for a neon tube example, and then we'll see it in action

using Final Gather and some post processing effects as Glare shader.