Creating Realistic Neon Glow -Mental Ray

1. Open 3ds max and draw desired shape, i am using a rectangle with smooth corners.

2. Open material editor by pressing 'M' on keyboard and select any empty slot, in the Self Illumination click on colour and give any colour(green here), in the map add Falloff map.

3. In the first colour of falloff map add same colour added for self-illumination(Light green here) and in the 2nd colour add lighter colour of 1st colour map as shown below.

4. Increase the output amount to between 8 to 10 .

Apply material to shape/object.

5. Now open Render dialog box by pressing F10, assign renderer Mental ray, in the Indirect Illumination select Final gather and do the following setting. Play with the setting as per your requirment. Mainly with FG Points.

Place an object (wall like) just behind the glow object, because rays of glow need something on which it falls(Vision Principle). Hit F9, you will see realistic neon glow