Neon is one of those magical things everyone loves. With it's soft and colorful light it sets the right mood in all environments - smoke filled jazz or techno clubs, hotels, restaurants, futuristic cities and functions as a good attention grabber for any kind of purpose. This is probably why it's also so often used in graphic and motion design.
Modelling neon signs in 3D takes quite a lot of manual effort and I always had a feeling it should be possible to automate at least some of the process. After researching real neon sign making process, fascination about how much work and skill it takes grew even stronger, it really is an art form without shortcuts. But it doesn't have to be that way for the digital world.
Process
Conclusion
It's not possible to fully automate the creative side - how exactly should all the tubes connect. That requires logic which currently only humans can do, but all the other tedious process can and should be automated. In future an AI will be able to solve this task.
