Digital designers are widely using the neon effect to engage users and convey the mood.

So, I’ve made this tutorial for you to show how to develop neon-glowing shapes and texts in Lunacy.

Watch this video or follow the step-by-step guide below.

Launch Lunacy and create a new document.

How to create a neon effect in Lunacy: create a new document

Create an artboard. I selected the Pinterest 2:3 option from the list of presets in the right panel.

How to create a neon effect in Lunacy: Create an artboard

Adjust the zoom so that the artboard fits the canvas. Change the orientation of the artboard to Landscape.

How to create a neon effect in Lunacy: Change the orientation of the artboard to Landscape

Now add a rectangle the size of the artboard.

How to create a neon effect in Lunacy: add a rectangle the size of the artboard

Open the Photos library and find a photo for the background. I used a brick wall. To find it, type brick in the search field above the gallery. Drag-and-drop the photo on the rectangle. It will be applied as an image fill.

How to create a neon effect in Lunacy: Drag-and-drop the photo

With the rectangle selected, open the Fill settings and change the fill type to Tile. Reduce the tile size to 30%.

How to create a neon effect in Lunacy: open the Fill settings and change the fill type to Tile

Add another rectangle above the brick wall. It should also be the size of the artboard.

How to create a neon effect in Lunacy: Add another rectangle above the brick wall

Change the Fill of the rectangle to #000000 and lower the Opacity to 80% so that we can see the wall through it.

How to create a neon effect in Lunacy: Change the Fill of the rectangle

Now, open the Icons tab and select the icon to which you will add the neon effect. I typed Controller in the search field and selected the Game controller icon.

How to create a neon effect in Lunacy: open the Icons tab and select the icon to which you will add the neon effect

Adjust the size and position of the icon.

How to create a neon effect in Lunacy: Adjust the size and position of the icon.

In the objects tree, expand the icon folder and pull all the objects out of the mask. This will make the editing of the icon elements easier.

 expand the icon folder and pull all the objects out of the mask

Select the two bottom objects and apply the Difference operation to them.

How to create a neon effect in Lunacy: Select the two bottom objects and apply the Difference operation to them

You should get the following result.

How to create a neon effect in Lunacy: You should get the following result

Now comes the bright part! Let’s add some glow to each icon element. For this, we’ll be using borders and shadows. And a few inner shadows.

First of all, select the right group of controls of the game controller and adjust them. Remove the fill and add a border with the color #4DD8FF and thickness 7.

Then add some shadows with the following settings:

FillOpacityXYBlurSpread
First shadow#FFFFFF50%02200
Second shadow#1C268F70%024010
Third shadow#4DD8FF60%024010
How to create a neon effect in Lunacy: add some shadows

Now, select the left control, remove the fill, and add a border with the color #FFC74D and thickness 7.

Add shadows with the following settings:

FillOpacityXYBlurSpread
First shadow#FFFFFF50%02200
Second shadow#CE5D2470%024010
Third shadow#FFC74D60%024010

Then change the corner radius to 6.

How to create a neon effect in LunacyЖ change the corner radius to 6

Select the shape that we’ve created using the Difference operation. Remove the fill and add a border with the color #FF00B7 and thickness 7.

The shadow settings will be as follows:

FillOpacityXYBlurSpread
First shadow#FFFFFF50%02200
Second shadow#FF00B750%025050
Third shadow#FF00B7 40% 025020
How to create a neon effect in Lunacy: Select the shape that we’ve created using the Difference operation

Now let’s remove the background that bounds our shadows.

How to create a neon effect in Lunacy: Now let’s remove the background that bounds our shadows.

That’s much better.

Let’s rotate our controller a little. Select the entire icon group and turn it by, say, 15°.

How to create a neon effect in Lunacy: Let’s rotate our controller a little

Now let’s add some text under the icon.

How to create a neon effect in Lunacy: Now let’s add some text under the icon.

Adjust the text. I used the Nunito Black font with size 105.

After that, set the fill opacity to 0% and add a border with the color #9ED8FD and thickness 7.

Then add some shadows:

FillOpacityXYBlurSpread
First shadow#FFFFFF50%02100
Second shadow#1D305A100%02500
Third shadow#336C91100%02400
Inner shadow#9ED8FD100% 02150
How to create a neon effect in Lunacy: add a border with the color #9ED8FD and thickness 7

Now we need to add a glow under our objects.

Select the semitransparent rectangle that we’ve put over the brick wall in the very beginning. Add a new fill layer to it and change its type to radial gradient.

Position and reduce the gradient size so that it only surrounds the game controller. Select the center color point and set the color to #F923BC with 15% opacity. For the border color point, use #000000 with 40% opacity.

How to create a neon effect in Lunacy: add a glow under our objects

Similarly, create the third fill layer with a radial gradient so that it will appear around the text. For the central color point, I used color #0E2839 with 30% opacity. The border point I set to #000000 and 40% opacity.

: How to create a neon effect in Lunacycreate the third fill layer with a radial gradient

And the last step. With still the same rectangle selected, add an inner shadow with the color #000000 and a blur of 50. Then change the spread to darken the edges of the image. I set it to 50.

How to create a neon effect in Lunacy: Then change the spread to darken the edges of the image

Don’t forget to adjust the alignment of objects. Then export the image and get the following result:

How to create a neon effect in Lunacy: adjust the alignment of objects

Create your art with the neon effect and share it with us on social media: Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

Check out the other Lunacy tutorials:

One more thing. We will soon roll out Lunacy for macOS and Linux! You can try the beta version and share your ideas with our community.

About the author
Julia G, a wonderful creature responsible for QA and SMM at the Lunacy team.

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