Select both the Light and Camera objects.

We want to get them out of the way for now so, Press M, select the Layer 2 button (see example) and click Ok. The Light and Camera are now on Layer 2.

If you still see them, make sure that only Layer 1 is selected on the Layers control.

The Layers control is located on the Header bar and looks just like the popup menu shown to the left.

Right-click the source graphic and save it to your hard drive.

Select View | Background Image...

This will allow us to place an image on the background of the 3D View. We'll use this to trace our source graphic.

Locate the source image on your hard drive. Click it with the MMB to immediately open the image onto the background of the 3D View.

Adjust the Blend slider to set how well the image blends into the background of the 3D View.

You want it pretty well-blended into the background so that it doesn't interfere with your modeling.

Close the menu when you're done.

Okay, now that we have our work environment setup, let's start with the actual modeling.

Add a Bezier Curve. Spacebar then, Add | Curve | Bezier Curve

With your new curve added to the scene, select one of the control points.

Curves have control points while Meshes have vertices.

Move the other control point and position it as shown. It should be obvious that we are going to simply trace the image that we placed into the background.

To continue doing this, simply select the last control point that you place, position the mouse pointer at the desired location for the next control point and, press Ctrl-LMB.

This will add a new control point at that location.

Don't worry about trying to get the curve to look good just yet. Just keep adding control points for this part of the model.

Tweak the control points and handles until you get something similar to this example.

When you're done, press the Tab-key to toggle from the Edit mode to the Object mode.

Reset the object's center.

With the mouse pointer over the 3D View, press Spacebar then, Transform | Center New.

Position the control point at the base of the straight section of the stirrer.

Create a new control point at the top of the stirrer's handle.

Select both control points and press the V-key. This will straighten the curve into a line.

Select each handle of the control points and scale them down (S-key).

This step is really optional. I only suggest it because it will allow you to easily move the handles closer to the control point. This is better than having them stretched out so far. This doesn't change any geometry of the curve.

At this point, this is what you should have.

We've created this model in pieces because it will give us the greatest freedom for texturing, tweaking, etc.

Now, let's setup the Camera.

Shift-Click the Layer 2 button so that we can see both Layer 1 and Layer 2.

Select the Camera and press Alt-R. Select Clear rotation.

The camera should be facing downward. Position it as shown. You may want to change your layout to match what is shown to make it easier to frame your scene.

With the camera selected, go to the Edit panel (F9) and set the following:

Lens: 25.00

I have some other settings in place but, they are simply personal preferences that have no effect on what we are creating.

Also, note that I have a Hemi light in the scene. Only add this (or some other type of light) to the scene if you plan on including something else besides the neon model. You don't need it to see the neon effect.

Honestly, I forgot to delete it. It's a leftover from something else I was doing (oops).

Now, let's setup the basic shader

Make sure you're in the Object mode.

Select the left piece of the model. Switch to the Shading panel (F5). Click Add New to create a new shader material. Name it "blue". Open the color menu. Set a similar color to the one shown.

To close this menu, simply move the mouse cursor away from the menu's interface.

Set the following Shader settings:

Click Halo
Set Alpha to about halfway
Set HaloSize to around 0.200
Set Hard to about 35
Set Add to 1.0

Of course, you may tweak these settings to achieve the exact look you're after.

Apply this shader to all parts of the model except the stirrer's stem. That's the part that is yellowish in the background image.

Create a new shader material as before and name it "yellow".

After selecting a yellow color, apply settings similar to those for "blue".

Before going any further, let's make the background for the rendered image totally black.

Click the World button (it has an icon that looks like the world). Make sure the Blend toggle button is deselected.

You'll see two color swatches. Click the leftmost swatch to bring up the color menu. Set the color to black.

Still in the Object mode, select all of the pieces that we've created.

Press Alt-C. Select Mesh on the popup menu. This will convert the curves to meshes. This is important. Otherwise, the Halo effect will not be visible.

As you look at the resulting meshes, you can see that we have sections that are very dense with vertices (we're talking vertices now because we're now dealing with a mesh). There's also plenty of areas that have very few vertices.

The trick to creating smooth neon effects is to have good vertex density.

The more dense the vertices are, the "hotter" (or brighter) the effect will appear in those areas.

Creating this vertex density can be a tedious process. What we're doing here won't be too bad, though.

It's very simple so, I'll only actually show you a couple of areas. The rest you can handle on your own.

Let's start by selecting the first piece we created. Tab into Edit mode and select the two vertices as shown.

Press the W-key and select Subdivide on the popup menu. Notice the addition of vertices to the segment we had selected.

To speed things up, you will notice that there are areas where several connected vertices have a similar distance between them. You can easily select them all using the Paint-Select tool.

Press the B-key twice. Notice the mouse pointer is now a circle. This is the Paint-Select brush. You can resize it using the mouse scroll. To select vertices, simply Drag-LMB. When you've completed your selecting, use the RMB or the ESC-key to exit the Paint-Select mode.

Subdivide those as you did the others earlier.

Okay, this is a good time to do a test render to see where we are.

Press F12.

You probably will find areas like the one shown here. Notice how thin the stem of the neon wine glass appears. You can also see the halo effect on the individual vertices. This is what happens when you don't have enough vertices.

The solution is quick and simple. Select those vertices and subdivide them as we did earlier.

We're almost done!

Note how the looped end of the stirrer appears disconnected from the handle.

This is very easy to fix...

Simply select the mesh and add new vertices to bring the two pieces closer together.

You add new vertices to a mesh in the same way that you added new points to the original curve. Select a vertex to start from and Ctrl-LMB to add a new vertex.

Here's the result! That's pretty much all there is to it! You can play around with the settings to vary the results.

For example, for areas where you want the effect to be brighter, simply subdivide the vertices more to create more density. You can also delete vertices to make areas less intense.

You can also create more interesting effects by duplicating the mesh, position the duplicate a little bit behind the original, and changing the color of the shader. After that, adjust the Halo, Alpha, Add, etc. settings to create a combined effect.

This effect can also be applied to text created in Blender. Simply convert the text to curves (Alt-C). Then, convert the curves to a mesh (Alt-C). From that point forward, the process is the same.

Good Luck and Happy Blendering!