Pin-Study: Gradient Spheres 🌐🌄💡
Jun 12, 2025
Talk about a dooooozey.
I saw this pin on Pinterest, and my first thought was - wait, I wonder if you can apply a gradient material to a sphere in SketchUp.
So I set out to try it out and yikes - it took a hot minute. It's easy to create a gradient material (I did it in Canva) and apply it to a flat surface, but when you apply it to a sphere there are a few extra steps because SketchUp will try to apply the map to every polygon on the sphere UNLESS you insert the image and apply it to the sphere as a projected material. This is the exact method I ended up using to get these fun colorful sphere lights in the image above!
This rendering took a little longer because I ended up going into Enscape of course to get the emissive look. But the fact that we can get a stunning rendering like this in less than 45 minutes is truly amazing!
Here are the links you need:
- To view the very condensed tutorial, click HERE.
- To access the full tutorial of this pin & all other pins in the Skill Builder Studio, click HERE.
- If you're totally new to SketchUp & you need help getting started, learn HERE.
- If you're just in this for the free goodies, learn more about my tried and true interior design workflow that's helped hundreds of designers in my FREE webinar HERE.
Until next time...