Hi
Does anyone know of any lighting effects to use within SU that doesnt require a rendering programme (im not at that level yet).
Ive found a couple of ‘light cones’ on 3d Warehouse which do the job, but ideally I could find an effect that I can change the colour.
Id love to give the ffect of light emmiting (immitting?) from a source…
Thank You!
Create a PNG texture with a gradient
That is a TOP tip! thank you. I had found this red light cone on 3d which works gret and the cone effect works nicely in the model…how would you go about creating a gradient cone using your technique please???
I created a texture with a linear gradient from white to transparent and save it as PNG file. You can use for this what 2D graphics program you want: Affinity Photo, Photoshop, GIMP, etc …
In Sketchup I then created the cone shape, as you saw in the first GIF.
@mihai.s I think Paul means a 3d cone instead of a 2d one…
Aaa… thanks @tweenulzeven ! 
Thank you thats perfect.
FYI, a 2d one is called a trapezoïd. A cone is 3d by defenition…
You can also use a 2d image as a face me component. These are made from the first google image I found.
gradient.skp (600.5 KB)
Sorry mihai.s. any chance you could yake a look at this…im not sure why i cant add the texture to the cone. it just samples the point i place the dsropper and not the whole texture with gradient.
perhaps its the type of png i saved? i used gimp for the first time but followed several youtube tutorials to create a gradient…
any ideas?
For your file
And here is a variant with two textures, one for the sides (linear gradient) and one for the base of the ‘cone’ (radial gradient) - lights.skp (418.6 KB)
Thanks Mihai, yout top video worked…i just cant add the tranparency to the cone???
do i need to hold a key down when i press the eyedropper?
My steps i think from your tuturial…
create a cone shape.
drag in a png file with a white gradient to transparency.
Orient file so white bit at top of cone
explode the file
create a group around texture
click b for bucket. click eyedropper. click the texture. ( ihave to press edit group here??)
use bucket tool on cone.
i then end up with a solid colour as in file attached.
So sorry…gradient 3.skp (595.9 KB)
I think I might need to abandon this and let you move on with your life !
My eyedropper just samples the point i place it on the gradient so the cone goes either grey or white.
The introdcution of styles and measurements in your last video has thrown me a little.
I really do appreciate your time with this one, but i must have a setting or something different to yours which is making this very simple thing impossible for me.
youve been briilaint though and i the solution is in there, its just not wokring for me.
sorry!
What happens to the texture of the cone after you use the eyedropper and apply it?
Try this before using eyedropper: right-click on gradient texture > Texture > Projected (turn on).
I click the eyedropper and then click the texture. The colour square in the marials window goes white (or grey) depending where i click the dropper.
When i click the cone with the bucket it changes to whatever the eyedropper tapped.
Eveen when I ensure projected is turned on.
Should I hold a key down when using the eyedropper or applying the texture to the cone?
You are confusing the two “eyedropper” tools, understandable. The material sampler eyedropper that @mihai.s is talking about in this workflow is accessed by choosing the paint bucket tool and with the paint bucket tool active pressing the proper modifier key (command on mac). With that button pressed you can sample any texture.
Mahais gif is showing you the process on a Windows interface in which the eyedropper material sampler is located on the pallet, on a mac it is not.
The eyedropper icon in the materials window on Mac is used to sample single colors from one pixel, it’s a holdover from the Native Mac color picker. It can be use-full for sampling colors from other places because it work anywhere on your screen, but it cannot sample materials and is not often used in SketchUp.
I’VE DONE IT!!! Thank you for all of your help, Mihai it was about the eyedropper tool. I should have said I was on a Mac.
When I try to change its colour though it goes into a block colour cone. Is there a way arund this or do i need to create new gradients for each colour…which would be a little boring.
Mihai, I have tried your example at the top but it still looses the transparency??
Did you apply the texture on both sides of the cone (front face-back face)?
