Mirror reflections and Fake Light in SketchUp
How to tie reflections on mirrors, glass and polished floors to your scene, and how to place LED strips and spots right in the model.
A reflective surface is a classic problem: SketchUp shows a flat face, and the AI, with no reference, invents a random reflection. The Mirror Reflection tool (in the Scenes tab) projects onto the face what it would really reflect, and then you render, with the reflection consistent with the room.
Six surface types
The capture is the same for all of them; what changes is the finish. Pick the type before clicking the face:
- Mirror: opaque, full reflection. The tool's classic behaviour.
- Floor: polished porcelain, marble countertops, lacquered tables. A faint reflection on top: the floor material still drives the look.
- TV: a switched-off screen. Opaque and very dark, with the room only hinted at, like a real dark panel.
- Clear: clear glass on a shower or a door. Reflects less and lets you see through, without shifting the colour of what it reflects.
- Bronze and Smoked: the tinted glass of cabinet doors. Semi-transparent: the reflection sits on top and the cabinet interior shows underneath.
How to use it
- 1Save the scene
Set the viewport to the view you'll render and save it as a scene. The reflection is tied to that scene.
- 2Pick the type and click the face
Select the surface type, click Generate Reflection in Scene and then the face. It lights up blue. No need to enter the group. Imported TV screens and floors often come split into many pieces: the plugin joins the neighbouring pieces on its own and the whole surface lights up.
- 3Surface in separate parts? Use Shift
Panelled mirrors or glass in sheets: hold Shift and click the other faces, then press Enter. You get one continuous reflection, with no seam between the parts.
- 4Tune it without redoing it
Floor and TV have one slider; clear, bronze and smoked have two. Brightness and transparency. Release the slider and the reflection already in the scene updates instantly, with no need to generate again. Each slider has a reset button.
The plugin reflects the scene camera across the surface plane, captures what it would really reflect and projects it onto the face, in seconds, at no credit cost, since everything happens locally in your SketchUp.
The reflection is saved in the scene and disappears when you switch scenes. Generate one per scene. If you change the scene's view later, redo the reflection before rendering. The Delete all reflections button clears everything the tool created in the model at once.
With tinted glass, the cabinet interior only shows if the door material is transparent in SketchUp. And do combine them: a mirror in the bathroom, smoked glass on the closet doors, a polished floor in the living room. The set is what makes the render look like a photograph.
The reflection is in the scene. Now to the second tool in this lesson, Fake Light, which solves room lighting without modeling a single fixture.
SketchUp doesn't show light. You model the cove, the niche, the mirror, and the scene stays flat, with no hint of what should glow in the render. Fake Light (in the Scenes tab, right below Mirror Reflection) solves that by drawing the light: an LED strip running along an edge, or a spot with a visible beam. It isn't real lighting. It's a clear reference so the AI knows where the light is and what color it is.
LED Strip or Spot
- LED Strip: runs along a line (cove, niche, baseboard) or traces the entire edge of a mirror. Under Object type you pick between Millwork and Mirror.
- Spot: the cone of light from a fixture. You click the fixture face and the beam comes out of it.
How to use it
- 1Pick the mode and set the light
Choose LED Strip or Spot, the color (the default is a warm white, #ffe76e), the beam direction and the Reach, Intensity and Spread sliders. Each mode keeps its own values.
- 2Click Create, then click where the light goes
For a strip on millwork, click the line it should run along. Hold Shift to add several lines at once. For a strip on a mirror, click the mirror face and it traces the whole edge. For a spot, click the fixture face. ESC exits the tool.
- 3Fine-tune without redoing it
With a light selected in SketchUp, the sliders start editing that light. Release the slider and it rebuilds instantly. You can also move the light by hand and the next adjustment respects the new position.
The strip is one continuous band: corners meet without tearing, and on an upright outline (the mirror) the glow spreads outward following the shape, while on a horizontal one (the cove) it goes down or up. Everything is generated on your computer, in seconds, with no credits used.
It's fake light: it doesn't illuminate the SketchUp scene, it works as a visual reference for the render. The Clear all lights button removes everything the tool created in the model at once.
The highest-payoff use is the strip behind a mirror. That glow tracing the edge is what makes the AI deliver the backlit mirror you had in mind. Combine it with Mirror Reflection in the same scene: one gives you the reflection, the other gives you the light.
Ready to try it yourself?
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