Making a Realistic Earth With Night Lights Using Blender

Ever looked up at the night sky and wondered how Earth looks from space? In this project, I recreated our blue planet using Blender, a free and open-source 3D software.

This render shows Earth glowing beautifully at night, with realistic lighting, atmosphere, and textures. I made this project to learn how light interacts with our planet and to create something visually stunning.

You don’t need to be an expert in Blender to try this. In this Instructable, I will show how I created the sphere for Earth, applied land and cloud textures, added night lights, and set up the camera and lighting for a realistic space scene.

Whether you are new to Blender or someone who loves space visuals, this guide will help you make your own version of Earth as seen from space.

Before starting the 3D modeling, I spent some time looking at real images of Earth from space. I mainly used NASA’s Earth Observatory and Visible Earth websites to understand how the planet actually looks — the colors of the oceans, the brightness of city lights, and how the atmosphere creates a soft blue glow around the edges.

I also studied how other 3D artists created Earth renders in Blender. Watching short tutorials helped me understand what textures were needed and how lighting affects the final look.

This small research step made it easier to plan my scene and make the render look more realistic and natural.

After preparing the scene, the next step is to create the planet. I added a UV Sphere in Blender as the base for Earth. To make it look realistic, I downloaded high-resolution textures for land, oceans, clouds, and night lights from NASA’s Visible Earth website. I applied these textures to the sphere, giving Earth its natural colors and the glow of cities at night. I recorded the entire process, so you can watch the video to see exactly how I set up and applied the textures. Using these real-world textures makes the render more accurate and visually stunning.

Before adding stars, I first set the background color to black to represent the darkness of space. In Blender, I went to the World Properties tab and changed the color to black. I also switched the render engine to Cycles for more realistic lighting and reflections. After this, I added my custom stars, gradients, and small particles to complete the space background. I recorded the entire process, so you can watch the video to see exactly how I set up the background and lighting.

To add sunlight to the scene, I pressed Shift + A → Light → Sun. I positioned it so one side of the Earth is illuminated while the other side stays in shadow, creating a natural day-night effect. I set the power of the Sun to 25 for bright, realistic lighting. Adding the Sun this way gives depth and realism to the planet.

After adding the Earth, background, and Sun, it’s time to set up the camera for the final render. I positioned the view exactly how I wanted to frame the planet, then pressed Ctrl + Alt + 0 to snap the camera to that view. This ensures the camera captures Earth and the space background perfectly. I adjusted the camera angle and focal length for the best perspective. Once everything looked good, I rendered the scene using the Cycles engine for high-quality results.

Creating this Earth render taught me a lot about how light, textures, and camera angles work together to make a scene realistic. I learned that even small details, like night lights and a proper background, can make a huge difference in the final image.

For beginners, my tips are:

1. Start simple and gradually add details like clouds, night lights, and particles.
2. Use high-quality textures from reliable sources like NASA.
3. Don’t be afraid to experiment with lighting and camera angles — small changes can make the scene much better.
4. Watching tutorials or recording your own process can help you understand each step clearly.

Following these steps and tips will make creating your own space scenes easier and more enjoyable.

Textures for the Earth (land, oceans, clouds, night lights) were downloaded from NASA’s Visible Earth, which are free to use.

Blender, the software used for modeling, lighting, and rendering, is free and open-source.

I recorded the process myself to show how I created the planet, the space background, and set up the Sun and camera.

Special thanks to the Blender community and online tutorials that helped me understand techniques for realistic rendering.

Thanks for checking out my project! I hope this guide helps you create your own realistic Earth in Blender.

"How to Create a Realistic Earth in Blender"

Channel: Blender Guru

Link: https://youtu.be/0YZzHn0iz8U

"Blender Night Sky Tutorial"

Channel: CG Geek

Link: https://youtu.be/OOpCrTjeezY

"Setting Up Lighting in Blender"

Channel: Blender Secrets

Link: https://youtu.be/NJPFHRrTKXo