Is it possible to export a 3D NURBS or polygon model view to the vector
gradient mesh?
Is it mathematically possible?
Is there such a software yet?
Has anyone ever tried it?
Does it make sense?

I was just thinking that the color gradients are guided by the topology
of the surface, and it'd be better to create it in a dedicated 3d
package, and then export/render it into Illustrator and "paint" on the
mesh there.