Is there a consensus on the most proper way of adding a decal to a model when UV unwrapping proves too disorienting on a complex model?
I’ve seen the shrinkwrap method using an image as a plane, the nodes method combining two textures and a coordinate node set to an empty, and a projection+painting technique that I’m still trying to wrap my head around (was that a texture joke?). The shrinkwrap approach is simplist, but adding a mesh atop another mesh seems like poor practice … I.e. won’t this lead to glitching caused by Z axis fighting? Thanks!
Simplest for display- it’s nearly impossible to deform or animate. The empty mapping texture method is the way to allow for deformation, which makes it the best method in my opinion
And that sums it up. It’s sort of a … texturing hack. And sometimes hacks are fine, but I’ve often seen people shrinkwrapping a decal just because they appear to think it’s the only option.
Shrinkwrapping a decal is fine, so long as the underlying surface isn’t destined to be animated. If you want to avoid any z-fighting, do your shrinkwrap, then float the geometry about a hair’s breadth above the projected surface.
From what I’ve seen in another source, they have exactly the same topology as the mesh under them (just part that was cut from the lowpoly final mesh?), but have their own UV map.
Are you going to be baking down to a single material that uses separate textures? The empty to position and then bake to diffuse etc. works pretty well and avoids a lot of hassle - the shrinkwrap is a pain in that regard.
Thanks everyone, and yes, would be great to bake in the decals as part of the texture (again, very intricate model). Has anyone tried to do this with Stencil Mapping and camera projection? I see it discussed in the Blender 4.1 Manual under “Texture & Texture Mask” but finding it confusing to follow. Is this essentially “painting with pictures” … that sounds too simple, too good to be true?
I often do this - just duplicate some faces from the underlying character, preserves the weights so the decal is already rigged and ready to animate. Good to know it’s an “official” technique
Just unwrap the polygons where the decal is projected on. Could be done with a simple projection from view. Then blend it over the other textures.
No Z-fighting, no extra geometry. Does animate perfectly.
Also how do you want to bake the textures if you have no UV’s?
I always thougth the ProjectUV modifier was for this… but i never really understood how it works for this… even the “example” file in the Docs-Blender Manual: Modifier → UV Project… is from 2010 and for blender 2.5 (?) so i modified it to work with 3.6
The original Suzanne had another UV and i resized the “projector” for this image" ( and forgot to set the projected image maping to clip in the blend file ). The projected_uv–map is actual “empty”…so the “original” texture is unchanged.
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