decal control

[wgc2005]

Hi all-

is there an easy way to keep a decal on only the outside surface?

For example, I'm trying to apply a decal to a bowl, but when I use the mapping widget in all its variations (planar, surface, cylindrical, etc) the decal shows up on all the surfaces in the line of projection- inside, outside, backside, etc.

I only want it on one side, on the outside. Maybe I'm simple, but it's not clear to me from the manual how to achieve this.

Breaking things up into surfaces and using UVW would probably do it but it would also take forever.

TIA!

[schultzeworks]

Decal projects "forever"

The decal controls do not allow you to start and/or stop the projection; it continues indefinitely. Look at it this way : a decal map is purely for visualization + rendering -- not prototyping. With that as a given, your best option is to split apart any connected geometry where you do not want the the decal to appear.

Some other tips:

1) If you don't want to split, then you can change your camera angle so you cannot see the 'backside' of the decals. A lower angle is better and its usually more dramatic.

2) Make a copy of your geometry before the split, place it on another layer, and turn that layer off for any renders. Now you can "hack" the remaining model as needed so that the decal looks good and goes where you want. If you need the original data, you still got it.

[wgc2005]

Re: decal control

Hi professor-

thank you very much.

I wanted to avoid splitting into sufaces simply because you can get some funny things at the surface edges sometimes using exported data, which would be a problem for my visualization. The prototyping can happen from the other software, so I wasn't worried about that.

The camera angle would work fine, except that I was required to provide a higher angle view from perspective view.

Very much as you suggest in #2, I ended up making a copy, splitting the copy into surfaces, deleting all but the ones I wanted the decal on, then rendering the surfaces and the solid together. I had to offset the decal surfaces very slightly to prevent "bleed through" from the original geometry.

It was quicker for me to photoshop the end result to get rid of the edges that showed from the decal surfaces than continue playing with the surface.

If I had to do this again, I would probably do it much the same only I woulddo two renders, one of the surfaces with the decal and another with the "solid" geometry, and then compost the images together in photoshop. That would prevent having to do an offset, and likely make for quicker photoshoping anyway.

hope this helps someone else!