Tutorial: Decals on non-flat (curved) surfaces - adstrip, logo

User avatar
asyvan
Posts: 549
Joined: Sun Aug 28, 2016 12:21 am
Location: Sweden

Tutorial: Decals on non-flat (curved) surfaces - adstrip, logo

Post by asyvan »

Hi
I thought I'd share a small tutorial I made.

How do you put decals (logos, adstrip, etc) on your vehicle or implements curved (non-flat) surface?
In the video below I will show in three sections, each from start to finish, how to do this. The three sections are:
* How to put a decal on a curved non-flat surface (first 18min of video) Requires Maya or Blender
* How to make a decal (flat or curved) to appear to have a thickness (next 5min) Does not require Maya/Blender
* Creating a 3D effect using high poly created normal map (last 11min)

Here is the video:
https://youtu.be/fOCA4eMHcwc


Image

Basically the first part of the video shows these steps:
* Export the mod as a .OBJ file using Giants Editor
* Select the faces where your decal will be, using a 3D tool (I am using Maya, but Blender is also fine)
* Create a new object from the faces and assign a new material
* Import the image of your decal to the material (square image, does not need to be correct aspect ratio)
* UV map your object (typically you want to project in a plane) so your decal looks nice
* Create a second UV map (UV set in Maya)
* Export as i3D
* Import into your mod using Giants Editor, give it a shader (vehicleShader) with Decal.
* Done.

The second part does not need Maya or Blender, it shows these steps roughly:
* Get the image you used as decal for your mod
* Make a copy of it and translate it to grey
(easiest is to think of 50% grey for everything untouched, 100% white for the raised parts and 0% black for lowered)
* Import the black/white picture into Awesome Bump 5.2 Found here on Github
* Set blur to the image to decide the "thickness" of the raise/lower in the bump map section of Awesome Bump
* Set depth and normal step in the normal section of Awesome Bump
* Save the normal map when you are satisfied
* In Giants Editor set the normal map for the material of your decal
//Jens Ejvinsson
Farming History: FS11, FS13, FS15, FS17, FS19 (Steam)
Logitech G29, Logitech/Saitek Sidepanel, Logitech F710 Wireless gamepad
PC Gamer - "The Silent Beast" i7-7700K @ 5Ghz, GTX 1070 @ 2.1GHz

Case IH Puma CVX With Tracks
Väderstad Rapid A600-800S Seed Drill
Tutorial compilation for FS19 - list of all my How To guides
User avatar
don_apple
Moderator
Posts: 8043
Joined: Thu Oct 28, 2010 9:31 pm
Location: Planet Earth

Re: Tutorial: Decals on non-flat (curved) surfaces - adstrip, logo

Post by don_apple »

Topic 'pinned' so it doesn't get lost, since it contains useful information.
Gruß/Regards,
don_apple

Apple iMac 27" (2017), Quad-Core i7 4.2 GHz, 48GB, AMD Radeon R580 8GB
Bitte benutzt das öffentliche Forum für Supportfragen und nicht PN/Please use the public forum for support questions and not PM
FS22 Bugtracker
log.txt Image Server Forenregeln Board rules
Buckhorn2
Posts: 1
Joined: Mon Oct 19, 2020 3:24 am

Re: Tutorial: Decals on non-flat (curved) surfaces - adstrip, logo

Post by Buckhorn2 »

I know this is an old thread. I have tried following the 2nd part of this tutorial, I installed AwesomeBump. The tutorial shows you importing the DDS image file into AwesomeBump, I can not import the dds files into the program so i can not continue with the tutorial. AwesomeBump will allow me to import a PNG file, but will not work with DDS. Do you have any suggestions?
User avatar
Mrbrutal
Posts: 9
Joined: Tue Nov 20, 2018 1:18 am
Location: Slovenia
Contact:

Re: Tutorial: Decals on non-flat (curved) surfaces - adstrip, logo

Post by Mrbrutal »

Late reply but maybe it helps someone.

You can just save the image as a .png and then save it as .dds when you already have the normal map. You can also use an online tool like this one -> https://cpetry.github.io/NormalMap-Online/ which will do basically the same thing. (You also get a .png which you then have to save as a .dds)
Post Reply