This 3DS Max tutorial will walk you through applying decals on any 3D object (including curved ones). It’s a relatively quick technique that can be used whenever you want your decals to be separate textures.

The Result

1/3 Decal Preparation

To apply a Decal, you need to create an Opacity mask. We’re using the Ubuntu logo this time. Fire-up your image editor and open the decal image. Resize and Crop it to whatever size you need.

If you’re using Adobe Photoshop, go to the Select menu and  click the Color Range entry. This will help us get rid of the white background.

» Click the background color and click ok. Delete the selection.
» Click and drag the Logo layer to the New Layer icon {} to duplicate it.
» Ctrl+ click the new layer icon to get a perfect selection of the decal. Fill this selection with white. Create a new layer underneath the white decal and fill it with black.

Remember to check that there are no JPG artifacts left. You can usually find them loitering around the edges of complex images. This tends to annoy new users to no end: “How can I get rid of those white edges?”

You can download the completed Decals here:

2/3 The scene and material

Nothing fancy here. Just create a cube of whatever size you want.

Open up the Material Editor {“M”}{} and select an empty slot. Click the Diffuse map slot and assign a Composite map.

A composite map works like layers in Photoshop. You can change the Blending Mode and the opacity of each layer independently. Familiar huh?

To create the base material, just click the Layer 1 Map slot and assign a Checkered map.

Press the Add a New Layer Button {} to create our decal layer. Click the Map slot and assign a Bitmap to it. Browse to your Decal texture and assign it.

To make sure it doesn’t repeat all over the object, un-check the Tile boxes. While you’re here, set the Map channel to 2. Remember this number. Also press the Show Map in Viewport button so we can preview the decal’s placement.

Click 3Ds Max’s Go to Parent button {} and press the Mask map button. Repeat the steps but replace the Decal Texture with the Decal mask bitmap. Set the same Map Channel for the Decal mask as well.

Select the Cube, go to 3DS Max’s Modify tab{} and assign a UVW Map to it.

» Set the Mapping to Planar and the map channel to 2.
» Click the {“+”} sign next to the UVW map modifier.
» Click the Gizmo entry and Move{}, Scale{} and Rotate{} the gizmo until you’re happy with the decal’s placement.
! Make sure the gizmo is smaller than the cube’s face or the decal will distort to cover the other faces as well.

3/3 More Decals

To apply a decal to another face:
» create a new Composite layer
» repeat the Bitmap and map assignment
» set the Map Channel to a different number.
» add a new UVW Map modifier to the cube and set the Map Channel accordingly
» rotate the gizmo to 90 degrees on the Y axis and move it downwards.

This 3DS Max technique works just as well on any spherical/ curved surface without any other modifications.

The End

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