how are decals added to clothing?

Toobis

Was considering purchasing something around here to help me add dirt or blood etc to clothing but I see during investigating more on how they work that all the products use 'decals' to do this? I am totally unfamiliar with these. Is there a basic process on how to add a decal to some clothing as I am tempted to purchase one of these products but am worried I won't know how to utilize it properly being I'm used to using things like L.I.E

Examples of products I am talking about below :

https://www.daz3d.com/a-touch-of-dirt-for-iray

https://www.daz3d.com/skin-effects-dirt-for-genesis-3-and-8-females

https://www.daz3d.com/iray-grungeworx

NorthOf45

Decals work basically like a still image projector. You choose a node (object or bone), parent a new decal node and select the image you want to project (all the usual Iray channels, except displacement and emission, I believe). Unlike LIE images, the decals do not conform to the surface (they do follow the rigging, i.e., bone movement, but not mesh distortions), and are not concerned with UV maps, so they can cross seams without any problems. The Decal Node is built-in to DAZ Studio (Create->New Iray Decal Node... with something selected in the scene, so you can try it out on something before you buy anything just to get an idea how it works). Just make sure the Z-Axis is pointing out of the surface and that the decal space (it is 3D) intersects the surface. Only visible in Iray preview and renders. (There are many parameters for the decal node, many of which I still don't understand, but the default setup should cover most cases). I'm sure there are tutorials on the subject that you can find with that other search engine.

 

 

nonesuch00

NorthOf45 said:

Decals work basically like a still image projector. You choose a node (object or bone), parent a new decal node and select the image you want to project (all the usual Iray channels, except displacement and emission, I believe). Unlike LIE images, the decals do not conform to the surface (they do follow the rigging, i.e., bone movement, but not mesh distortions), and are not concerned with UV maps, so they can cross seams without any problems. The Decal Node is built-in to DAZ Studio (Create->New Iray Decal Node... with something selected in the scene, so you can try it out on something before you buy anything just to get an idea how it works). Just make sure the Z-Axis is pointing out of the surface and that the decal space (it is 3D) intersects the surface. Only visible in Iray preview and renders. (There are many parameters for the decal node, many of which I still don't understand, but the default setup should cover most cases). I'm sure there are tutorials on the subject that you can find with that other search engine.

 

 

Too bad they don't do emission or displacement because they're really more suitable as badges, brooches, buttons, & such.