Do I understand correctly that the best way to go about it is by using the stencil feature in the texture painting tab, and this technique for when we either want the decal to have a "sticker" look, or what it to be exchangeable in the future?
If that's not right, when do you say we should use one technique over the other?
Another couple of questions on the same topic: if I'm adding the decal but do not have a normal map as an image... I thought of using a UV Map input node. While that does show something happening, the colors don't feel right on the nodes (also, the black render result on cycles gives a hint lol). What is the right way to go about this?
Bake the helmet texture first, then input it? Add a converter node of sorts?
And lastly, I ran into this technique here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rUP8aAG4AQ8 . Any downsides of using it that you guys with tons of experience can think of? Do you think one would be more performant over the other?
Just curious. Thanks for any insight!
nathitappan that is a very good setup in the video, I will probably use that myself.
You can add the image texture direct to the helmet material in a similar way.
I wouldn't use a separate object for the decal, subdivided and a shrinkwrap modifier, I would rather have less geometry in the scene.
But it depends on the project and how large the scene is if you decide on using this method.
I would 100% go with a texture within the shader as well, I have never liked using a separate mesh, it gets all wonky at times and it adds unnecessary extra geometry and complexity. There are a couple addons on the Blender Market, like Decal Machine that makes the process much more easily, but again stencil is the way to go for me. As you say though, maybe you want the flexibility to exchange the sticker in the future, it could be easier if it's a separate mesh, but it can also be as easy if in the node setup you just have the image texture as a top layer that you can easily just load any other texture.
But lastly, there is no correct or wrong way, just the way you decide to go about it, there's always multiple solutions and it will depend on yourself and the situation.
Awesome!
Got it! Less geometry takes the cake.
Thank you for weighing in! I'll definitely go within the nodes then. This way I can also change it from a sticker look to a custom paint look, inheriting the properties from the base paint.
Thanks again!