HOW to create alpha DECALS with Decal Machine in BLENDER Part 1

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➤linktr.ee/ryuurui

[@AllThingsGundam]

We need more teachers like you in the world of 3d modeling buddy

[@PonteRyuurui]

ah cheers, mate, much appreciated!

[@samgaming8053]

amazed by how Josh & yourself deliver content distinctly but perfectly

[@PonteRyuurui]

appreciated!

[@HippyDruid77]

I was about to go hug some trees in the garden, then I saw your tutorial. Cheers man!

[@PonteRyuurui]

lol, anytime

[@MogShade]

My favorite Blender instructor. Appreciate everything you do

[@PonteRyuurui]

thanks japri!

[@BiNDiViSUAL]

I love how blunt you are in your tutorial, encouraging people to do things the right way and not take Shortcuts with crappy results. Actually had me laughing at your Gumroad comment.

[@PonteRyuurui]

heh, cheers mate!

[@guinness11]

I always look forward to your tutorials. I like your "no bullshit" approach. Good stuff man, quality!

[@PonteRyuurui]

cheers mate!

[@SimonSanchezArt]

I've recently did some experiments with creating decals from sculpted planes (organic stuff, like rocks, dirt, wall cracks, etc...) and it's awesome for that too!

[@PonteRyuurui]

that is actually a cool idea!

[@oscarvictor2250]

Thank you again for this great tutorial, Ryuu. But I need to upgrade my pc because now I can maintain my whole garden AND my neighbor's garden before a decal is baked.:))

[@PonteRyuurui]

lol np, just get a better graphic card and make sure your system doesnt bottle neck it

[@Puckerization]

Great tutorial. Love the no nonsense, no bullshit, honest approach.

[@PonteRyuurui]

cheers mate, much appreciated!

[@Cyber_Kriss]

-Un- F**k I just bought this add-on, now I am addicted and I will have to deep dive into it... What an amazing tool.

[@chrisellison9460]

I am loving all of your videos but this one was extra helpful to me. Thanks, and I look forward to Part 2. Keep it up!

[@PonteRyuurui]

cheers, Chris, part 2 is out in 10h!

[@chrisellison9460]

Woohoo! I have already created a geo decal based on your tutorial! Can’t wait!

[@FBI-vj3or]

i imagining gigachad meme when hearing your voice, and basically your way to teach us.

[@PonteRyuurui]

that should jump the attention span average

[@FBI-vj3or]

@@PonteRyuurui for sure!

[@Riprazor]

Another awesome tutorial! Love the way you do these without bullshiting around. "I don't want to see any shit on gumroad".....one of my favorite all time KZbin quotes! You were not kidding about how compute intensive these are. Maxed out 12 cores for the better part of a couple of minutes.

[@PonteRyuurui]

cheers mate, ya baking is a bit of a bastard

[@Aceofspades088]

I have been trying to learn decals for the last two weeks, and I don't know why this video never came up in the algorithm when I searched the topic. Very frustrating considering this is exactly the video I needed to watch. There are some comments posted below from Machin3 that stated some things about the normal issues and bevel modifiers within DM, perhaps there is an opportunity to revisit this topic either through KZbin or (preferably) in an update to the 497 essential tips. I would certainly appreciate it. - Salute 💯

[@PonteRyuurui]

just watch my later vids, this one is outdated. 497 does not have any vids on DM.

[@maxradau4914]

That is most awesome tutorial i ever seen before :D Your speech goes well for a guru of hard surface!)) "Any mistake and sheeting going into sh*t. I'm not joking!" )) After this words and intonation i will always be super concentrated on creating my decals! I promise!)))

[@PonteRyuurui]

cheers mate, glad you found it useful! get on them decals pronto!

[@IndustrialPlasticsNanaimo]

Oh hey guys...sorry I'm late....I was gardening LOL....Another amazing tutorial Ryuu :-). Thank you for this. Looking forward to Part 2 :-)

[@PonteRyuurui]

rofl, you cheeky muppet, cheers man, ya it is out in about 10h so you know might wanna reschedule the next gardening session

[@IndustrialPlasticsNanaimo]

@@PonteRyuurui Well I know what I'll be watching on my lunch at work tomorrow :-)

[@PonteRyuurui]

@@IndustrialPlasticsNanaimo i cant wait for my Tuesday vid to come out, few sou boys will lose their sprouts again

[@michajabonski8365]

amazing tutorial, amazing add-on

[@ushinofun6362]

Love your commentary

[@PonteRyuurui]

ah cheers!

[@ColinTCS]

Some great tips there my man, answered a couple of headaches I'd had dealing with decal creation.

[@PonteRyuurui]

cheers mate! Part 2 is out for subset decals, have a look!

[@ColinTCS]

@@PonteRyuurui On it! :-)

[@krzysieksypniewski2248]

hi hi )) difficult lesson // web lesson but fine for evening..to hear it in evening hours ) good luck in your work !! fine !!

[@PonteRyuurui]

cheers

[@OnkAnCa64]

smooth clean deep intro into decals land thanks dude :)

[@PonteRyuurui]

glad you like it mate!

[@xpanse]

Great tutorial - thanks

[@PonteRyuurui]

Glad it was helpful!

[@kaltatymerk9506]

Thank you! will try it for sure! A bit scared on my baking time though.

[@PonteRyuurui]

do it!

[@mazashayeri1411]

You're great! been looking for this tutorial all over the internet. Now I know why my decals look shitty.

[@PonteRyuurui]

ya just gonna be patient with them, tomorrow I am releasing part 2 - subset decals with more than one geo element.

[@niazahmedkhan4201]

This is freaking awesome! I was waiting for this.. ohh man! thank you.. I hope your channel grow more and more :)

[@PonteRyuurui]

thanks man, i hope so too!

[@dwho1029]

Amazing tutorial! TY!

[@PonteRyuurui]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@TerenceKearns]

Nice. Great info.

[@PonteRyuurui]

Thanks for watching!

[@JacksSpaceGames]

"Baby Ass Clean!!!" oh yes. Thanks for the video!

[@harshmunjal]

i created my first DECAL today... gonna make more and put the high-quality shit on GmRd. Thanks Much!

[@PonteRyuurui]

thats how we roll!

[@harshmunjal]

@@PonteRyuurui i have a set of Decals ready now and I am itching to put it on GuRd. if you permit can I send it over for you to have a look and give feedback? I totally understand if don't want to entertain this request... totally your decision to say yes or no to it, It'll be taking your time after all. :) Cheers!

[@ilikepizza9889]

why are you so enthusiastic about decals

[@PonteRyuurui]

because i am too old to get excited about girls, one has to retire some day and I am not into cats, you see.

[@ilikepizza9889]

@@PonteRyuurui alright that makes sense

[@PonteRyuurui]

@@ilikepizza9889 I knew that together we are going to solve this mystery.

[@davidarguedas5735]

Woow awesome, this channel is amazing!!

[@PonteRyuurui]

thanks David!

[@NickyDekker89]

Love your way of tutoring man. Dog breakfast haha.

[@PonteRyuurui]

haha cheers

[@yusrighouse]

I'm still a very early beginner, but I really want to try making a decal pack. But I'm gonna put a shit load of time into it purely because I fear you will see it and hunt me down if its not excellent. :D

[@PonteRyuurui]

damn straight

[@rolston4107]

Thank you so much, I tried to follow machin3's video but the decal I made was very lackluster compared to your example in this video.

[@PonteRyuurui]

well, his vids are really good, just need to do a lot of digging ;-)

[@iamiam6078]

Wow ! l like it ,detailed also straight to the point could you make a "beginner friendly " tutorial on meshmachine plug creation ? It would be extremely helpful 🙂

[@PonteRyuurui]

I dont use plugs mate

[@inoyashakitbu1178]

why is it so smooth @7:21 I thought don't use bevel modifier but this looks like a global bevel on it

[@PonteRyuurui]

it's due to angles and autosmooth setup, it looks bevelled but in fact it isnt.

[@mazashayeri1411]

"It's baby ass clean" lol

[@PonteRyuurui]

;-)

[@georgekolesarek7682]

I would to ask what are the PC requirements to make the decals equivalent to the one that you are showing. Also thank you for taking the time to make these vids

[@PonteRyuurui]

no idea what are the requirements mate, may wanna msg machin3

[@relaxationmusic7623]

Baby ass clean. LOL😁. You are awsome Bro !😉

[@orangemynt806]

hahahaha I love this guy, "I don't wanna see shit on gumroad"

[@PonteRyuurui]

damn straight!

[@Abdullah-wo2lv]

I wanted to ask, I have used it Weighted Normal I noticed that the shading has been fixed, what do you think about this and why you didn't use it sorry for my bad language 13:40

[@PonteRyuurui]

i do, but with custom settings and if that fails I use HN

[@dinisdesigncorner332]

set this shit to maximum 🤙

[@PonteRyuurui]

das rite

[@MsMidnightStories]

Are you kidding, gardening is way more stressful than Decal Machine, but I get the point ! Lol

[@PonteRyuurui]

lol you should watch this one to understand what i meant, and ya i hate gardening kzbin.info/www/bejne/mXTQfp57lsl6rtE

[@grimuk3817]

Hey, Ponte, 3 things, bud. Firstly, I am using *Blender 2.90.1,* and I am wondering if the *Decal Machine 2.0.1* is compatible? And is it updated as Blender evolves? Secondly, the add-ons *Hard Ops / Boxcutter Ultimate Bundle (2.8)* are for (as shown) 2.8 - so will they be ok in Blender 2.90.1 ? And thirdly, just a heads up for u, the link for *"Learn how to use Decal Machine"* link is to a video that isn't available.

[@PonteRyuurui]

Ryuu is fine mate, Ponte is my last name. Ditch that 2.9 fiasco and go 2.91 or 92 for hopscutter, stay in 2.83.7 for DM. I do occasionally get pythons in 91 and 82 with DM, but maybe i need to update it, not sure which version I am running. Yes, they are all being updated. That vid is outdated mate, watch the newer ones i dropped for DM 2.0. kzbin.info/www/bejne/jHfclnaLodFoaqc

[@grimuk3817]

@@PonteRyuurui Ahh, apologies. I assumed Ponte was ur 1st name - but thank u for replying, bud - and I'll do as u have suggested. I'm pretty much going through everything u got in what I hope to be a linear and progressive fashion. And likely I'll be chucking a few questions ur way, if that's ok? So please let me know if I'm starting to get on ur nerves (it will be necessary questions only, and not "ffs dude u can find that on ur own" questions). Its just it isn't often u come across someone tutoring in such a comprehensive fashion. I've been at this a week (all day every day so I'm learning very fast) but now I have found u I'm backpedaling to the bits everyone else failed to mention. The setup/add-on info u have given is extremely beneficial. Ur a legend among men, Ryuu. We all owe u a debt of gratitude.

[@skwadfpv5450]

Spend the afternoon creating decals, in vanilla, it works. But i probably miss something...i bake normal and Ao. I use subd displace and shrinkwarp to apply my decals. Did u bake an height map or something else?

[@PonteRyuurui]

I bake them via DM, I dont understand why would you want to do it in vanilla, it makes no sense. You need height map for parallax.

[@skwadfpv5450]

@@PonteRyuurui because i really want to understand under the hood. And maybe because i can't afford DM2.0 for the moment. It is really fun to do also..a bit time consuming but...

[@donaldmiller584]

After your comment about buying a decal pack that was not good I wondered if you can de-construct a decal and re- bake it to a higher quality. I've never tried to make a decal so I don't know what can and can't be done.

[@PonteRyuurui]

Nope, it is best to start over and create your own decal. It's like with a cake, once baked it;s over.

[@3DRamenArt]

Decal Machine works with the new material add on? I mean in terms of matching materials?

[@PonteRyuurui]

DM works only with BSDF mats

[@3DRamenArt]

Thank you! :) Loving the add ons.@@PonteRyuurui

[@henryvasquez1814]

Hey Ryuurui Dzien Dobry. I am following your advice about selling Decals, a quick question. how can change the material on the decal? for some reason it is coming as plastic material and I cannot change it

[@PonteRyuurui]

bsdf mats in your mat library in blender, thats where DM gets mats from, so the more you have there the better

[@henryvasquez1814]

Nice let me check how can I do that. Thank you so much I already did my 4th simple decal!!!

[@G4ADStudios]

A very beginner question, you mentioned it has to be all manually made, does that mean modifiers can't be used either?

[@PonteRyuurui]

things have changed, just watch my later vids, if you go bevel modifier, simply use WN or HN

[@G4ADStudios]

@@PonteRyuurui Then I'll go check them, thank you :D

[@PonteRyuurui]

@@G4ADStudios same playlist, just look up newer vids on decal creation

[@jonathanmarcelthome]

Hi Ruurui, what is the reason for not using hardops bevel in this process?

[@PonteRyuurui]

outdated vid mate, go with hops bevel and use WN

[@jonathanmarcelthome]

@@PonteRyuurui Thanks man, you're the best!

[@christopherward7630]

Ponte, thanks for this content. I have several of your courses purchased, all very good quality content. I am having an issue that it doesnt seem anyone else has mentioned in the comments. When i bake out my decal the resolution is great, but is badly skewed. it seems to "skew" toward the world origin. When i move the decal around the scene, image seems to point toward world 0. Thoughts?

[@PonteRyuurui]

Are you in orthographic mode? Also, before saving decal I alwasy adjust parallax to make sure it is not too distorted.

[@christopherward7630]

@@PonteRyuurui do you go by Ryuu? I see everyone call you by that, just want to make sure.... Yes I am in ortho view. Ive tried baking both ways but with the same result.

[@PonteRyuurui]

@@christopherward7630 Yup, it's Ryuu. God to d menu, adjust press d and adjust parallax before saving to a folder.

[@christopherward7630]

@@PonteRyuurui Thank you this was it. You always respond so quickly. Greatly appreciated.

[@PonteRyuurui]

@@christopherward7630 No worries mate. also, avoid looking at decals in orthographic mode, they will look mangled. So stay in perspective when previewing decals on the model or blender in general.

[@gregtracy9322]

Awesome

[@PonteRyuurui]

;-p

[@giorgilezhava1877]

when i use decal on my model can i export model with that decal? like bake it or something like textures and normal maps?

[@PonteRyuurui]

well yes, it is a normal map, check your decal folders

[@GoldenAdrien]

So I have a problem where decal machine stops showing the add decal option in the pie menu after using it once, and only works again after restarting blender, not even turning off the internet works and that is the only solution I can find online

[@PonteRyuurui]

did you apply the decal?

[@Walkion]

Yeah Decal madness!!! "I don't want to see some shit decal packs on gumroad" XDD, i was thinking of creating a pack myself, now im gonna be double extra careful before posting anything ahah. Thank you for the good stuff, im a fan of what you are doing right now, keep it up!

[@PonteRyuurui]

haha, goooooooooooooooood, thats what I wanna hear, quality! Anytime mate, I just recorded vid on subset decals with way more complex geo. Coming up tomorrow.

[@Walkion]

@@PonteRyuurui I just saw it on my feed, cant wait to check that out !!

[@PonteRyuurui]

@@Walkion cheers mate! It covers all the subset decal info.

[@hussinal8384]

Awesome! I just wanna know... can we export and use the alpha we creating here in Substance painter? Cause some alphas there not high res. enough.

[@PonteRyuurui]

It depends on how you bake them. I think my decals are the only ones on the market baked at 1024. All others I saw or bought were at 512 - so not good enough, at least for me. I do not work with SP, but the new DM 2.0 will come with auto atlas map baking. In 1.9 you need to create atlas maps manually. Also, trim sheets coming as well. 2.0 is about to drop. I would love to see 2048 res in 2.0 for baking, and i do not give a flying donkey's fuck how long it would take to bake it. Quality is all I care about.

[@Dina_tankar_mina_ord]

late question. but is it possible to use normal transfer on decals?

[@PonteRyuurui]

why would you need that? just shrink wrap them to the surface if you need to, dm can do it too

[@Dina_tankar_mina_ord]

@@PonteRyuurui I was referring to the object before baking when a shading issue occurred. more of a theoretical question if it was possible.

[@PonteRyuurui]

@@Dina_tankar_mina_ord sure you can use WN, i think i have some vids on 2.0dm decal making, just look them up in the dm playlist

[@Dina_tankar_mina_ord]

​@@PonteRyuurui thanks! It is important for me to understand the mechanics of the program. You guys are great at explaining and showing. Its a gold mine. In terms of comprehension, the reward of "getting" it yourself is such a dopamine kick.

[@Villio.]

Can you share your blue blender theme? I mean is better than the default yello

[@PonteRyuurui]

sorry, what do you mean by blue blender theme? If you mean the object outlines, they are white, so change object, edge, vert select to while under themes in preferences.

[@Villio.]

@@PonteRyuurui oh.okay..i thought you would have changed many interface colors ....so I asked for the theme🙏

[@PonteRyuurui]

@@Villio. nah, I only change selection colors, and edge colors, like sharps, seams etc.

[@Merlin-gl7zp]

What addon are you using for this mirroring? 8:00

[@PonteRyuurui]

hardops gumroad.com/a/95646835

[@creeps3289]

I don`t wanna see some shitty decals in Gumroad too don`t be lazy learn! That some mastery man learn from the best xD Keep the good work man baby ass clean stuff !

[@PonteRyuurui]

cheers mate!

[@donaldmiller584]

Great video as usual but I think you've never done any gardening. My wife would growl at that comment about patience. :)

[@PonteRyuurui]

lol i bet she would

[@berca76]

only 5 minutes into the video and I'm already surprised :) Why are yhou not using HOPs bevel and weighted normals? I'm using them all the time (for custom decals) and it works fine :)

[@PonteRyuurui]

send me your decals and i will show you the issue - make ones that have flat surfaces, and bake them in 1024, then let me have a look - here is an example of what i have in mind gumroad.com/products/XKZoE Unless things have changed in past months to a degree that bevels and WN do not break the shading of the alpha map , i d be careful with hops bevels. They also do not work with transfer normals via mesh machine, and after speaking to Machin3 and Jerry there is no way of fixing it at the moment due to blender coding. With DM 2.0 maybe things will change, higher bit maps of the alpha maps could be a solution there.

[@berca76]

@@PonteRyuurui Ok further into video and I see the issue. However for me this stuff would be pretty much invisible. RIght now I'm working Diablo-ish game and the decals are made from one 2048* big decal trim sheet. Maybe in 1st person shooter if you really looking for it you would be able to spot some issues. But most of the times the decals in games are quite small. If you are working on some high detailed stuff for portfolio that can be different story for sure.

[@PonteRyuurui]

@@berca76 I am actually trying it right now to see how it works with hops bevels, but I had lots of failed decals because of auto bevels before, and dont get me wrong, if i could go hops bevels i would be all over that thing because even my pillow is made of hops. 2048 cannot be baked with DM, are you baking them manually? Because maybe that is why you get away with it, the bit depth of the DM maps is only 8 bit, and that is not enough tonal shifts to support minimal height differences and imperfections or what not. It is not always that the shading breaks, but once you mess it up, it is a done deal, also with hops you can stack bevels, but it is easier to control bevel segments with manual beveling, and decals are a really precision game if you go for maximum quality, which is the only way i do things. Pretty much invisible it means it is still there and I can see it and it bothers me. My decals are pristine, because i love my mechs to look hot., and i am a perfectionist, shit has to be spotless or i cant sleep. Also, I work only on hard surface stuff so lots of metallic reflective and flat surfaces, it really is visible. Game assets, thats another story, but even there I want my models to have perfect shading. I think think that once you start dropping quality in one place because "it is pretty much invisible", you will start dropping the ball elsewhere. Human nature. Thats why most of the games now are eye candies with shit stories. I do not care how long it takes, if it takes longer then charge more for the work.

[@evarofficial6424]

Im following the tutorial but when I bake Blender throws and error saying: Python: Traceback (most recent call last): File "C:\Users\jd\AppData\Roaming\Blender Foundation\Blender\2.91\scripts\addons\DECALmachine\operators\create.py", line 162, in execute packed, decaltype = core.pack_textures(dm, decalpath, textures, size) TypeError: cannot unpack non-iterable NoneType object location: :-1 Do you why is this happening?

[@PonteRyuurui]

update your DM to 2.1

[@evarofficial6424]

@@PonteRyuurui is it a common problem in DM 2.0.0?

[@PonteRyuurui]

@@evarofficial6424 no, it is a common issue when you are tryi9ng to use dm 2.0 with 2.91 blender, which is why it got updated to 2,1

[@lwk2891]

I am using 2.1 but got the same error

[@PonteRyuurui]

@@lwk2891 then contact Machin3

[@AnthonyJones_Linuxson]

Pardon me asking, but I am autistic hehe....you mention the planes shouldn't be touched, but can I at least make the plane rectangular to incorporate bigger details?

[@torq21]

So... what happens if I look at the plane cross-eyed?

[@PonteRyuurui]

you're more alert

[@3Worlds1Life]

5:55 when I'm on edit mode the hole disappear I don't know why does anyone know how to fix this problem ?

[@PonteRyuurui]

apply the bool

[@3Worlds1Life]

@@PonteRyuurui tnx u :D

[@3Worlds1Life]

@@PonteRyuurui.When I try to "create a simple Decal" it gives me a error something about "Python". I use a free old version DM 1.9.2 don't have the cash yet for the DM2. I've try to find and fix the problem but no such luck.

[@PonteRyuurui]

@@3Worlds1Life update to 2.1 is free

[@Toskyval]

Which PC specs you have?

[@PonteRyuurui]

10900k 2080ti 64GB ram and m.2 970evo for os, in a nutshell

[@Toskyval]

@@PonteRyuurui moly s**t, beast hardware and yet it take almost 3 minutes for a simpleton's bake? I cannot understand why Blender baking part still being outside the radar of the 2.9 improvements plan ://

[@PonteRyuurui]

@@Toskyval ya and thats a clocked 10900k too, so is the ram. Well, the issue there is not the res but the anti aliasing, that is what slows it down so much. they really improved cycles renders, i can get 1440p renders in 16 bit tiffs under 2min. so you know, eventually all will be fixed i hope.

[@user-fe4kz6uc1p]

All this effort,man I spend to get some little cash even the people who display the stickers no one buys, or maybe at least 4

[@PonteRyuurui]

this is like a crop circle which we may never discover the true meaning of

[@jharanajena6864]

Still wondering about the 1-2 dislikes on your vids

[@PonteRyuurui]

ah don't worry about it, it is probably some wounded soy boys wannabies

[@jamaljamalwaziat1002]

U can go deep but not to deep... Me remembering deep compositing

[@PonteRyuurui]

the pheasant has no agenda

[@FPChris]

Dog’s breakfast = bad

[@PonteRyuurui]

glad you figured it out!

[@onjofilms]

Don't do what I did. When I was ready to go high res, I accidentally had the sphere selected, 15 minutes later I had a crap decal. lol

[@PonteRyuurui]

ouch