Painting normal decals

In this section, we will combine normal map baking with texture painting to create custom normal decals. This technique is useful for creating additional small details on a surface without adding any new geometry.

Baking a normal decal

In the following few steps, we will create a shape and bake it as a normal decal:

1. Create a new file in Blender and model a simple metal hatch.

Figure 6.51 – Decal modeling

2. Add a plane above the hatch. We will use this plane to bake a normal map, as we did with the carbon fiber pattern.
3. Create a material with a new image sized 512 px x 512 px so that we can bake a new normal map.

Figure 6.52 – Creating the decal image

Baking a normal map will sometimes produce an odd result, as shown in Figure 6.53. This means that the normals of the mesh are not oriented correctly:

Figure 6.53 – Incorrect normal decal

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