# adding image decals in substance stager Substance Stager has a decent supply of starter materials to work with. Those are good for applying over the entire model. [[stager materials|My notes on using Stager materials.]] In addition to materials, you can also add images as decals, kind of like putting stickers on your objects. You can use traditional images like jpg and png, however you can also place Photoshop and Illustrator files as decals. That’s pretty cool. The images come in as linked files so be sure to pay attention to where you are storing your images. The power of linking means that you can go back and update your Photoshop or Illustrator files and your decals will also update. It also means that if you move a file then the link breaks and you lose the decal. --- ## prep basic shapes The starting basic shapes (cube, cylinder, sphere, 3d text, etc.) and many of the other starter models are parametric models. They have specific settings for properties like height and radius. You must first convert (bake) them to standard models before you can apply decals. Select the object and use the pull-down menus for **Object > Convert to standard model**. ![[stagerConvertModel.png]] --- ## add images as decals There are two ways to add image decals to your objects. ### place image through menus Select your object and use the pull-down menus for **File > Import > Place image on mode**l. A file picker will open for you to navigate to the image you would like to apply. Make sure to use the default **Placement** option of **Decal** in the Material submenu. ![[stagerImportImage.png]] ### place images through material properties Select your object and go to **Properties panel > Material submenu**. You can see the materials and image decals that are currently applied. Pressing the folded note icon will open up the file picker for you to navigate to the image you would like to apply. Make sure to use the default **Placement** option of **Decal** in the Material submenu. ![[stagerMaterialProperties1.png]] --- ## manipulate the decal Stager gives you a number of options for manipulating the image decal once it is applied. ### menu options Choose the Graphic icon in the Material submenu of the Properties panel. You will see a number of options in the menu. The Opacity, Roughness, and Metallic sliders do what you would expect them to do. ![[stagerGraphicDecal.png]] ### object options Choose the Graphic icon in the Material submenu of the Properties panel. On the object itself, you will see a blue circle gizmo for sizing and positioning the decal. This behaves similar to the Free Transform tool in Photoshop: cursor inside moves position, cursor on the edge resizes. Grabbing the circle dot at the top rotates and the center cross-hair acts as the center of rotation. ![[stagerDecalObject.png]] --- ## adding multiple graphics You can add more than one graphic to any object. Select the object and press the folded note icon to choose another file to add. The list of applied materials is similar to the Layers panel in Photoshop. Items on the top of the list appear on top of the ones lower on the list. You can drag and drop to reorder the items in the list. ![[stagerDecalMultiple.png]] --- ## fill instead of decal The default option in the Placement section of the Material submenu is **Decal**. This applies a single version of the image file as a sticker that can be moved around and positioned. Alternatively, you can change the Placement to **Fill** to get a repeating tile, somewhat like wrapping paper. There are similar options in both the menu and a gizmo on the object to adjust things like position, scale, and rotation. ![[stagerDecalProperties.png]] Notice a potential issue in repeating across planes. The fill on the cube below wraps fine across a few of edges but not on all of them. A seam edge is visible on the right/top edge in the image below. ![[stagerDecalFill.png]] --- Learn more… - [Apply images to models from Adobe Help](https://helpx.adobe.com/substance-3d-stager/features/apply-images-to-models.html) --- tags: #3d #resources #substance #stager home: [[! 3d modeling - substance]]