Add a Metallic Decal to a Water Bottle

What You Will Learn

In this tutorial, learn how to add a full material decal, complete with metallic reflectivity and a subtle emboss, onto a stainless steel insulated water bottle, and visualize the results in Rendered mode for quick decision-making. Then compare with a full-fledged Raytraced image. Use Markups to mark changes to the design.

Add the Full Material Decal

Full Material Decals

Unlike a standard decal, a full material decal carries its own complete material (color, reflectivity, and bump) independent of the object it’s applied to. That’s what lets a decal look like metal, or carry a bump map, even when the object underneath has a completely different material.

Open water-bottle.3dm. The bottle body carries a stainless steel material.
Select the body of the water bottle, open the Properties panel and select the Decals tab.
Click Add decal to selected object and browse to the 9.png image.
Set the mapping type to Planar, so the decal is set flat to the surface, and set the Content setting to Full Material → Physically Based, then press Ok.
Place the decal in the Front Viewport and then press the Toggle Widget on, to get the decal widget to show up in the viewport. The decal widget will make it easier to adjust the decal.
Select the decal widget, and with Gumball on, move it to adjust the decal. You can also set the transparency of the widget using the widget slider.
In the Decal’s Material section, click on the Detailed Settings menu and select the Bump / Normal and displacement option.
In the Bump / Normal section, click on the Open icon and select the 9bw.png texture.
Click on the 9bw texture name, and in the Edit texture window, press the Invert button and close the Window.
Move the Bump map slider to 100%.

Mark Up the Design

Run the Markup command to open the Markup HUD.
Select the Sketch tool and circle the areas that need adjusting: the decal, which needs to move down and be scaled, and the bottle cap, which needs to match the label’s color.
Add Text notes describing what needs fixing. Add “move down and scale” text next to the label and “match label color” next to the cap.
Confirm the markup with the checkmark button. It’s saved with the file and can be reopened later from the Markups panel.

Refine the Decal

Reposition and resize the decal to match the markup note, by selecting the decal widget and having Gumball on.
In the Materials Panel. Select the Cap material and change color tone to #E00211 so it matches the label.

Confirm in Raytraced Mode

Set the viewport display mode to Raytraced.
Let the view clean up. Notice how the metallic decal’s reflections and highlights now respond to the scene’s actual lighting as they wrap around the bottle’s curve. Rendered mode could only approximate this.
Compare the Rendered and Raytraced results side by side.