Decals in Photoshop

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In this tutorial we are going to make a decal in Photoshop. I am using Photoshop CS2.

Step 1: Creating a file

Create a new file, with the following settings:

Settings used in this tutorial

As you can see, I have created a preset with these options. You can change the size if you want, but I made it big so if neccessary, it can be scaled down. However, each dimension must be a power of two.

If you select 16 bit, you will not be able to save as a .tga file, the image needed to create a material, and if you don't select "Transparent", then the background will be white, which is not good, because it will lighten your decal.

Step 2: Drawing

This step is completely up to you. In this example, I have created a simple blood splatter.

Sample decal

Step 3: Opacity

Go to Select -> Colour Range. Choose "Sampled Colours" in the dropdown box, and put fuzziness to 200. This should select everything you have drawn. Now, in the channels tab, click on "Create new channel". Your screen should look something like this:

This is what your screen should look like now.

Press Alt+Backspace. This will set the opacity of the selected part to what it corresponds to on your image.

Step 4: Saving

Save it as a Targa file. The rest of the default values should be correct.

How to save your decal

That's all! Now you can make a material out of it.

Now proceed to Creating Decals.