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Surface Project

Surface Project

Project and blend geometry onto other mesh surfaces. Transfer normals and UVs for a seamless blend.

  • Surface Project 1
    Blend a mesh object to other surfaces. Multiple other mesh surfaces can be specified.

  • Surface Project 2
    Project mesh as a "Decal" onto other objects. This flattens the geometry but keeps the original normals.

Open Edges

This modifier works best on meshes with "open edges", i.e. non-solid objects. These edges are used as the base for most masking methods.

open_edges

Examples

Examples can be found in the Surface Project/Insert scene in the example file.

examples

Options

Transfer Objects

Choose which meshes to project to.

  • Object Count: How many mesh objects to project to.
  • Objects: Choose individual mesh objects to project to.
  • Collection: Choose a collection containing mesh objects to project to.

Shrinkwrap

Define how mesh is projected to surfaces.

  • Wrap Method: Method for vertex projection:
    • Nearest Surface: Move vertices towards the closest point on target surface.
    • Project: Project rays to collide with target surface.
    • Project Decal: Project rays to collide with target surface and flatten geometry while keeping normals. Excludes projection masking options.
  • Surface Offset: Move projected vertices a fixed amount towards or away from the target surface.

Projection Settings

  • Projection Direction: Define direction to project rays:

    • Object Direction: Direction in object space (default is -Z).
    • World Direction: Direction in global space (default is -Z).
    • Surface Normal: Surface normal of the closest target surface.
    • Mesh Island Normal: Use the average normal of each mesh island.
    • Surface Tangent: Direction of surface at edge boundaries.

  • Ray Length: Maximum distance rays will collide with target surface.

  • No Hit: Change behavior of vertices when projection rays miss:
    • Unchanged: Do not move vertex.
    • Closest Surface to Max Dist: Move vertex to the maximum distance in ray direction then snap to closest point on target surface.

Masking

Control how projection is masked. See Mask Falloff.

falloff

  • Vertex Group: Choose a vertex group to project.

Normals

Define how normals are transferred from target surfaces. This uses Normal Transfer internally. Normals are transferred after vertex projection, using the closest target surface.

  • Normal Domain: Whether normals are stored on points (smooth) or face corners (allows sharp edges).
  • Use Shrinkwrap Amount: Use the same mask used for vertex projection.
  • Amount: Specify a vertex group or single value to choose how much normals are transferred.
  • Automatic Masking: Use mask falloff settings to make a new mask for transferring normals.

UVs

Transfer UVs from target surface.

  • Transfer UVs: Turn UV transfer on/off.
  • UV Map From: Which UV Map to transfer from the surface.
  • UV Map To: Which UV Map to write to on this object.

Selection

Limit UV transfer to specific faces.

  • Selection: Which faces to modify UVs for. Defaults to "on", applying to every face.
  • Material: Limit UV modification to a specific material.
  • Invert Selection: Inverts the selection to modify UVs on every face that is not selected using the above options.