# Decal through glass in Rhino

**URL:** <https://discourse.mcneel.com/t/decal-through-glass-in-rhino/152305>\
**Category:** Rendering\
**Tags:** decals\
**Created:** [December 19, 2022, 10:21am UTC](https://discourse.mcneel.com/t/decal-through-glass-in-rhino/152305 "2022-12-19T10:21:34Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Roberta\_R](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/mcneel/user_avatar/discourse.mcneel.com/roberta_r/32/423667_2.png) [@Roberta\_R](https://discourse.mcneel.com/u/Roberta_R)\
**Post date:** [December 19, 2022, 10:21am UTC](https://discourse.mcneel.com/t/decal-through-glass-in-rhino/152305/1 "2022-12-19T10:21:34Z")

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Hello everyone, I am following a Rhino course, and my friend and I have been wondering what would be the best way to make a decal visible through a thin sheet of glass/transparent material so that it doesn’t look so flat. Basically, like a glass cover/case for a picture. The surface of the glass intersecting with the surface of the decal results in artefacts in the rendering, so what we did for now is to put a small gap between the decal surface and the glass. It doesn’t feel the right way to do it, though. Any suggestions? Thank you very much.

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**Author:** ![tay.othman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/mcneel/user_avatar/discourse.mcneel.com/tay.othman/32/766134_2.png) [@tay.othman](https://discourse.mcneel.com/u/tay.othman)\
**Post date:** [December 19, 2022, 10:39am UTC](https://discourse.mcneel.com/t/decal-through-glass-in-rhino/152305/2 "2022-12-19T10:39:42Z")

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Another way is to create a transparency map and apply it to the material itself. The transparency (or opacity) map will be black and white indicating opaque vs transparent portions of the material and you can use the diffuse map for the color of the decal.

Please do not forget to make sure that your surface UVW is mapped correctly so that the mapping will be placed correctly.

The above may sounds like a lot of work. And that’s why decal was introduced to save you a lot of time and effort.

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**Author:** ![nathanletwory](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/mcneel/user_avatar/discourse.mcneel.com/nathanletwory/32/482880_2.png) [@nathanletwory](https://discourse.mcneel.com/u/nathanletwory)\
**Post date:** [December 19, 2022, 11:24am UTC](https://discourse.mcneel.com/t/decal-through-glass-in-rhino/152305/3 "2022-12-19T11:24:36Z")

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You may find this video helpful

> [@Emboss a signature on glass](https://discourse.mcneel.com/t/emboss-a-signature-on-glass/124879/3):
>
> If you look to do this just for rendering, I’ve just uploaded a video of how you could do this: [[Texture mapping logo on bottle - Rhino 7] ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4CCQZdLADLM)