How Can I Quickly Create Embossed Text in the Style of a Label Maker

Question

Some background:

• I'm working on a big project, modelling a car, and I'm currently creating the cockpit
• The car is a race-car, and the instruments and switches on the dashboard are all labeled blue and white embossed labels, a picture for reference:

What I need Help With

• I need help finding a quick and resource friendly way to create all of the labels

• I'd like the textures on a flat object that looks like it has texture using normal maps

My Current Workflow

• Create text, convert to a mesh, planar dissolve unnecessary vertices, extrude the text, bevel the edges, joining it with a plane, use some mask tools to add dust and damage, the bake the diffuse, normal, and roughness maps to a flat plane.

Currently I feel like there should be a simpler way to do this, specifically the baking. If I only had to do this for one object it wouldn't be that big of a deal, but there are like 25 labels on this dashboard, all with different text.

Answer 1

If you don't need extra geometry, just use an image as a bump map to fake the relief. This will allow you to keep the vertex count low, as all you need is a simple plane.

Or you can use the image as displacement if you need real geometry.

Note that, in order to get good results, you need a lot of subdivisions.

Of course you will need the correct dymo font to create the texture:

https://www.fonts4free.net/dymo-font.html#:~:text=Dymo's%20embossing%20font%20is%20now,Type%20Studio%2C%20exclusively%20for%20Dymo.&text=Dymo%20font%20contains%20230%20defined%20characters%20and%20116%20unique%20glyphs.