So you want to add team colors to a model? Well, you're in a luck because I've updated my old method to a newer and better one.
The first step to any of this is finding the diffuse texture for the model you want to add team colors to. I'm going to be doing the sail from a world of warcraft battle ship. Once you find this texture go ahead and open it up in Photoshop.
Step 1 - Set to Diffuse
Go to the drop down window for "Filter" browse down until you find "Stylize", hover over "Stylize and select "Diffuse".
This will bring up a new window. We will set the mode to Anisotropic. You can view the change in your main window by turning preview to On/Off.
Hit OK.
Step 2 - Duplicate your Layer
We do this by right clicking on our current laying and selecting "Duplicate Layer" from the window.
Step 3 - Select team color Areas
Select our new layer, and use whatever method you prefer to create a selection of the area you want to add team colors to. I prefer a mixture of the magic wand tool with varying tolerances and the lasso tool.
I have selected virtually all of the Blue on my texture.
Step 4 - Invert Selection
We can do this by going to the "Image" drop down window, browse to "Adjustments", and then selecting "Invert". We can also use the hotkey Control+i.
Step 5 - Copy the Invert
Copy the inverted area by hitting control+c, if you lost your selection do not worry you can regain it by going to Select -> Reselect.
Step 6 - Paste the Invert
Go to the "Channels" Tab next to your layers tab and select the "Alpha 1" channel, if it does not exist, simply hit the "Create new channel" button on the bottom of that tab.
Paste the inverted selection into the "Alpha 1" channel.
Step 7 - Remove non-team color areas
To do this we will now invert our selection. You can do this by going to Select -> Inverse or by hitting Shift+Control+i
Select the Brush (hotkey B), make sure your brush mode is set to "Normal".
With the alpha channel selected your colors should now by in %'s. Set it to 0%, this will make it white.
Color in the inverted selection with a 0% brush.
Step 8 - Invert your selection back
Shift+Control+i, then select the RGB channel.
Step 9 - Duplicate your background layer, again
Step 10 - Desaturate
With your new duplicated layer go to Image -> Adjustments -> Desaturate
This will make your selected area range from white to black.
Step 11 - Copy Selection to new layer
Copy your selected area and paste it into a new layer. On some systems you made need to use "Paste in Place" instead of paste to keep it correctly aligned.
Step 12 - Set new layer mode
Set the new layer you just pasted to "Multiply", there is a drop down window right above the layers where you can do this.
Depending on the shade of the selection you can alter the opacity to increase the brightness. I like a dark grey. So I set the opacity of mine to 80%
Step 13 - Reselect
We will need to reselect our team color area after pasting. Select -> Reselect, or Shift + Control + D
Step 14 - Back to the alpha channel
Go back to the channels tab and select the alpha channel.
Step 15 - Adjusting the brightness of the team color
The way team colors works is based on the % of alpha. The closer to 0 it is the darker it will become, with 0 being no alpha. The closer to 100, the brighter it will be.
I adjust this by selecting the brush tool with the mode set to "overlay". I adjust the opacity based on what I want.
For this one I will use an opacity of 100% and and alpha value of 100%. I then color in the selected area. This will increase the brightness of the team color.
After this, I like to check the value of the alpha by holding down alt and selecting different areas to see what % the alpha is at. I like a value around 66-75% for the main area and a lower percentage for the areas that should be darker.
Step 16 - Blur the edges
Deselect everything by hitting Shift + D (don't worry we can still reselect if you want)
To make the edges less noticeable we are going to blur the alpha channel a bit.
Go to Filter -> Blur -> Gaussian Blur
In this window set the radius to reduce the amount of sharpness on the edges. I used 1.5 pixels for mine.
Step 17 - Save
Save as a .dds
I save as a DXT5, ARGB 8 bpp | interpolated alpha.
Step 18 - Test in 3DS Max and Startools, adjust alpha % if you don't like the color.
So you want to add team colors to a model? Well, you're in a luck because I've updated my old method to a newer and better one.
The first step to any of this is finding the diffuse texture for the model you want to add team colors to. I'm going to be doing the sail from a world of warcraft battle ship. Once you find this texture go ahead and open it up in Photoshop.
Step 1 - Set to Diffuse
Go to the drop down window for "Filter" browse down until you find "Stylize", hover over "Stylize and select "Diffuse".
This will bring up a new window. We will set the mode to Anisotropic. You can view the change in your main window by turning preview to On/Off.
Hit OK.
Step 2 - Duplicate your Layer
We do this by right clicking on our current laying and selecting "Duplicate Layer" from the window.
Step 3 - Select team color Areas
Select our new layer, and use whatever method you prefer to create a selection of the area you want to add team colors to. I prefer a mixture of the magic wand tool with varying tolerances and the lasso tool.
I have selected virtually all of the Blue on my texture.
Step 4 - Invert Selection
We can do this by going to the "Image" drop down window, browse to "Adjustments", and then selecting "Invert". We can also use the hotkey Control+i.
Step 5 - Copy the Invert
Copy the inverted area by hitting control+c, if you lost your selection do not worry you can regain it by going to Select -> Reselect.
Step 6 - Paste the Invert
Go to the "Channels" Tab next to your layers tab and select the "Alpha 1" channel, if it does not exist, simply hit the "Create new channel" button on the bottom of that tab.
Paste the inverted selection into the "Alpha 1" channel.
Step 7 - Remove non-team color areas
To do this we will now invert our selection. You can do this by going to Select -> Inverse or by hitting Shift+Control+i
Select the Brush (hotkey B), make sure your brush mode is set to "Normal".
With the alpha channel selected your colors should now by in %'s. Set it to 0%, this will make it white.
Color in the inverted selection with a 0% brush.
Step 8 - Invert your selection back
Shift+Control+i, then select the RGB channel.
Step 9 - Duplicate your background layer, again
Step 10 - Desaturate
With your new duplicated layer go to Image -> Adjustments -> Desaturate
This will make your selected area range from white to black.
Step 11 - Copy Selection to new layer
Copy your selected area and paste it into a new layer. On some systems you made need to use "Paste in Place" instead of paste to keep it correctly aligned.
Step 12 - Set new layer mode
Set the new layer you just pasted to "Multiply", there is a drop down window right above the layers where you can do this.
Depending on the shade of the selection you can alter the opacity to increase the brightness. I like a dark grey. So I set the opacity of mine to 80%
Step 13 - Reselect
We will need to reselect our team color area after pasting. Select -> Reselect, or Shift + Control + D
Step 14 - Back to the alpha channel
Go back to the channels tab and select the alpha channel.
Step 15 - Adjusting the brightness of the team color
The way team colors works is based on the % of alpha. The closer to 0 it is the darker it will become, with 0 being no alpha. The closer to 100, the brighter it will be.
I adjust this by selecting the brush tool with the mode set to "overlay". I adjust the opacity based on what I want.
For this one I will use an opacity of 100% and and alpha value of 100%. I then color in the selected area. This will increase the brightness of the team color.
After this, I like to check the value of the alpha by holding down alt and selecting different areas to see what % the alpha is at. I like a value around 66-75% for the main area and a lower percentage for the areas that should be darker.
Step 16 - Blur the edges
Deselect everything by hitting Shift + D (don't worry we can still reselect if you want)
To make the edges less noticeable we are going to blur the alpha channel a bit.
Go to Filter -> Blur -> Gaussian Blur
In this window set the radius to reduce the amount of sharpness on the edges. I used 1.5 pixels for mine.
Step 17 - Save
Save as a .dds
I save as a DXT5, ARGB 8 bpp | interpolated alpha.
Step 18 - Test in 3DS Max and Startools, adjust alpha % if you don't like the color.