Colorization

Colorization Overview

What is colorization?

Colorization defines the up to 6 dye-able zones on assets that players can dye in game. For example, why a seat of a saddle can be dyed one color, while the base can be set to a different one. This is done through a texture mask that defines up to 7 zones (6 dye-able and 1 non-dyed). These mask zones are defined by 6 separate colors (RGB and CYM) plus black for anything that should always stay the original color. The strength of the colorization (for example, wanting the wear on the edge of a saddle to retain a similar color no matter how the saddle is dyed) can be modified through the intensity of the masking color on those zones.

One color in the colorization map defines each of those listed color regions. For example in this case region 3 contains the seat, so with blue dye applied to that region the seat is colored in game.

What do we colorize?

The general rule is that weapons, structures, clothing, and creatures can be colorized. Though the mechanical system behind creature colorization is slightly different using BP color sets rather than being colored via dye. However, the concept behind authoring creature colorization masks and the material logic is very similar. Not every asset within these categories is colorized. For example, stackable items such as grenades. Icons of colorized objects are also colorized, with the exception of structures and creatures, if an item’s colorization does not persist in the inventory it does not need to be colorized.

How to colorize an asset?

This guide will give a conceptual overview of colorizing an asset. While the other colorization documents will detail the work flow involved in colorizing an asset and will look more in-depth at the material logic behind colorization. As well as some of the best practices in terms of setting up your colorized material instance or authoring your own material with colorization functionality. There are a few textures needed for colorization as depicted below with textures used for colorizing the ASA Rex Saddle.

The colorization mask above utilizes all 6 color zones, notice that some area’s of the texture are left black, this means that those area on the saddle will not be colorizable and as such should remain saturated in those areas in the desaturated colorized diffuse. The colorized diffuse also retains some of the color on the edges, and is darkened in the same zones on the mask so that the dye effects those areas less intensely. The greyscale value of the diffuse has also been lightened, as the dyed version can become too dark when using the original value levels.

Why desaturate the diffuse?

Areas of the Albedo texture that will be colorized should be desaturated so that the colorization is not affected by the base Albedo. If an area is not going to be colorized it should not be desaturated in the base Albedo texture. It can be OK to add a small amount of base Albedo color variation to desaturated color regions to better match the spirit of the original asset (such as leather edge wear seen in the saddle above).  However, one should be careful doing so as adding a color in the Albedo region that is colorized will make it harder to accurately color that area as the applied colorization color and the Albedo color will blend.

The importance of planning your color zones

There are restrictions on the the placement of color regions, if your color regions are not placed correctly you can cause white lines to appear between boarding color regions on the same UV shell due to color regions blending. As such choosing dyeable zones is one of the most important steps. Only certain colors can border each other on the same UV shell without causing a white line.
For example, red and blue should not border with each other because where they mix is magenta. If magenta is used elsewhere in the mask, the magenta colorization will be applied everywhere red and blue mix.  Even if magenta is not used elsewhere it will still create a white line at all blending points due to white being the default colorization value.

Below is a chart showing what colors can touch (Note: The chart does not apply for separate mesh shells, where any colors can be on neighboring shells. Only colors present on the same shell need to follow this) You can see the white border that appears between the colors in the first example, and how it is not present in the second.

Choosing zone divisions

Often zones themselves will be defined by the materials used. For example, all the metal parts on a saddle may be one color. On a weapon, maybe the wood handle is one section and the metal blade is another, while the leather wrap around the handle is a third. Everything in a zone will be colorized with the same color (like the brown on saddle leather), so it is important to only have similarly colored surfaces in a single defined zone. Metal and leather in the same zone would not work due to requiring two separate colors (grey and brown). Often the mesh will have natural divisions in the shells that can be very useful to base colorization off of as well.

As you can see in the image below, the metal shirt separates the cloth, leather, and metal material treatments into separate regions, as well as further splitting the metal into regions following natural divisions in the asset to allow for more customization.

ASA Colorization Substance Painter Workflow