how to preserve details

[luke9511]

hey everyone i have this texture here for a 3d model that i am try to change while keeping the square lines that make up the details and boxes, im wanting to change the white color to a different color while keeping those details but i cannot figure out how to go about doing this does anyone have any advice they can give besides remaking the texture from scratch?

http://imageshack.com/a/img89/2844/zf5g.png

[klev]

Re: how to preserve details

You normally do these things in layers. Otherwise how would you separate the appropriate data for the shader stack? It's a little strange that this would represent one big "diffuse" channel. You can magic wand the white parts or make a selection by color. It may create some aliasing problems. Overall it's typical to always keep these things in layers if they are to be edited. When you originally opened this thing, did you see any message giving an indication that the layer structure could not be read? I'm assuming you have more than a jpeg available.

[luke9511]

Re: how to preserve details

i have tried layers magic wand tool and replace color and when i change the color i loose the details, i also do not get any messages when i open it, it was a dds file but i saved it as a jpg

[klev]

Re: how to preserve details

I thought you were referring to the white portions, which don't have any real detail. For the burnt out portions that are kind of a whitish to orange you'll probably have to repaint them. For the other parts how are you making your color adjustments? What kind of adjustment layers were you using? I need more information than that you're losing details. Tell me everything. If I just wanted to change colors, I would probably do it via channel mixer. It has a bit of a learning curve. I figured the white portions were probably specular passes with bits masked off. If that is the case you can't do much without the layers. If it's just flattening a spec pass onto the rest, that will be a complete mess. If none of this makes sense, you may want to start with learning the basics of 3d texture painting.

[Vernon]

Re: how to preserve details

If it is only the white that you wish to alter/remove you can use the Blend If approach to rid the white.
Then with a layer below that you can add whatever color/hue you wish.