Due to certian problems repeating in the Comments over and over again, I thought it would be better to create a Discussion that can be used to go through common issues. So here are some step by step solutions to the most common issues.


Step 1) Check to see if the hat defults to a deep dark black dispite it having a diffrent color in actual tf2.

-Some hat textures (like almost the entirety of the Robo Hats and Bill's Hat) Are rather strange when compared to the usual tf2 hat textures. These textures don't react well with sfm and often cover up their paintable areas with a black color. These texture are actually painting perfectly fine...it is just that the black color is plastered over the color that you want.

A Brilliant man by the screenname of Pte Jack made a nice quide to repair these textures so they can actually be painted. https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=153130138

Step 2) Check the blend mode.

-Blend modes (new to Eta) are various texture shaders that can be applied to any one texture. Each blend mode covers a diffrent area on a diffrent layer and requires diffrent flags in order to work. If a hat isn't painted when one option is chosen then try using another. Just remember this Base Tint changes the Base Texture. Color 2 Paints above the Base Texture on its Alpha Channel. Color paints on top of Color 2 on the alpha channel. All (which is the default) paints on ALL OF THESE CHANNELS AT ONCE (often times layering colors)

Step 3)Check the Element viewer

-Right click your questionable model- Go to Element viewer->Model Scroll down to the bottom of the page to and click the plus sign next to "Materials" You will see a few files called "Material Proxy" check on them. If their is Unusual characters in the M1Name varable then the custom model you are using is built in a way I could not forsee Feel free to try to message me or post on this dissuction and including a link to your custom built model so I can try to modify the code to work with the model.

Step 4)Default the Dynamic Color Sliders

-New in Theta are Dynamic Color Sliders or sliders that alow one to dynamically adjust or even animate the color the script puts on a model. These sliders will be found under the bones of your hat in a group called color. Due to people chosing the entire hat and zeroing out the bones, these sliders often zero out as well. turning whatever color you selected black. Don't worry Doc actually planed ahead and made it so that if you select the sliders and use Default they will change back to the color you orginally assigned!

Step 5) if all else fails post in this discussion and I will give you a more custom solution to this problem.


Step 1) Check the blend mode.

- The blend mode, as I stated before, Are shaders that work on various areas and layers of a texture. Often times when one uses the blend mode "All" it will paint on various diffrent layers. Sometimes these layers stack causing the color you paint to be applied several times in the same spot. Don't worry you can "repaint" the textures several times in a row to fix this.

Step 2) Adjust values in the element viewer(-Outdated in Theta-)
---! Warning !---
Element viewer is a powerful and dangerous tool. Messing with values that you don't fully understand can result in TOTAL SESSION CORRUPTION! Be cautious and save copies of your work before you mess with around with the element viewer.

- Like before try going to right click->element viewer->Model scroll to the bottom and to materials and open up a Material proxy (note not all Material proxies adjust color) Fine one and start inputing in random numbers in the "$color," "$color2," or "$colorint_base" When you find a proxy that adjusts a color go back to the orignal colors mutiply them by 2 and imput them into the values. This will result in a twice as bright color. repeat if it doesn't resolve itself. Be warned though too bright of a color will glow in the dark (which admitingly is an AWESOME effect)

Step 3) Adjust values with the Dynamic Color Sliders

-New in theta are the Dynamic Color Sliders. Color Sliders alow for people to adjust the color of their hats without mucking about in the element viewer. Just select the value you wish to adjust and do so. You can also keyframe on these sliders alowing colors to change during your animations!

Step 4) If all else fails post in this discussion and I can give you a more custom solution to the problem.


Thank you once again for Downloading my color script! I hope it doesn't give you too much trouble in the future.