A Basic Rundown

Splatoon materials use a system of texturing known as PBR texturing. Essentially, this means that each model uses a series of textures that dictate different characteristics of their appearance.

For example, a model might have a base texture that dictates the model's base colours, and it might have a metalness texture that dictates the model's metallic areas.

Each of these textures has a filename associated with them, and they each need to be handled in a different way.

Color Space

One of the main aspects of handling files is ensuring that they are the set to correct color space. Essentially, a color space is a way for software to interpret color data. Blender provides a number of these, but only two are actually used with Splatoon textures, sRGB and Non-Color.

To set the color space of the texture, locate your image texture in the shader editor and expand it. Down the bottom of the node, there will be a small dropdown menu, providing a number of color spaces.

PBR Texture Breakdown

Albedo Textures

Filename: "alb/mlt"

Colour Space: sRGB

Albedo textures are also known as base color textures, and essentially do just that. Almost every model has one. Textures with mlt in the name are secondary Albedo textures, and are used to add additional detail to a model.

Team Color Textures

Filename: "tcl"

Color Splace: Non-Color

Team Color textures are used to apply color to certain areas of a model in addition to Albedo textures.

Ambient Occlusion Textures

Filename: "ao"

Color Space: sRGB

Ambient Occlusion (or AO for short) is used to add additional shadows to a model.

Metalness Texture

Filename: "mtl"

Color Space: Non-Color

Metalness textures dictate how metallic parts of the model are. A very metallic shiny gray surface would look like stainless steel or silver, whereas a non-metallic version of the same surface would look like plastic.

Roughness Texture

Filename: "rgh"

Color Space: Non-Color

Roughness textures outline how shiny or matte areas of a model are.

Normal Texture

Filename: "nrm/mfk"

Color Space: Non-Color

Normal textures provide additional detail to a model's geometry, frequently used for clothing wrinkles and other fine detail. Textures with "mfk" in their filenames are Secondary Normal textures, and have specialised uses including glittery textures.

Alpha Texture

Filename: Varies

Color Space: Non-Color/sRGB

Alpha textures add transparency to areas of a model. They are often used to hide parts of the body to reduce clipping. They can also be embedded in Albedo textures.

Emmission Texture

Filename: "emm"

Color Space: sRGB

Emission textures create a "glow" on certain areas of the model. Occasionally, they use a different UV map than the Albedo texture, or are treated like HLT textures.

Transmission Texture

Filename: "trm"

Color Space: sRGB

Transmission textures are used to fake subsurface scattering effects on things like skin on a model.

Thickness Texture

Filename: "thc"

Color Space: Non-Color

Thickness textures are used to dictate the secondary intensity of transmission on a model.

Highlight Texture

Filename: "hlt/mac"

Color Space: sRGB

Highlight textures are used to create an extra-shiny surface, and look like a colored circle/sphere. They use a special method of texture wrapping that is also found on Lightwarp textures and the occasional Emission texture.

Lightwarp Textures

Filename: "rft"

Color Space: sRGB

Lightwarp textures create a fresnel-like effect on shiny surfaces, and dictate the color of the effect.

Mask Textures

Filename: "fxm/hlm"

Color Space: Non-Color

Mask textures are used to dictate the placement of other effect textures, such as Lightwarp and Highlight textures. Textures with the fxm file name are general purpose and vary in use, whereas hlm textures are specifically used to mask Lightwarp textures.

Some gear uses mask textures for transmission placement. In this case, plug the mask into the "Transmission Type" node group of the Transmission BSDF and set the "Thickness Invert" slider to 1.

Ink Textures

Filename: "2cl"

Color Space: Non-Color

Ink textures are used to create the splatters of ink on clothing or other objects that are so iconic to Splatoon. They sometimes use a different UV map than the base texture.

Special Effect Textures

Filename: Varies, but often "mtla/mltb"

Color Space: Non-Color/sRGB

These textures have a number of uses. They can be emission masks, general masks, or any other manner of effects. Generally, the use a different UV map than the base texture.