I am not sure if there is another workaround that will use one object rather than two. I will try to find time to look through the documentation and get back to you. In the meantime, do other community members have any suggestions?
As for the change of color that you are noticing, I suspect that we are seeing a change in lighting.
The following demo showcases how much lighting can impact the perceived color of an asset.
The standard lighting in the 2D viewer seems to be different than the lighting in the 3D viewer. Please check out the following threads for more information on 2D lighting.
