K A S I making skins
polycounter lvl 8
Hello, I have been lurking for longer than I should (pretty much since the CS:GO x Polycount contest) so finally, after following my friends advice, I decide to join the active part of polycount and start posting my work results in order to get feedback from skilled artists that see and know more than me. 
When creating skins I mix the use of Photoshop, Substance Painter and 3D Coat, I'm still fairly new to anything but PS so my workflow often looks awkward, but I'm getting there and with each skin I am meating less obstacles.
Some of my recent stuff:
M4A1-S Stinger:
I wanted to use the front grip as a striped-stinger which in my opinion fitted the character of the gun in-game, decided on SCI-Fi setting as a high-tech futurystic update to M4 called "stinger". Wanted the shapes ot be more organic and materials to be a bit rougher to resemble the feel of hornets armor. Most of the work done in Substance Painter, with some of the shapes masked out prior in PS, after creating normal map and baking light had some fixing in PS and 3D coat.
Galil AR | Cogworks:
The goal of this design was to recreate stempunk setting while using the rifle bolt animation as interactive part of the skin. Ended up puting lots of cogs and guages in copper/brass and stylized font as core connections to the steampunk theme end used moving bolt as active gauge displaying current pressure. Most of the design created in PS, then imported as a black map to Substance Painter which let me create materials nad make normal map.
SG 553 | Gauss Rifle:
The idea behind this skin was to use the geometry of the model in building "gauss rifle" story. With the front grip resembling to me quite a lot Gauss guns from different games I decided to paint it in cyan glow, use stock as a battery connected with wires and powering the whole gun. This is failr even split between Substance Painter, 3D Coat and Photoshop as due to how important the pefect usage of geometry was it required lots of handpaint, couldn't use too much of automization.
More of my designs can be found here: http://steamcommunity.com/id/kasiworkshop/myworkshopfiles/?appid=730
I'm looking forward to any feedback I can get (to the skins i posted here or anything I made under the steam link), hoping to learn from you all, thanks for checking my work out!
When creating skins I mix the use of Photoshop, Substance Painter and 3D Coat, I'm still fairly new to anything but PS so my workflow often looks awkward, but I'm getting there and with each skin I am meating less obstacles.
Some of my recent stuff:
M4A1-S Stinger:
I wanted to use the front grip as a striped-stinger which in my opinion fitted the character of the gun in-game, decided on SCI-Fi setting as a high-tech futurystic update to M4 called "stinger". Wanted the shapes ot be more organic and materials to be a bit rougher to resemble the feel of hornets armor. Most of the work done in Substance Painter, with some of the shapes masked out prior in PS, after creating normal map and baking light had some fixing in PS and 3D coat.
Galil AR | Cogworks:
The goal of this design was to recreate stempunk setting while using the rifle bolt animation as interactive part of the skin. Ended up puting lots of cogs and guages in copper/brass and stylized font as core connections to the steampunk theme end used moving bolt as active gauge displaying current pressure. Most of the design created in PS, then imported as a black map to Substance Painter which let me create materials nad make normal map.
SG 553 | Gauss Rifle:
The idea behind this skin was to use the geometry of the model in building "gauss rifle" story. With the front grip resembling to me quite a lot Gauss guns from different games I decided to paint it in cyan glow, use stock as a battery connected with wires and powering the whole gun. This is failr even split between Substance Painter, 3D Coat and Photoshop as due to how important the pefect usage of geometry was it required lots of handpaint, couldn't use too much of automization.
More of my designs can be found here: http://steamcommunity.com/id/kasiworkshop/myworkshopfiles/?appid=730
I'm looking forward to any feedback I can get (to the skins i posted here or anything I made under the steam link), hoping to learn from you all, thanks for checking my work out!
Replies
Link to more screenshots and all the backstory explained: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=876114029
Hey, thanks man, not sure what you mean, but I Imagine you are talking about how to put the skin to view it in-game. If that is the case, then this video explains it very well:
If you were asking about something else, just ask again a bit more precisely.
Just uploded my new skin to CS:GO workshop, it is Negev Big Spender. Context of the idea for this skin is quite simple: Negev is the most expensive gun in the game, yet not too usefull or good, just big with lots of ammo, huge rof but uncontrollable recoil - hence why never used in any kind of competitve effort. I wanted to design a skin that helps to justify its price and makes it look fancy for the time when players buy it during a match to show of how big their advantage over opponents are.
As for a workflow - this skin is a "classic" now in my book as it is perfect 50/50 split between PS in which I was preparing masks for SP to later fill them with materials information. On top of it there was some 3D Coat work to fix projection issues and add details to some textures.
For more screenshots, videos, sketchfab, etc. come check it out on workshop: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=887660006
1. The most recent: Five-Seven | Celtic Wyvern which is an old school effort for me with 95% of it being handpainted in Photoshop instead of using Substance Painter. Really enjoyed classic brush work and it was really refreshing experience, not to mention that I am happy with the results. The core of the skin is to use the gun geo as well as possible, with stylized wyvern illustration using front and slider and runestone painted overall funny "bump" on the grip.
2. Before I have created M249 | Taurus, which was the result of really time taking white mask painting for the height information to be later read by Substance Painter. This one was an experiment which I am quite happy with, becouse it broedend my idea about what can be done using Photoshop/SP combination just for the RGB colour export. The core of the idea was to create a feeling of a battering ram and use the heavy/tanky look and feel of this machine gun to compare it to bull which kicks just hard on rodeo as this gun during shooting.
3. The last skin I am here to present to you today is Negev | Big Spender which was a bit of a joke idea, but I also wanted to provide this joke in a quite realistic and sharp design. Negev being the most expensive gun in the game (well not anymore thanks to recent patch, but still one of the most expensive) is not used in competitve games in any other way to just show off potential huge advantage over the opponent by spending insane amount of money on bad gun. So I wanted to create a skin that both justifies the price tag (best materials, best quality of finish) but also is fancy and helps to show off how wealthy a player is at a time. This is classic Photoshop masking + SP texturing combo.
As always you can find more pictures, videos of each skin in action and sketchfab links on my workshop page: http://steamcommunity.com/id/kasiworkshop/myworkshopfiles/?appid=730
More backstory info and screenshots + video/sketchfab can be found on my steam workshop page: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=908850952
For more pictures, video and backstory explained check out the steam workshop page: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=925857547
1. Dual Berettas Yin & Yang:
The base idea behind the design was to use the special feature of Dualies that there is two of them and that you can see opposite sides in game at all times - so I can create two skins in one or just a bigger story. But apparently Yin & Yang symbol could be considered religious, which can not be added to game, so I came up with different theme for same idea...
2. Dual Berettas Luna y Sol:
It is mostly again PS masking with SP texturing, it seems to work pretty fine.
3. R8 Revolver Rattler:
This is a rework of my original rework from January 2016, but I liked the idea so much I thought it deserved a bit nicer execution, so I painted new "spitfire" snake that was using the shape of the revolver nicer and some baby-snake-bullets on cylidnder with different emotes. The core of the idea was that the rattlers behavior when they detect danger is simillar to what happens when you are about to shot the R8: the rattle shakes (the hammer on gun) which is making rattling noise (actually the gun in game is making this kind of noise too). This one is mostly hand paint effort.
Link to workshop:
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=946232734
Link to workshop:
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=946664145
Link to workshop: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=946692523
1. Scar-20 Big Spender:
2. Scar-20 Big Spender [Black Series]:
The core idea for this skin and the Black Series variation is that SCAR is one of the 3 most expensive guns in the game, and I want the materials used in the skin and the craftsmenship displayed in design to reflect the price-tag giving the feeling of luxury and exclusivitiy.
3. Nova Embalmed:
Another ancient Egypt themed creation I just really wanted ot make a mummy skin with normals to help bandages have this zing effect and novas round body was perfect to try to wrap anyting around it.
Both designs use new normal maps, both designs came to life in simillar workflow - hand paint of height maps (sometimes straight on UV, sometimes through model in 3D Coat), to import the height map in Substance Painter, texture it and then finish it in Photoshop manually.
To check those out closer as well as my other designs come to my workshop page: http://steamcommunity.com/id/kasiworkshop/myworkshopfiles/?appid=730&p=2
1. UMP-45 As Powerful as a Flying Dragon:
This skin ended up being my most succesfull skin ever views- and votes- wise I am super happy with how it was received, but it also consumed the most hours of all the stuff I have ever made, since it was over 130 (I stopped counting at some point :P), everything is normal mapped via handpainted height map first. Textured in Substance Painter, finished in Photoshop.
2. PP-Bizon Power Potion:
This skin is very different in pretty much every way to what I was used to make recently, but I am glad how it ended up looking and that I think I passed this test of diversity. It is "flat" paint job inspired by energy drink packaging design and motorsport livery designs. Both combined to make a bit of a joke energy drink off-brand playing with Bizons name and magazine shape. Mostly hand painted in Photoshop and 3D Coat.
3. R8 Revolver Project Hydra:
This skin has been inspired mostly by the presence of now ongoing Operation Hydra in CS: GO and it's logo which features metallic shiny snake heads. The design style is a clash of very modern-combat base with very decorative medieval like details, which charmed me in Destiny game where it worked really amazing considering how different worlds are those. It seemed fresh and not discovered yet in CS: GO workshop and I also had this color scheme found long time ago and couldn't find it fitting to any design I was working on until now which made me really happy to finaly use it.
Thanks for checking it out, for more pictures, etc. check out my workshop on steam:
http://steamcommunity.com/id/kasiworkshop/myworkshopfiles/?appid=730
Thanks for checking it out, link to workshop:
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1125514213
Whole design is using handpainted normal map to create a dark themed gargoyle sculpture integrated into model geometry. Inspirations come mostly from gothic and victorian architecture.
Thanks for checking it out.
Link to workshop: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1135037155
Thanks and keep up with the good work!