Welcome to the CS20 case, which celebrates the 20th anniversary of the game. Check the
timecodes in this video’s description… and comments section, for mobile users.
The Mag7 Popdog by Apel and Mad Polygon was meant to reference train and they decided
on popdog as a recognisable icon for this, being the company that originally made the
map. As an easter-egg, you can see the writing ‘Where is popdog?’ inscribed on the magazine-
but only at certain wear levels. For some reason, people think that this is a sci-fi
skin, when in fact it’s meant to be the grimy, worn exterior of an old train carriage.
Mad Polygon worked on the 3D model to get the normal map and baking data, and Apel focused
on the illustration and texturing. He likes how it turned out. Apel says that he spent
4 solid months working on this competition, his flagship being this AK47 design, filled
with references and easter-eggs back to Half Life. He made a number of skins, though, some
during a trip to Iceland where he’d spend every night in the hotel busily working away
on them. You can check out his Instagram in the video’s description.
Nowwww the Scar 20 Assault by G-99 Factory and with thanks to Apel for his collaboration
on the Assault collection. It started with the P90 design- being based on a crate from
the assault map from CS 1.6. This style works well with big, boxy weapons which have plenty
of empty space to decorate with the ridged container look. However, problems soon occurred
wherever the shape of the weapons deviated from this. It required some thought and imagination
to disguise it all as features which you’d find on a crate. As an example, that long
cylindrical metal bit running along the middle started life on the P90 design to disguise
a joint on the weapon, but later became a recurring feature in the collection, even
on this Scar20 design where it’s no longer needed for its original purpose.
Tec9 Flash Out by MultiHawk is- you guessed it- supposed to imitate a flashbang. He chose
to keep the magazine and lower half of the receiver simple and to focus on the parts
that he could make look like a grenade. The biggest challenge he faced was in overcoming
the black shadowy fade it gets towers the end of the barrel. This area started off red
and yellow but it was ruined by this baked in lighting so it was instead moved to the
bolt, which he thinks works better. He still prefers how his previous ‘PP Bizon Smoke
‘em Out’ skin turned out- which is the same but for a smoke grenade. But as always,
he’s extremely happy to have had his design accepted, and would like to give a huge thanks
to Valve for selecting his skins. He started his skin making journey over 6 years ago and
doesn’t see an end in sight any time soon!
Mac10 Classic Crate is inspired by the crates on Dust2, which Kai123 focused on because
he considered them memorable, setting themselves apart from the rest of the map. Plus he really
liked the way they looked. He started with a MAG7 design, but after having finished that
thought that it might suit the Mac10 even better. This wouldn’t have happened had
the competition deadline not been extended! With this extra time he also realised that
the design could be improved to make it look even more like the crates it was based on-
one such improvement being to turn the design up the other way, since he realised he had
done the crate look upside down originally. He also realised that there were more parts
of the gun he could be decorating, so he moved the yellow stripes to the bottom to leave
more space for the main part. He says my upscaled Dust2 video helped to inspire the details
which eventually made it into his own design. As finishing touches, bomb icons were added,
as well as the kind of writing you’d find on shipping containers. I’ll let you work
out what they all mean, but let’s just say they’re dates associated with Counter-Strike’s
past.
Dualies Elite 1.6 also by G99 Factory are inspired by the original dualies from old
Counter-Strike, but improved with the addition of a normal map and gunsmith finish- he says
the low resolution textures of the original gave his imagination plenty of room to work
with! But he was careful not to overdo it by making it look overly flashy or elaborate-
this still had to be a realistic looking weapon, after all. The normal map was used to smooth
some of the sharp corners of the design, and to add some details which were only previously
present on the real weapon. He wanted a dark coloured finish, taking a while to decide
between blue and black, before adding red accents which were there in the originals
as well. Given the huge number of reskins in this competition, he thinks he was very
lucky to get his included… and says he loves the clicking sound these weapons made back
in 1.6. He asks: is he the only one?
The Famas Decommissioned -also by Kai123- has a nuke-y theme, which he chose because
he liked the colour scheme, as well as the references and assets from the original Half
Life itself. He originally called it ‘Nuclear Tension’, in reference to the Half Life
level ‘Surface Tension’ where most of the Nuke assets were taken from in the first
place. He used the light blue metal walls as the base colour of this design, partly
because of all the interesting dirt and rust they had on them. The grip is the metal floor
leading to B. The top was originally green but he decided it was too much colour so settled
for grey. By chance he aligned the textures incorrectly but liked the 3D look it gave
the weapon, so he elaborated on it to make the red bit look 3D where it joins with the
grey metal running along the edge of the gun. He had to make the wood texture from scratch,
which he made using photoshop. Again, the way it faces different directions at the front
and back was accidental but he liked it so kept it. And then to detail the front he chose
the corrugated metal look and accidentally misaligned that as well, but it resulted in
a cool 3D look again so he kept that too! His favourite bit is the light at the back-
he’s always been a bit unsure what that bit of the weapon is supposed to do, so why
not make it a light. He gave the surrounding area a glow as though being lit up by the
light itself. This was quite challenging to do, since all he had at his disposal was photoshop.
He had to battle against baked in ambient occlusion and the limitations of the software
he was using, but is happy with how it turned out. He submitted 2 versions of the Famas-
one with a Black Mesa Logo, and one without. And he enjoyed it so much that he has started
on a V2 of the weapon, which you can see here in its current state.
He has written a guide on Steam to show his technique for getting rid of logos and text
that are built into weapons, which he hopes might be useful for others. Unfortunately,
it’s been buried by downvote bots, but it may help some other skin makers out there.
Link is in the description.
The Glock Sacrifice by Multihawk and S1lent shows an epic battle from Counter-Strike’s
history, where Olof Meister defused the bomb in a fire to win the round just before he
succumbed to the flames. It was in the semi-finals of a major hosted
at ESL One Cologne, and his sacrifice helped win them the round, then the map, beating
Dignitas… before being knocked out by NIP in the finals.
On the back of the gun it says ‘tick tock tick tock’ to represent the urgency of the
situation. The blue part of the gun represents the CTs and the front is orange for the terrorists.
It also shows the gun battle that took place. Black is used to divide the two teams. This
skin started life as a metal texture with white graffiti on it. After a few days, more
colours were chosen to better represent the scene. A lot of early text on the design was
later removed to make it more ‘neutral’. Normal maps were used to make the weapon appear
rough and used- though S1lent believes Valve may have toned the effect down slightly. He’d
like to thank them for selecting his design.
The M249 Aztec by Sparkwire is based on one of his favourite maps from 1.6. He also felt
it had the potential for iconic art that people would instantly associate with it. He wanted
for it to feel as though it had been pulled out of some Aztec Ruins and had a few modern
bits of hardware strapped to it- which is why some parts of the design retains the default
texture. It also helped to draw the eye to the bits which had changed, as well as helping
it to not look too overdone. He also thought that limiting the decorated parts would help
lower its rarity level. It was sculpted in Zbrush, then baked to low poly and textured.
It took him 40 hours over 2 and a half weekends to make this skin. He has been making skins
for years but this CS20 competition is the first time any have ever been included. He’s
definitely going to produce more skins in the future with more unique themes and effects.
He already has a selection of different designs on his workshop. He’d love to thank Valve
and the community for accepting his work.
Five Seven Buddy was made by Freddy and his friend Krueger. The terrifying duo wanted
to create something original and interesting and spontaneously came up with the idea of
a CT’s head, and noticed it nicely fitted the back of the five-seven, and the sight
looked a bit like night-vision goggles! They then got to work making it and are incredibly
pleased with the result, and the reaction from the Counter-Strike community. They would
like to thank all of you, and Valve, for supporting them and their work. As for their names, they
said it was a bit of fun and yes, they really are 2 people!
The P250 Inferno by Shrike and Sparkwire was a skin they finished at the very last moment
before the deadline. With it they hope to capture the warm, inviting look of the new
Inferno, with the Ivy as a highlight and complementary colour. Some of the skins they worked on took
100 or more iterations before they were happy with them, but this one worked first time!
Shrike was surprised that this one got accepted when so much more time had been spent on the
other skins. They used some clever techniques to get the 3D effect but would like to keep
it secret for now. They believe there’s a lot of potential for all kinds of crazy
ideas with how they’ve done it, even when limited to a very low-poly weapon model. You
can see here how their technique subtly smooths off the edges of the weapon on the normalmap,
effectively changing the shape of the weapon in all but polygons! There was also an intended
‘boiler’ easter-egg on the back of the firing pin, but sadly with the weapon finish
this design required, it became invisible on the final model.
The UMP45 Plastique was one of Graff’s first skin ideas when he started making them back
in 2016. He drew the concept, but put it on hold because he didn’t think he was good
enough to be able to pull it off. Plus normal maps weren’t even supported back then. But
in 2018 he returned to it, gathered a lot of references and started painting over his
old concept in 3D-coat. He focused on making it look best from the player’s perspective.
The bomb model he used is a little different from the one in the game- because at the time
there were whispers of a possible HD remake for the C4 design, so he used his imagination
a bit when designing it. Most of the 3D work was done in 3Ds Max, but the tapes and charges
were done in ZBrush. He then baked all of the maps needed for texturing and sent it
all to Substance Painter. The CS20 competition was announced 6 months after it was published
to the workshop and he was all like ‘how about that’, since his design was perfect
for it! He also worked on some others for the competition, including this XM1014 skin
inspired by Half Life, where he has elaborated on his 3D techniques further.
The MP5 Agent by Axerov is one of several he submitted for the competition, but is the
one he invested the most time and love into. He has only been making skins for CS:GO since
December 2018, and he started with very little experience in the field and it felt amazing
for his work to be appreciated so soon by Valve.
P90 Nostalgia was made by Denstarsk8 and Apel, who told me the idea of recreating the original
and famous character from CS 1.6’s main menu came during a discussion he was having
with his friend about the game. They wanted to be able to bring this little segment of
history into the modern day and this skin competition seemed like the ideal place to
do it. He chose a graffiti style for the artwork to allow it to be portrayed in a more natural
‘painted on’ kind of way. Apel and Denstarsk8 took in turns to decorate and to polish this
skin. One day he just happened to be watching the music video for Green Day’s ‘Boulevard
of Broken Dreams’ for the first time- he soon realised he had given the CT the same
kind of eye makeup! When asking for feedback on the design, some people suggested this
should be removed, but ultimately, he’s pleased he kept it in as it makes the skin
more personal to him and his own style. For all Assault fans out there, he would like
you to see this to feel the nostalgia even more!
MP9 Hydra by Frostbite. The idea for this skin came to him when he was working on his
Famas Monarch V2- another skin he developed for CS20. But while that was inspired by a
pin for a map, the MP9 is inspired by the pin for Operation Hydra! He had a strong vision
for how it would look in his head, but felt it was hard to ask for feedback from others
during the early stages since the idea doesn’t look too appealing until the details have
been added. This was intended to be a one-off design, but he ended up making a collection
out of it since he felt the design also worked well on the Scar20. He provided me with old
mockups, too: this was the original idea. And here’s another early version which another
skin artist, connn3, suggested. He says it was hard to get the environment map to appear
just the right brightness, so as a result he thinks the front of the weapon can look
a little bit washed out if inspected closely. The accepted version of the skin was V2 of
the design, which has some added light wear to the scales on the snakes to make them look
3D, and also a few minor fixes to the materials themselves across the design.
AUG Death by Puppy – original name ‘Death by Doggy’, was made by Midnight Witch, who
started by taking inspiration from as many maps as possible, but she ended up liking
ideas pulled from Dust2 and Train, as well as good old Popdog, a classic reference to
the game’s history and to Barking Dog Studios. Having ‘Death by Puppy’ also nicely complements
the already-included ‘Death By Kitty’ skin. She made several different versions,
one based on ‘doom kitty’ as well as others with different finishes and intended for varying
rarity grades. In the end, Valve went for her anodized finish- which was more colourful
than most… but still not as bright as this one! Midnight Witch is so glad and grateful
to finally have something shipped in CS:GO and hopes this will be the first of many!
The FAMAS Commemoration by Ezikyl. Before starting on it, he spent a good few weeks
thinking about it. He really wanted to make it a skin that represented Counter-Strike
as a whole. Rather than to make it about visual or famous callbacks to the series, he wanted
it to explore the themes of teamwork and community, which he likes to think that Counter-Strike
is built on. Plus it was a great opportunity to make a really sick looking engraved skin!
He made some quick prototypes just to make sure it would work and found that baked normals
helped it to really pop. Here is a picture of one of those early prototypes where he
tested this. He started with the AUG since it had a large area suited for engravings,
but ultimately chose the Famas since the resolution was greater since the texture is flipped on
the other side rather than simply carrying over.
He has some confessions to make! He baked the normal onto a plane with the UVs, rather
than the standard way. This meant he didn’t need to worry as much about the shape of the
gun and whether sharp angles would disrupt the effect. The crest took the longest to
make, comprising of about 50% of the time he spent on the skin. He sketched out individual
CTs, each one a different faction and weapon, making sure these were all guns which had
been in the game since the beginning. Being unfamiliar with sculpting he opted for a low-poly
art-style, then decided to have a map of the world to fit in with the name ‘Global Offensive’
and the game’s international community. Given the shape of the weapon, he knew that
some countries were inevitably going to be excluded, but he’s happy that he was able
to fit his home country of New Zealand in the corner! But he did cut some of the British
Isles off. He has filled the weapon’s stock with the names of classic and modern maps.
He noticed after publishing that he missed off Vertigo… but who cares about that ;)
As an easter-egg, at the top of the sights is engraved the writing ‘teamwork and community’-
it’s only visible when inspecting the weapon. Ezikyl also kindly provided me with some behind-the-scenes
graphs of the project from Substance Designer. Since Valve stated that they like having choices
of different versions, he produced a gold and silver edition. You can check out the
other editions on the workshop collection in the description.
And last, the AWP Wildfire by Vlek. He is no stranger to the steam workshop, having
had former inclusions in DOTA2, Team Fortress 2, and Rust. And now he’s made it into CS:GO
as well.
I have made many skin showcase videos. Something has become clear- just because their entries
have been hand-selected by Valve and featured in CS:GO, it doesn’t necessarily mean they
have a direct line of communication with them! A lot of the time it sounds like skin makers
get a notification that their entry has been included and… that’s it. It would almost
be anticlimactic, were it not for the vast amounts of publicity and money involved! I
sometimes hear stories from the skin makers about how there might be something wrong with
their included design, how maybe a certain layer of it isn’t showing correctly or whatever.
Granted, these do tend to get fixed eventually- we saw an update the other day that rectified
some with this collection. But it’s becoming clear to me that many skin makers DON’T
have a way of contacting Valve directly! Some of them even ask me if I can help and I’m
like… but I thought YOU’D be in a better position to do this!
Any way. I like to think that somebody at Valve watches these videos, and if so, I feel
you should know that a lot of skin makers do want to reach out to you. And not all for
problems! Many just want to express their thanks and gratitude for having their lives
changed by your choice to include their skins. I don’t know how well this is conveyed in
these videos, where they ask me to thank Valve for them. But it’s clear that some are so
happy and emotional about it, and if there is some way Valve would be okay with skin
makers sending messages their way… I think many of them would appreciate it.