That's how you look at the top knives, rifles and AWP cost more than 1.5-2 thousand bucks and begin to think about how to create a skin in CS:GO to become famous and earn a lot of money. Just have to take into account 2 things: your work must be approved in Steam + have to master Photoshop, and not at the level of «remove red eyes». Serious creativity requires serious training and at least basic knowledge of working with textures.
After reading this guide, you won't learn how to make masterpieces like «Speed Beast» and «Dragon Story», but it's a real chance to get into the big leagues, where you'll be noticed by professional guys who create Asiimov-inspired sets. In any case, until you start — you won't understand what's what.
Where to start
So, let's imagine that you have caught an idea and plan to turn the market of skins in your favorite shooter. You'll need at least 4 programs to do this:
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Adobe Photoshop. Preferably buy or download the latest version you know where. This is your primary tool in which all creative endeavors will be produced;
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GS:GO SDK. A proprietary utility that is offered directly on Steam in the developer tools section. You have to upload your creativity somehow;
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VTF Edit. A free program that is easily found on the net. It converts VTF-resolution files to the more familiar PSD, which is needed for processing in Photoshop;
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A set of disassembled 3D weapon models. Create a skin in CS:GO can only be created in this way. The basis for any pistol, rifle and shotgun is available on the Internet in unlimited quantities, and for free.
The whole software package is installed within an hour, depending on the power of iron and internet speed.
The
process of creating a masterpiece
And now begins the long and painful work of creating a creative. Immediately note that to create skins CS:GO without knowledge of Photoshop is possible, but extremely problematic. You need to know the toolkit at least at a basic level. Moreover, it is desirable to pump up your knowledge of English quite well, since almost no one produces sensible guides in Russian, or they are as superficial as possible.
First of all, open the folder with all previously downloaded 3D models and choose one suitable one. The path for the example will be the classic AK-47, so beloved by terrorists.
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Now open the file in the layers section on the right and select the texture that allows you to lay out the gun as a flat pattern to be able to decorate it with a skin. The layer looks something like this.
Now you have to choose a color, then press Ctrl+Shift+N on your keyboard, making a transparent carpet pad under the future masterpiece. At your disposal you will have both a ready-made machine and its unfolded texture, which you can twist at your discretion. But let's not have any three-letter words or symbols that are usually painted on the entryways. We're making a weapon skin, not doing anything stupid.
When all actions are finished, it is necessary to save the intermediate result in TGA format.
So, the preliminary model is created and even has some kind of look (we hope so). But it is built in VTF-format, which means that you will need the converter you downloaded earlier.
Open VTFedit, then you need to click on «Import» and find the TGA-file on your PC, which you have just mocked for fun or commercial purposes. After that, the General menu will open (remember what we said about English), where you need to set the same settings as in the screenshot below.
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If you want to learn more information about why you need such parameters when creating your own CS:GO skin, study the guides on YouTube or on the Internet. You're sure to find a lot of interesting things to do there. At the moment, save and switch to the Advanced tab, where you need to duplicate all the values from the screenshot below.
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Save, after which the Flags item will open, where you should select three items at once:
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Eight Big Alpha;
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No Level of Detail;
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No Minimap.
And once again you will have to save your work, but in a more correct VTF format, for the sake of which everything was started. No time to explain — click Save. The only thing left to do is to add the imb gun to the Steam workshop, i.e. to the Workshop section.
Attention: TGA-file must NOT be deleted, it will be needed in the future.
Final preparations
Let's proceed to the final part — pouring the skin into the Steam Workshop. Only in this way will it get into the game's file list and become known. In this case, the following order of actions is preserved.
- Go into the game CS:GO, but do not roll by habit, and display the console, where you need to write «workshop_workbench»;
- You get into the workshop, where you need to be in the main menu, then find the command «Custom Paint Job»;
- Now uncheck the previously made VTF-file, and then deal with the adjustment of highlights, reflections and other beauties, if necessary. If not — go straight to the point with sending;
- Do not forget to specify the Workshop
- path to your TGA-file (we warned you that it will be needed when creating a skin in CS:GO);
- Upload an image showing the weapon with a new drawing (used as a preview);
- Confirm the action of publishing and you will see how the Workshop page appeared with your top gun, which you have been doing all day. It seems like a small thing, but some contribution to the development of the game brought.
But remember that the skin in the game does not appear by clicking. To get it noticed by the section moderators, you need to raise the ears of all your friends and acquaintances on the forum. The latter should actively vote for your work, so show all your creativity in this field as well. If Steam sees the potential and active support for the project, they will definitely add weapons to CS:GO.
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