We talked to the creator of M249 O.S.I.P.R and learned a whole bunch of curious facts. Kai — that’s the artist’s name — loves Dust 2, Aztec, and old games. Also, he considers the P90 one of the best weapons for skins.
Moreover, it was only rather recently that he started working on skins! It was the CS20 contest that inspired him to take a metaphorical brush in his hands — and the results were great. Two skins by Kai were added to the game along with the game’s 20th-anniversary case, one in The Fracture Case, and one in The Snakebite Case. Wanna know which skins they are? Read the interview!
– First, we’d like to congratulate you on the release of M249 O.S.I.P.R.. Incredibly beautiful skin. I can’t help but ask about the new case in general. Besides your skin, are there any interesting works? Do you have any favorites?
– Thanks for your kind words!
There were indeed a lot of great-looking skins, of which I honestly couldn’t really decide which one to like most. Basically, every skin has something to like.
– When did you start making skins? Are there any other games except CS that have your skins? What game was the first? And how did you decide that you want to make a game skin?
– When I watched a video by the YouTuber 3kliksphilip about the announcement of the CS20 contest, I started getting interested in making skins as well. I already owned Photoshop, so it was a good starting point to explore many different ideas related to that theme.
Now with Substance Painter I have even more options that make texturing easier and more detailed. Until now I haven’t made any skins for any other game yet.
– What’s the secret of your skin’s success?
– That might be hard to tell, because a lot of it has to do with what Valve sees fitting for a new case.
But I think that by following the rules of the official style guide, and trying to find unique ideas, you can increase your chances of getting a skin into the game. Although even that can never be a guarantee.
– Where do you get the inspiration for your works?
– That of course pretty much depends on the skin.
With CS20, I tried to capture many different elements that fit with the celebration of 20 years of Counter Strike, so I looked through the wikis or other similar sites to find more details about its history, because you obviously can’t know everything. About my other skins, I mostly start with an initial idea and then try to find inspiration material on the internet in forms of pictures, or sometimes even videos.
I would also suggest the program PureRef, where you can simply drag+drop all your inspiration pictures and can see them all in one place. I think that having that can help you even more with creating your own style from them.
– Why make skins at all? Is it profitable or do you simply enjoy it?
I initially participated in the CS20 contest because I like the look of a lot of older games (Half Life, the old CS versions, Halo, Deus Ex and many more).
I feel like many of them have a certain charme, which I tried to capture with my designs.
At that time I didn’t even really know how much I would get if I got a skin included, so most of it was and still is for trying to express my love for those art styles and having a good challenge.
But I got lucky and even got 2 skins accepted into the CS20 case!
The first one is the Famas Decommissioned, inspired by the old Nuke map:
And the second one is the Mac-10 Classic Crate, inspired by the metal crates found on the original Dust II map.
Afterall, I still very much enjoy the process of making skins, and try to learn something new with every one I make.
– Tell us about PP-Bizon – Runic. How did you come up with the idea of this design?
With Doom Eternal being released around that time, I wanted to make a skin that makes the player feel just as powerful as in that game. I also tried to incorporate elements from similar games like Quake, and much like with CS20, I looked back at the original games to get more inspiration, while still trying to add my own style.
Here are some of the initial quick concepts, though it obviously turned out quite different in the end:
The gatling gun shape for the magazine was an idea I pretty much had at the very end.
It was a bit of a challenge to make it look convincing from the first person view, but I am happy with how it turned out.
Here is roughly how I went to make the look possible using Blender, however, I still had to make small adjustments to the normal map and paint the texture parts manually as well, since I was only limited by Blender and Photoshop at that time.
Final result:
Now I have improved this workflow to be faster and much more convenient since I have gotten Substance Painter, but I think for this skin it still worked well enough.
The result of the improved method can be seen on my MP5 Fusion:
– Do you play CS? And if you do play CS then what is your favorite skin in your inventory? Do you play with your own skins?
Back in the day I used to play from time to time, but never really had the ambition of becoming a very good player.
Now I rarely play it anymore, because making skins and other hobbies already can take up quite some time, but I still very much enjoy watching all the videos by 3kliksphilip on the latest updates of the game. But of course I am happy to see other people using and enjoying my skins and if possible, I like to use them as well.
– What is your favourite weapon in CS:GO?
If I had more experience with playing, I would be able to give a more well-founded answer, but I think the AK47 or SG553 are great due to their one-shot headshot potential, even though they still require a certain amount of skill, and of course the AWP can be very impressive if you know how to use it well.
In terms of skin design, the P90 seems like a good weapon to work with, because it has a lot of empty space that can be used in many different ways. But of course, every weapon can work well depending on the skin you are making.
– And what about favourite maps? Do you have one?
I like Dust2 of course, because of its simplicity and clarity, but I also really like the exotic look of Aztec and the new Ancient map.
When testing my skins I like to use maps from the workshop that fit with the theme I am going for, because they can get me into the right mood and sometimes even inspire some new ideas.
– Are you interested in CS:GO tournaments? And what’s your favorite team if you do?
I don’t really watch any tournaments, but I just admire the skill and dedication every one of the professional players has, no matter if they are on the winning or losing side!
– And back to the art. What are your favourite skins? Is it your own art or are there maybe some other artists’ skins that you like?
Pretty much one of the first skins I have seen was the AWP Phobos by Apel, and it is still one of my favourite ones.
Apart from that there are many other great artists I probably couldn’t list here.
I think they all have something to like.
– Will we see some easter eggs in your skins?
Actually, I already have some:
For example, for my Mac-10 Classic Crate I was inspired by the text found on shipping containers and made it into an easter egg related to Counter Strike’s past. Additionally, I have added the bomb site marking to the strap.
In regards to my PP-Bizon Runic, I didn’t give the Runes any special meaning, I just tried making shapes that fit well together.
But I have seen people trying to interpret for themselves what they mean, and that alone makes me happy too, knowing that they care about my skin 🙂
Apart from that, my recently added M249 O.S.I.P.R. бwas inspired by the AR from Half-Life 2 (which actually has that name, meaning “Overwatch Standard Issue Pulse Rifle”), so you can maybe consider the whole skin to be an easter egg!
I initially made it for the release of Half-Life Alyx, so I was even more surprised seeing it being added so late afterward.
Maybe Valve is up to something? 🙂
But I hope this means there will be more Half-Life skins added in the future, there are certainly many more great ones on the workshop!
– What is your advice to those who want to become an artist? What advice can you give to those who are just thinking about creating the first skin?
I am not a “professional”, so there are certainly things I might miss, but I still try to keep learning and improving with every skin I make.
Although there are some general things I think can help other people who want to make skins:
I would say that you should try to focus less on quantity and instead try to make each skin look the best you can.
I think it is also good to experiment and you should only really watch tutorials if you are stuck with a problem.
Many solutions can already be found if you break down your problem into smaller ones and think about how you can solve each of those.
Also, get feedback from other people! Sometimes you are “blind” about small things, especially if you have been working on a skin for a longer period of time, but indeed with practice that can become easier to recognize too.
But most importantly, do it because you enjoy it and want to learn new things, because in the end there is never a guarantee you will get a skin accepted.
If you have already started making skins, you might have come across the problem of default text or logos on your skin that doesn’t seem to be directly removable (like you can see on the M4A4 for example).
I have made a guide on how you can still fix that in most cases.
