CS2 Workshop Guides and Resources Page

Weapon Finishes FAQ

Weapon Finishes Technical Guide

Style Guide for Weapon Finishes

Valve's Workshop Resources page Please note: You want the CS2 Weapon models, not the ones included in the Counter-Strike Workbench materials. The workbench material .OBJs are for CS:GO weapon models and they will not work for making CS2 skins!

Counter-Strike Tools Discord Server, which is probably the most active public Discord server I'm aware of for discussing skin creation. Please note: This server is not affiliated with this subreddit

Pre-separated weapon models, courtesy of EGO DEATH (note, some models may be out of date due to changes to them during the beta period)

Decompiled weapon textures, which includes the textures used by the skin shader such as masks, cavity, world space normal etc

Substance 3D Painter project template and export preset, courtesy of /u/Sparkwire. This template and export preset is all set up to allow you to easily create the additional textures such as pearlescent and PBN masks. The files need to be placed in <Substance painter directory>\resources\starter_assets\templates and \resources\starter_assets\export-presets. If you are new to Substance Painter it is highly recommended that you use this template

Source Developer wiki page on CS2 Weapon finishes (this appears to be incomplete)

/r/csworkshop's old FAQ post: A lot of it is no longer relevant in CS2, however sections about RGB patterns and may be useful to you.

A thread on how Paint-by-number masks work

Lenticular/Holographic sticker simulation in blender, for making cleaner videos / gifs for your workshop submissions. Courtesy of yours truly

How To Create Counter-Strike 2 Weapon In Retro Hardware Style: A walkthrough of Ein's process of creating a skin with forced perspective baking, using Blender, Substance Painter, and Marmoset Toolbag.

The Ultimate CS2 Skin Creation Tutorial, a series by Viper Skins on how to create skins for CS2 using only free and open source software

How to make a CS2 Skin for Dummies by Janelle Knight, who uses procreate and also discusses some design theory for making better skins

Creating a full skin from start to finish for CS2 by CyberOptek, using Blender, Photoshop and Inkscape

The ULTIMATE CS2 STICKER Creation Tutorial, a series by Viper Skins which shows you how to make stickers using Krita.

What is PBR for Counter-Strike? by Zombiee. A short guide on what is and isn't PBR compliant and how to check.

Source 2 Viewer, a tool that allows you to browse VPK archives, view, extract, and decompile Source 2 assets, including maps, models, textures, and more.

Poggu's Sticker Inspect tool which allows you to test your sticker designs applied to weapons in offline matches.

How to extract CS2 weapons to Blender with Source 2 Viewer

First steps: Substance 3D Painter

Baking in Substance 3D painter 8.3

Creating Game Assets in Blender

How to Create Professional Materials in Blender

The PBR Guide by Allegorithmic - Part 1: A technical overview of how PBR works. CS2 uses rendering based on Metallic-Roughness PBR pipeline, so understanding PBR is very useful for skin creation.

The PBR Guide by Allegorithmic - Part 2: Most of this for Substance Painter and Designer, but it's broadly applicable to other software which uses PBR.

CS2 Workshop Guides and Resources Page

Weapon Finishes FAQ

Weapon Finishes Technical Guide

Style Guide for Weapon Finishes

Valve's Workshop Resources page Please note: You want the CS2 Weapon models, not the ones included in the Counter-Strike Workbench materials. The workbench material .OBJs are for CS:GO weapon models and they will not work for making CS2 skins! EDIT: SOME OF THESE MODELS ARE OUT OF DATE (i.e. the Zeus): consider ripping your own models from the game yourself using source2viewer

Counter-Strike Tools Discord Server, which is probably the most active public Discord server I'm aware of for discussing skin creation. Please note: This server is not affiliated with this subreddit

Pre-separated weapon models, courtesy of EGO DEATH (note, some models may be out of date due to changes to them during the beta period. As before, consider ripping the in game models with source2viewer)

Decompiled weapon textures, which includes the textures used by the skin shader such as masks, cavity, world space normal etc

Substance 3D Painter project template and export preset, courtesy of /u/Sparkwire. This template and export preset is all set up to allow you to easily create the additional textures such as pearlescent and PBN masks. The files need to be placed in <Substance painter directory>\resources\starter_assets\templates and \resources\starter_assets\export-presets. If you are new to Substance Painter it is highly recommended that you use this template

Source Developer wiki page on CS2 Weapon finishes (this appears to be incomplete)

/r/csworkshop's old FAQ post: A lot of it is no longer relevant in CS2, however sections about RGB patterns and may be useful to you.

A thread on how Paint-by-number masks work

Lenticular/Holographic sticker simulation in blender, for making cleaner videos / gifs for your workshop submissions. Courtesy of yours truly.

How To Create Counter-Strike 2 Weapon In Retro Hardware Style: A walkthrough of Ein's process of creating a skin with forced perspective baking, using Blender, Substance Painter, and Marmoset Toolbag.

Uploading custom thumbnails to the Steam Workshop: A tutorial which shows you how you can update your submissions to feature a gif thumbnail.

kr1zer's custom ConVar which includes a number of useful commands such as slowing down time, adding depth of field blur and toggling the HUD as buttons to save you from having to type things out each time

The Ultimate CS2 Skin Creation Tutorial, a series by Viper Skins on how to create skins for CS2 using only free and open source software

How to make a CS2 Skin for Dummies by Janelle Knight, who uses procreate and also discusses some design theory for making better skins

Creating a full skin from start to finish for CS2 by CyberOptek, using Blender, Photoshop and Inkscape

The ULTIMATE CS2 STICKER Creation Tutorial, a series by Viper Skins which shows you how to make stickers using Krita.

What is PBR for Counter-Strike? by Zombiee. A short guide on what is and isn't PBR compliant and how to check.

Designing The M4A1-S Asiimov by Coridium. Even 10 years later, this video is invaluable as a look into the design process of the one of the best CS skin designers of all time.

Source 2 Viewer, a tool that allows you to browse VPK archives, view, extract, and decompile Source 2 assets, including maps, models, textures, and more.

Poggu's Sticker Inspect tool which allows you to test your sticker designs applied to weapons in offline matches. (Note: Appears to be broken since September 2025 without any updates)

How to extract CS2 weapons to Blender with Source 2 Viewer

First steps: Substance 3D Painter

Baking in Substance 3D painter 8.3

Creating Game Assets in Blender

How to Create Professional Materials in Blender

The PBR Guide by Allegorithmic - Part 1: A technical overview of how PBR works. CS2 uses rendering based on Metallic-Roughness PBR pipeline, so understanding PBR is very useful for skin creation.

The PBR Guide by Allegorithmic - Part 2: Most of this for Substance Painter and Designer, but it's broadly applicable to other software which uses PBR.