Phoenix Case Weapon Skins

Sadly, Youtube annotations will be discontinued soon. So this sort of screen won’t be possible
any more. Any way, I contacted as many of the makers of these skins as I could, click
on the one you’d like to know more about. We’ll start with Negev Terrain by Dirp.
He got into it after reading Valve’s Workbench guide and decided to give it a go. He started
out on TF2 and is still very proud of what he describes as his ‘crummy TF2 hat’.
He says that he’s never happy with the names he chooses for his designs. This Negev -STUPIDLY
called Terrain- was one of his first for CS:GO and features a topographical map, filled with
contours and heights. It’s part of a series that he’s made, described by him as an ‘intricate
yet subtle camouflage pattern’. For its design, he looked at what was popular and
did something different, steering clear of flashy colours and futuristic designs, whilst
giving the neglected Negev weapon some love in the mean-time. His later Terrain skins
have gained a bit more colour and flare to them, as you can see from these MP7 and AUG
designs. The Heaven Guard Mag7 by ukrScorpion was inspired
by various anime series and took about 4 hours to make. This is because it wasn’t the first
of the series; he made an earlier dual berretta design that took him a lot longer. He got
into skin design because he was inspired by other peoples’ entries on the forums and
decided he wanted to see if he could do it himself. Much like Dirp, he focused on making
skins for less popular weapons. Getting his entry accepted changed his life, then later
on he got a second Heaven Guard design accepted, this time for the XM1014.
The Tec9 Sandstorm is the second and final of this pattern by Algis to be accepted, though
he has since had further successes with other skin designs. He says that he has got a lot
of hate from these skins, being cheap and the most common skins that people unbox. But
he says that if it wasn’t his then it would only be another skin of equal value any way.
Plus, at least with this skin it reminds them of an AWESOME song! There’s an interesting
story behind this skin’s colours: he got them from an underwater picture of his daughter
that he took whilst on holiday. Somewhat ironic that the Sandstorm’s colours were captured
in such a watery place, really. The UMP45 Corporal by Coridium was developed
shortly after his success with the Asiimov design. He says how he likes to try and create
something different from his previous works, and this certainly is that. Whereas the Asiimov
was futuristic and vivid, the UMP45 Corporal has muted colours and a military theme which
he thinks fits CS:GO’s aesthetic. He intended for these skins to be suitable for the lower
skin grades. One thing that most people might not notice are the colours; blue representing
the Navy, green for the classic army and tan for desert operations. This weapon is part
of a collection of skins known as the ‘Rank’ collection, the other being…
The FAMAS Sergeant. Also created by Coridium and is the second and final skin for his Rank
collection. For this one he experimented with a new weapon finish, Patina. It gives him
a lot more control over how the damage is shown, but the down-side is that he can’t
decorate the weapon’s magazine. Will we ever see other ranked skins? Maybe a Private
or a Major? Coridium didn’t rule it out but did say that when you look back at old
designs, you only see the things you wish you had done better, so he generally tries
to create new things rather than returning to older stuff.
SG553 Pulse by Thurnip is the second skin in the design, the first being the Famas which
I mentioned in my Winter Offensive video. As with before, the design is intended to
look as though the weapon is shattering from a virtual place into reality. He likes this
design because of the contrast between the intense purples and the black background.
He has different colour finishes depending on the weapon type, with purple being for
rifles, blue-green for pistols and so on. The Mac10 Heat was made by joop and was originally
named ‘Redhot’. It was one of the first things he made, indeed in the first month
that the workshop was around, but by the time he had finished there were already hundreds
of competing skins. He wanted to make a design based around the physical properties of the
weapon itself, choosing heat since he could recreate the effect in a convincing style
without requiring any 3D trickery. He watched videos of molten steel cooling on Youtube
and used these for the colour palette, but says that he took many artistic liberties
along the way during this skin’s creation. At about the same time, joop also sent Gabe
Newell a skin that spelled GABE in musical notes… but sadly never heard back.
USP-S Guardian by J4CK is the second of this design to be accepted, following the M4A1-S
in the Winter Case just a few months prior. While that skin was Classified, this USP-S
has been put in Restricted and can be had for significantly less. It features the same
colours, a custom suppressor with writing on it and the CT emblem, though it’s now
seen on the top of the design, whereas with the M4 it was on the magazine case down below.
The P90 Trigon isn’t available in Factory New, so every model will feature some degree
of wear and tear. It is the third (and not even final!) skin from Coridium to be included
in this case. However, it’s found over on Faceit’s workshop page, since they approached
him along with several other skin designers, asking if he’d be interested in designing
something to help them to fund bigger and better streamed tournaments. He saw this as
an exciting opportunity and it inspired the design of this skin, with the triangles representing
the ladders and tables of the tournament, the varying heights representing different
skill levels, with all players aspiring to reach the number 1 spot. He says that this
was a little more abstract than his other projects, but that approaching it in this
way really helped him to start it from scratch. And it worked, too- not only did this skin
get accepted, but Faceit also got him to make several more for them as well, including the
MP7 Progression with similar colours as the Trigon and a green USP called Equalizer, though
neither of these have made it to the game just yet.
Nova Antique by Ancient is available in field tested to factory new condition and uses the
custom paint job finish to help give it the look of wood stock and gold inlay. It was
the very first skin that he submitted to the workshop, followed soon after by his Bizon
in the same style which was also accepted later in the Huntsman case. Other than that
he’s only made one more of this design, which is for the desert eagle but has not
yet been accepted. AK47 Redline by EmKay is his second and final
accepted skin on the workshop, following his AWP Redline which I covered in the Winter
Offensive case. It was initially made in gold and black but he later changed it to red to
improve its chances of being accepted as a standard weapon, since gold is reserved for
special skins. Its original name was ‘Elegant Red’ and has remained among the most popular
items on the steam market since its release. Perhaps some day, the Blue Line version will
be accepted as well, as there was a lot of demand for it on its workshop page.
Aug Chameleon, originally named Chameleonaire, is one of 4 accepted entries that Zaphk had
for the game, though she has had even more success over on the DOTA 2 workshop. This
AUG is just one of two to be Covert grade- the other being the more expensive Akihabara
Accept, though that one isn’t available in stattrak. So this AUG’s… kind of special.
All of her accepted CS:GO skins have been hand-drawn designs of various creatures. A
special mention to Onilolz, who is also mentioned as a joint-creator on all of these skins.
I covered the Octopump shotgun skin in the Winter Offensive case and there are more to
come in future ones. AWP Asiimov by Coridum needs no introduction.
After watching his making of videos I can now see how he angles a lot of the colours
and designs in the same direction as each other. By doing so he feels the design becomes
more attached to the weapon. Could this be part of what made this design a success? At
the time he says that there weren’t many futuristic minimalist skin designs on the
workshop, which he feels helped with the Asiimov’s success which at first he didn’t expect
to be too popular. The colours were chosen as they were ‘synonymous with sci-fi’,
a style that can be traced back to the likes of Syd Mead (Who also has an accepted skin
in CS:GO!). The name is in tribute to the popular sci-fi writer, Isaac Asiimov. Coridium
says that today’s media is full of fantastic sci-fi, but he hopes that his skin inspires
people to check out some of the older literature, he really thinks it’s stood the test of
time and has helped to shape today’s media. He also mentions Philip K Dick as another
pioneer in the sci-fi genre. Thanks to his success on the workshop, Coridium says that
he would love to make his own computer game, its development funded by the money he’s
earned from his skins. He is very grateful to Valve for giving outside artists a chance
to contribute to their games. He feels like it’s the next step in videogame evolution
and is very proud to be a part of it!

Phoenix Case Weapon Skins

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