Hello to everyone here in the CS workshop reddit :D
I hope you have all had a good month and some fun working on all of your submission projects.
It's been another great month with a boatload of great skins and submissions from everyone in the community. Everyone has been hard at work, and giving their all, making skins for the upcoming Fairy Tales collection and it shows, so once again, it was difficult to choose just 3.
Without further adieu, here are our 3 picks for the 2026 September Community Spotlight!
"Usually skin creators work hard to make their drawings as sophisticated as possible. In the MAC Children's Fairy Tales skin the creator smartly took a different approach and created a child's like drawings for his skin. The drawings, alongside the materials of which the skin was created, make the skin look like the result of a 3rd grade art project, which makes it a very cute skin. Moreover, the way the skin wears (Especially the part where the knight under fire turns to crisp!) adds a lot to the skin." - Viper
"The classic storybook style illustration with It's unconventional colour scheme really drew me to this design - somehow it feels very old-school and Tolkienesque. It's also great to see a design which takes into account the shape of the weapon by including details not just on the sides, but also on the rear of the gun too" - Ezikyl
"A striking graffiti/contemporary take on The Snow Queen that takes me straight back to the Global Offensive days. The gas mask and spiked collars help bring it into a modern light aswell. Its both fun and grounded, hitting hard in the mid tier rarity game. The front end could use a little love but great skin overall." - Swankadia
There were plenty of great submissions this month and many that stood out and we can't wait to get some more of you into the community spotlight so keep at it and we look forward to seeing what everyone creates over the month of October!
Please note, some of valve's own documentation appears to not have been updated to fully reflect the change in engine for CS2, so some information is missing, or out of date.
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!
Community Resources
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 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.
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.
Hello Everyone!
I’m excited to present my latest creation, a project that took me a long time to bring to life.
Inspired by street culture and vintage aesthetics, I combined the raw, untamed energy of street graffiti with the refined tones of vintage wood and golden accents. The result is a fusion of urban expression and timeless elegance, framed by a sophisticated vintage style with touches of gold.
The weapon feels like a valuable piece of art displayed in a prestigious gallery. The skin represents freedom, adventure, and new experiences, while the graffiti elements bring energy, movement, and a dynamic urban spirit to the design.Workshop
First skin I've ever made after the inspiration from my father's Hilti hand drill. Construction tools always seemed like a cool concept for game skins, so I'm trying to bring some more to life.
The P90 seemed like a good gun to start with, being very spacious & clean. The red metallic texture and clear white text gives it a proper tool look and feel. The brushed metal frame was actually inspired by an old Focusrite audio interface my friend used to have.
What was supposed to be a simple level turned into a multi-tool through many iterations.
Oh, and the magazines act as batteries 👍
There's many little details, like the ON/OFF & ZERO buttons on the side for the laser pointer that's underneath the muzzle, and a small LCD to show it's not working.
I would very much appreciate constructive feedback! Let me know what you guys think, is it too much, too little?
Check the skin out on the workshop, give it a yes or a no please:
Inspired by the strength of the jaguar, Guardian embodies courage, power, and the spirit of the wild. A guardian of the forest, ready to defend its territory.
If you like the design, please support it with a YES vote and add it to your favorites! 💙
Five Custom Paint Jobs in layered paper, each inspired by one piece of math and fitted to its gun's parts. The palette is the red, yellow, blue and black of Oliver Byrne's 1847 Euclid, which taught geometry in coloured shapes.
- M4A1-S | Overtone: a square wave as a sum of sine waves. Nine harmonics by the stock, one fewer every half wave towards the muzzle, and a single sine on the silencer.
- M4A4 | Eightfold: the Ammann–Beenker tiling, squares and rhombs that never repeat, with its eightfold star on the receiver.
- M4A4 | Switchback: Truchet tiles whose arcs join into paths that wind and double back; four of them close into a circle over the magazine well.
- USP-S | Escape Time: the Basilica Julia set (z → z² − 1) in paper on a navy slide, its contours running over the frame and the silencer.
- Glock-18 | Golden Mean: golden squares spiralling in to a point on the slide, each with a quarter circle, drawn like a textbook figure.
Every step between two sheets is in the normal map, the paper has a faint pearl sheen, and the wear runs 0.00–0.50. Each one hides a registration target and a colour bar for the inspect.
I have this awful issue, I dont know why, I rebaked the textures in blender once but I just cant manage to get rid of these "things". Im kinda desperate rn ngl...
!!!Fixed it, I had to reinstall the workshop tools and rebake all maps!!!
Hey! My entry for the Fairy Tales Call to Arms: M4A4 | The Firebird Zhar-Ptitsa from the Russian folk tale in Palekh lacquer style, with real gold Gunsmith metal. It's in the top 15 of the contest this week. Would love your feedback, and an upvote on Steam if you like it: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3819111126
Well, I was inspired by a story many of us know, Little Red Riding Hood, and that’s how I came up with CRIMSON HOOD. I’m really happy with how the skin turned out. I spent hours going over every last detail to make it perfect. I hope you like it, and I’d really appreciate your support on Steam! https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3815571411
Hey! My entry for the Fairy Tales Call to Arms: AWP | BOOSEA ghosty-themed AWP, with real souls to hunt enemies. It's in the top 15 of the contest this week. Would love your feedback and an upvote on Steam if you like it: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3640762582
