Sticker tutorial | The holographic version

In this guide I will explain how to make your own Holographic sticker. You will see how my workflow is and I will explain why I make certain choises.

Introduction

Welcome to my guide

Hours and hours you spend on making a holographic sticker but everytime you check it out in the cs:go sdk it looks like crap. How do I make a good looking holographic sticker? Well you're at the right adress because I'm here to tell you all about it. I will first inform you what exactly a holographic sticker is and then we are going to make one ourself! In this guide we will be using my newest sticker YOLO tactics because I thought it is a good example. I can't wait to write this guide so let's get started!!

Programs that are used in this guide

What programs am I using?

• VTFedit[nemesis.thewavelength.net]
  
• Notepad++[notepad-plus-plus.org]
  
• Adobe photoshop[www.adobe.com]
  
• Counter strike global offensive SDK

Basic information

What is a holographic sticker and how does it work?

Before we start designing our own holographic sticker I want to give you some information about the sticker itself, what does it do and how does it work. You most likely know that the holgraphic sticker is the version with flashy colors which changes due to the light. That's correct but how does it work? You might be familiar with a so called color spectrum.
This spectrum has all the color values that are availible. You can use RGB or HSB to get the color you want or you can simply click on the color and it will be choosen as the color. With a holographic sticker we will be using the RGB method (RGB = Red, Green, Blue). In the following paragraph I will give you an explanation how we are going to prepare our sticker.

Preparing our sticker

What should I do before I start on the holographic effect?

So before we start on the real work we need to prepare our sticker so we can fill in the right values.
Open your sticker as one image. We do this because we have to select the whole image. Get the quick selection tool by pressing W on the keyboard or by pressing the quick selection tool in the toolbar. Select the whole sticker and press CTRL+C to copy the sticker to your clipboard. When you are 100% sure that the sticker is in your clipboard you go to the tab called channels which is located right next to the tab layers on the right side of the UI. Create a new layer and call that layer "Alpha". The screen will go black but you are able to see your selected area. When you have the layer Alpha selected you paint the whole selection white. When you've done that right click on the layer called RGB. Choose the option delete channels. You should be left with only 1 layer and that is our Alpha layer.

Now you're going to create 3 new layer and you name them, Red, Green and Blue. In every layer you paste the sticker in your clipboard by pressing CTRL+V. When you make all the layers visible you should be able to see the following.

What have done? Well we have converted our image from an RGB channel to an multichannel image. This way we can do our edits and later on convert it back to an RGB image We are now working with a so called Cyan, Magnata and Yellow image which is translatable in a color pallet. Now that all the stupid boring stuff is done we can finally let go of our creativity and start giving our sticker an holographic effect in the next paragraph!!

Making our holographic effect! (Layer Red)

Finally the fun part!

Before we start I want to inform you that my choises may differ from your choises and that I base my decisions on my personal style. Now that that's out of the way we start with our first layer, Red. Every layer translates into something on the holographic effect. The red layer will tell the sticker what to give a holographic effect and what parts won't have an effect. In this particular sticker I want the text to not have an holographic effect but I want the back plate and the border to show me some fancy colors. In this layer we work with 2 colors, white and black. Black will give the part no holographic while white will give a good effect. Don't want the letters to have an holographic effect? Paint it black.

As you can see I also made the nails black and a bit of the shadows from the border. I did this because I didn't want those things to show me the effect and because the plate is the holographic surface. Now our Red layer is done so we can move on to the Green layer!

Making our holographic effect! (Layer Green)

So what does layer green do?

The green layer will add more detail to our holographic effect. You can define certain patterns or lines on the effect. You are defining a pattern for the light to wrap around. In this layer we will work again with 2 colors, black and white. Black will give you a very stark effect while grey and white will be more subtle. I didn't quite had a pattern I wanted to be shown in the effect but I had some metal textures on the base image which I wanted to be shown. I was lucky that the texture was shown in the Green layer but sometimes it doesn't. If it doesn't just add them by drawing some greyish lines on their or whatever you prefer. I also wanted a texture for my border and that was also translated from the base image. This was my end result and now we have only 1 layer left to be edited, the Blue layer!

Making our holographic effect! (Layer Blue)

What happens in the final layer?

The final layer before we can convert our image back to RGB mode. The blue channel will tell the game what vertical offset we use on the color spectrum. This basicly means how much saturation is used in the holographic effect. If you want an area to have a very saturated effect you'll have to paint that area completly black. If you want a desaturated area or an area where the colors aren't as saturated you should paint it grey/white. White will give a desaturated look and black will give a super saturated look. I recommend to be very carefull with black because it can be very stark and ruin a good holographic effect. In my sticker I wanted the holographic effect to be a bit desaturated because it would take away all the attention from my text which is the most important part of my sticker. That's why I didn't change anything on the layer because the colors were okay.

Now we have edited all the layer and we can change our sticker back to an RGB image.

Converting our image back to an RGB image

we're almost there!

This is a very simple task because photoshop has made an option for it. Go to Images > Mode > RGB color. Voila the effect is now done and we can export it to our game. This is the end result for me.

Making a .VTF file

Only a few steps left.

So we now have our holo image saved as an targa extension (.tga). Now we have to make counter strike able to read our holographic effect. You do this as follows.
Open up VTFedit and import your image according to the settings you desire. Only a few options should be like this:

• Normal format: BGRA8888
  
• Alpha Format: DXT5

On the right you see the options you have to check in order to make it readable by the game. If everything is set and done you can save the image as a VTF file.

Making a .VMT file

Game load the right files!

Open up your favorite text editing program, I will use notepad++ because it's simple and clean. The following code will be good to use. Make sure to change $basetexture and $holomask.

WeaponDecal
{
$DECALSTYLE 3 //hologram
$basetexture "//./C:/your/directory/Basesticker.vtf"
$holomask "//./C:/your/directory/holomask filename.vtf"
$holospectrum models\weapons\customization\stickers\default\holowarp_default
$unwearstrength 0.1
$envmap "env_cubemap"
$envmaptint "[ .07 .07 .07 ]"
$phong 1
$phongexponent 2
$phongfresnelranges "[ .2 .5 1 ]"
$phongalbedotint 1.0
$phongboost 1.0
$phongalbedoboost 10.0
}

Save this text as a .VMT file and now you should be ready to go!!
Yay the work is done! :D

Admiring our work! o_o

Yay the sticker looks awesome! :D

If everything worked out for you you should be able to see your sticker in the CS:GO sdk. :]
Here is my final effect. :]

Final words!

Thank you guys for everything!

Because of the amazing respons on my embossed foil guide I decided to create a new guide on the holographic effect. I want to thank you all for reading this guide and staying with me till the end. If you got time to check out my sticker which I used in this tutorial please do so by clicking the link below :] THANKS!!

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=287066940

I really appreciate you reading this guide and I hope to write another one in the near future :]

Stay frosty!

Hollandje

[MiK]

Not Very Explicit tbh.
How do we make the Holo Effects? What type do we save the image as?
Sorry but this Guide is 2/5

[HoppyCorn]

how we can clean black background?

[Roushk]

TY

[Ivan Is Sleeping ϟ]

So I know this is old and you probably won't reply but how large do the stickers have to be?

[Mr. DogSh!t]

OMG Thx for showing me this tut. I only read the 1st 3 parts and already I understand. I'll read the rest when I get home. Thx so much, I'll rate the tut when I get home.

[ave]

YSYLiTDPoMH. You sir, you live in the deepest part of my heart. Thank you.

[Dverwy]

Hey! Thank you for this work! I made my sticker by using your guide, you can check it!

Sector clear | Sticker

[💛 Hollandje 💛]

I'm flattered :3

[Darj]

very nice, simple explanation. As honorary police ninja, I give you, a thumbs up

[Konargus]

Well done