3D CS:GO weapon renders in blender

This guide will show you a easy way to make 3D CS:GO weapon renders in blender, from getting the object files and textures to adding gold, foil, and holo stickers.

1. Introduction

Hey there,
First of all, welcome and I hope this guide helps to get you into doing CS renders or help you further your abilities from where you are now. We have put a lot of work into this, hopefully it's worth it and you learn something from it. So lets get going with the guide!

About the guide:
Before you get into it, we do recommend you learn some Blender basics as we don't cover a lot in that regard. You can learn some stuff here for example Blender Guru's beginner tutorial. Other than that this guide will mainly show how to get your CS skins and stickers into Blender and make a decent render, and explain how to get the necessary files and any accompanying resources. Most of these can be downloaded from the 3Dcsmoney view.

2. Getting the files you need

Getting the object files and textures

To get the required objects and accompanying textures you have 3 options.

Method	Advantages / Disadvantages
1. Using https://www.karambit.gg/	This is an easy way to get both the object file and texture file (automated version of method 2) , but the textures are only in 1k resolution. If 3D.cs.money ever goes down https://www.karambit.gg/ will not work either.
2. Using 3D.cs.money	This method is more labour intensive and can be confusing when you start out, but using it can help when method 1 isn't working. This method will also only give you 1k resolution textures
3. Game extraction	This method uses tool to get the in-game textures and objects from the game itself. With this method you usually get the best resolution textures, but I haven't looked into this method too much, so this guide wont be going over that.

Method 1

Using https://www.karambit.gg/, you just paste the inspect link into it and the site returns the object, texture and any other required files. Just download these files and import them into Blender.


Method 2

Using Chrome's network tool on 3D.cs.money. This requires you to go to 3D.cs.money and open Chrome's developer tools (by pressing F12 or right-clicking and selecting "Inspect") and select the network tab. Once you have done that, you can “make” the skin in 3D.cs.money and see the textures in the network tab. Another way is getting the 3D inspect link from sites like broskins[broskins.com], just paste the inspect link and a 3D.cs.money link should show just open the network tab and refresh.


Method 3

WIP

3. Weapon Skins

After you download the object file from 3d.cs.money, open Blender, open the File menu in the top left and create a general file.

 File > New > general 

You will see an 3D space with a cube, select the cube and delete it.
Now to import the object go back to File, press Import, and add an object file.

 File > Import > Wavefront (.obj )

Now that you have imported the object, it's time to add textures. Follow these steps:

1. Head over to the shading tab at the top of your screen.
   
2. Select the weapon, then in the shader editor at the bottom add a new texture node.
   
3. Add an image texture

    Add > Texture > Image texture 

4. After you added the image texture, connect the color output of the texture node to the color input of the BSDF shader node. On the BSDF shader node you can edit the look of the skin to your liking.

For AUG & SSG 08, you will need extra files as explained in 2. Getting the files you need, which is the component texture file for the scope.

For the SSG 08, follow this YouTube tutorial or simply select the scope and follow steps above for adding texture.

For the AUG, follow this YouTube tutorial or the steps detailed below:

1. Select the AUG scope and enter edit mode by pressing tab
   
2. Right click and press separate by material.
   
3. Enter object mode by pressing tab again, and add a texture to the scope by following the steps above

4. Stickers

• Paper

1. Download or extract the needed base sticker
   
2. In Blender, head over to the Shading tab
   
3. Select the sticker slot and in the Shader Editor import the sticker texture with an Image Texture Node

    Add > Texture > Image Texture 

4. Connect the Color and Alpha outputs of the texture to the corresponding inputs of the Principled BSDF Shader as shown
   
5. In the Properties panel on the right side select the Materials tab and scroll to the Settings section. Set the Blend Mode to Alpha Clip and set the Clip Threshold to 0. If you experience artifacts on the sticker background, try slightly increasing the Clip Threshold to around 0.1
   
6. Tweak the settings to your liking
   

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Note: Add Examples
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• Gold/Foil

1. Complete all the steps used for a paper sticker
   
2. Import the Normal Map in an Image Texture Node and set the Color Space to "Non-Color"

    Add > Vector > Normal Map 

3. Connect the Image texture output to the Normal input of the Normal Map node
   
4. Connect the Normal Map Output to the Normal Input of the principal BDSF

Want a diffrent look for the sticker? Trying changing some of the values, like Metallic, roughness, etc.
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Note: Add Examples
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• Holo

We have a new shader, you can just download the blend file and copy the cube for your projects or save it in the asset library
new sticker shader download[drive.google.com]

1. Complete all the steps used for a paper sticker
   
2. Add a second Principled BSDF Shader
   
3. Import the Spectrum Map with an Image Texture Node and plug the Color output into the Principled BSDF Shader, use the Alpha from the main texture for both shaders
   
4. Import the Holomask with an Image Texture Node and set the Color Space to Non-Color
   
5. Add a Layer Weight Node and using a Math Node first Multiply the Facing value with a value >1 (or Add to or Subtract from it anything that is not 0, depending on your preference)
   

   Add > Input > Layer Weight

   Add > Converter > Math

6. Use another Math Node to Multiply it with the Color value from the Holomask and plug the Value into the Spectrum Texture's Vector input.
   
7. Use a Mix Shader to combine the Principled BSDF Shaders
   
8. Tweak all values to your liking.

5. Environment Textures / HDRIs

Where to get HDRIs

Personally, I get my HDRI files from HDRI Haven[hdrihaven.com].
Just search for a good looking environment and download the file (4k resolution should be more than enough).

Adding HDRIs to your scene

1. Download the HDRI file
   
2. Go to the shading tab and select the world view at the bottom
   
3. Delete the background node and add an environment texture.
   

    Add > Texture > Enviroment Texture 

6. Scene / Props / Lighting

Filling your scene

Just a weapon in a blank scene isn't the best.
Filling it with props, like a knife stand for your knife to sit on or a weapon rack to show of the 50 AKs you have will make your render more interesting. For this you have two options: making your own objects and textures or downloading them from others who share them online. One place that is a great example for this is Sketchfab[sketchfab.com]. Some of these models are paid and these are usually the highest quality ones, but you can also find a lot of free models on there.

Importing the props

You can import these props the same way you imported the weapon objects files, but they may have different file types. So make sure you check if Blender supports the respective file type first. There is a chance that even files of supported file types won't load. This is usually due to the version of program they used being different to yours.

• Search for keywords and have the tag set to downloadable.
  
• Choose a nice model you want to use and click the download button at the bottom of the preview.
  
• Check what file type you can open and choose the right one.
  
• Go to the download location, unzip the file (you might need to unzip again in the source/model map)
  
• In Blender select File, Import and choose the file type you want to import.

 File > Import > *your file type* 

Lighting up your scene

As the lighting is highly scene dependent, we recommend tutorials like this Lighting Tutorial from Blender Guru. One note to add: Cycles is one of the best engines for lighting, but it will mess up your stickers.

7. Thanks

If you found this guide useful, we would appreciate it a lot if you rate it :D. If you need any help or have suggestions on what to change or add, be sure to contact us on steam or any other platform.

Bastert:
Site : Purpleotter.design[purpleotter.design]
Twitter: Twitter
Steam: Steam
Discord: bastert

W0nk4:
Steam: Steam
Discord: w0nk4

[Toe]

this might be dumb, but where do i download the sticker files from

[Ein]

Nice guide! Would be useful if you specified how to apply normal maps to a material. Import, drag the image texture to a normal map node (color, not strength) and plug into normal map. Change the image type to non-color for it to work. If it is directX and not OpenGL invert the green channel with a RGB Curves node before plugging into normal map.

[// w0nk4]

@💲Alchem1st🜚 ⇄ Trading - can you post a screenshot?

[CataLEAN🔱]

any ideea what settings to use for kato 19 holos? cause if i use the settings on this tutorial, the holomask fits weird on the sticker base

[// w0nk4]

@Pangtundure what does it look like?

[Pangtundure]

My texture looks nothing like in the render ? Any help ?

[Skizry]

Great guide, thanks.

[| Bastert]

@sumo. i got mine from vtfedit (to convert the files to pngs) and the extracted game files. but i think you could also use umod to get the masks
here a vid for umod
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4-gYIGRTbg

[sumo.]

@| Bastert : do i have to create a mask for each glitter sticker by myself ? or is there somewhere u can get them from ?

[| Bastert]

@sumo. i just posted some stuff regarding glitters a bit down in the comments