Vlad “hexeth” Vasiliev is one of the most recognizable skinmakers in CS:GO. More than thirty thousand people have subscribed to his page in the Steam Workshop. The number of stickers and skins he has created number in the hundreds, and six of them, created either alone or in collaboration with other designers, have been added to the game. He recently gave an interview in which he talked about his approach to work and the intricacies of Valve's approach to selecting skins. Below you will find the most interesting moments from this conversation.
Created by hexeth skin Glock-18 Winterized recently appeared in the game, becoming part of the RecoilCase. Skinmaker noted that although this coloring may seem minimalistic, it is this kind of work that requires a lot of time, since you need to solve the problem without overloading the design and using a small number of colors.
How the skin was created
The co-author of hexeth in the work on Glock-18 Winterized was the designer UAD6, who was mainly involved in creating skins for Rust. He created a high-poly version of the Glock, which hexeth took as a basis. At that time, he developed several versions of the skin, and then, a few years later, he began to rework and improve them, deciding to turn them into a reference to “snowguy" - that was the name of one of the player models in CS 1.6.
It is interesting that Valve ultimately chose not one of the latest versions to add to the case, but an older one. The developers also added a name for the skin. Hexeth mentions that this happens in most cases – only two of its skins have their own names, AUGPlague and NOVAToySoldier, and the other four were renamed when added to the official version of the game.
When working on a skin design, hexeth first imagines a three-dimensional image of the item, thinks through all the details in detail, and only then transfers it to a three-dimensional model. Because of this, the entire process can take a lot of time – for example, AWPSpender, which was made in collaboration with CiDDi, was thought out for about six months, and its design with a large number of references and small details was drawn for several weeks.
At the same time, sometimes items that were made without such careful consideration end up in the game. For example, Valve's attention to G3SG1 Digital Mesh was a surprise for hexeth, since the skin was initially developed simply to practice using some effects.
Collaboration
Also hexeth said that he is increasingly working in collaboration. In this case, he usually takes care of adapting materials for the game and assembling the final design, while creating the art is entrusted to another person. Hexeth actively participates in the life of the community and attracts to its projects those artists whose work it considers worthy, but to whom Valve has not yet paid attention.
He notes that working together significantly increases the chances of success. Cases where skinmakers work hard alone year after year until one of their items attracts the attention of Valve do happen, but it is extremely rare. For him, not only the income that skins bring is important, but also the positive emotions that he experiences when he sees his works from other players – both among professionals and among those with whom he accidentally crosses paths in the game.
