One thing that weighs on my mind is the impact of AI on society. Many jobs are being displaced due to technological efficiencies and the push for corporate growth. I’m interested in how this will play out, in doing so I look to the past as history often rhymes, if not repeats.

Historically, in the field of art and design there was the ‘William Morris Arts and Crafts’ movement. When the industrial revolution occurred in Britain in the late 18th Century, many traditionally handmade artifacts became mass produced due to the emergence of factory machinary. In the deluge of high quantity ubiquity, a counter movement formed championing individualism and quality, alongside more humane treatment of workers.

With the advent of CS2 came the introduction of the material map texture to some of the finish methods that are geared toward patterns. I found I could finely control the way patterns were applied. Previously I had little control over which parts received the pattern texture which is why many CSGO patterns have nasty seams which cheapen the design. But with the additional material map I could define these areas (Red channel), but also paint in details onto two of the channels (Green and Blue) that remain in a static position on the weapon. The amount doesn’t have to be solid (255) either which opens the door to blends between two colours.

I’ve taken inspiration from the arts and crafts era floral patterns but with an added a twist – I couldn’t just do a straight-faced homage, so I’ve snuck in two weasels amongst the flowers. Due to the scale and quantity of flowers, most pattern iterations will just be straight forward floral patterns, but some lucky few will feature a weasel.

The scope and cheek pad feature fixed design elements, as does the top-rear-stock as it would otherwise receive the triplannar pattern where it blends in an unsightly manner. I wish I could finely control the roughness of this area to match with the pattern, however the roughness map texture only applies to the pattern, with the workbench slider providing a uniform roughness to the non-pattern area.

I noted that the G3SG1 had very little full beige/yellow representation, and due to its unpopularity most of the finish grade tiers were weighted toward milspec, making it the ideal candidate for a pattern based design in this colourscheme.

Once again I struggled with PBR validation midway through the project. When choosing colours at the start I forgot to do the albedo check, so when I got it to a point I was finally happy with it – I tested it and it failed!

I had to alter the palette so that instead of a dark brown it used a light brown - which straight up killed the contrast resulting in a washed out appearance. I have attempted to circumvent this by making the dark outlines metallic by adding a custom roughness map. This had the added bonus of making me consider the background for secondary interest: I made the ‘leaf flourishes’ shiny which I felt looked great. After all, as a weasel pattern its important that it should ‘pop’.

I realise its an unpopular weapon, but let me know your thoughts below.