Source Filmmaker (often abbreviated as SFM) is a

3D computer graphics 3D computer graphics, or “3D graphics,” sometimes called CGI, 3D-CGI or three-dimensional computer graphics are graphics that use a three-dimensional representation of geometric data (often Cartesian) that is stored in the computer for th ...

software toolset published by

Valve A valve is a device or natural object that regulates, directs or controls the flow of a fluid (gases, liquids, fluidized solids, or slurries) by opening, closing, or partially obstructing various passageways. Valves are technically fittings ...

for creating

animated films Animation is a method by which still figures are manipulated to appear as moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Today, most anim ...

, utilizing the

Source game engine Source is a 3D game engine developed by Valve. It debuted as the successor to GoldSrc in 2004 with the release of '' Counter-Strike: Source'' and ''Half-Life 2''. Updates to Source were released in incremental versions, with the engine being suc ...

. Source Filmmaker has been used to create many community-based animated shorts for popular Source games, including ''

Team Fortress 2 ''Team Fortress 2'' is a 2007 multiplayer first-person shooter, first-person shooter game developed and published by Valve Corporation. It is the sequel to the 1996 ''Team Fortress'' Mod (video gaming), mod for ''Quake (video game), Quake'' and ...

'', the ''Left 4 Dead'' series, and ''

Half-Life 2 ''Half-Life 2'' is a 2004 first-person shooter game developed by Valve. It was published by Valve through its distribution service Steam. Like the original ''Half-Life'' (1998), ''Half-Life 2'' combines shooting, puzzles, and storytelling, and ...

''. On June 27, 2012, Valve released a free, open beta version of SFM via

Steam Steam is a substance containing water in the gas phase, and sometimes also an aerosol of liquid water droplets, or air. This may occur due to evaporation or due to boiling, where heat is applied until water reaches the enthalpy of vaporization ...

Overview

Source Filmmaker is a tool for animating, editing, and rendering 3D animated videos using assets from different games which use the Source platform, including sounds, models, and backdrops. SFM also allows for the creation of still images, art, and posters. SFM provides three different user interfaces and a "work camera" for previewing an active scene. The three interfaces are used for creating clips, controlling animation, and fine-tuned adjustments which include: *The Clip Editor; for recording, editing, and arranging shots. They hold the user's recorded gameplay and virtual assets. It also allows the user to place and arranges sound files and video filters. *The Motion Editor; for motion adjustments over time, such as blending two animations. Users can also use motion presets to select paths, and manipulate different scene objects, play clips in different times, and puppeteer the characters in different positions and frames. *The Graph Editor; for editing motion by creating keyframes that can be used for pose-to-pose animation. Users can either create new projects or import data from Source-based games to extend their SFM animations, with the ability to record and edit the same screen endlessly. Additionally, SFM supports a wide range of

cinematographic Cinematography (from ancient Greek κίνημα, ''kìnema'' "movement" and γράφειν, ''gràphein'' "to write") is the art of motion picture (and more recently, electronic video camera) photography. Cinematographers use a lens to foc ...

effects and techniques such as

motion blur Motion blur is the apparent streaking of moving objects in a photograph or a sequence of frames, such as a film or animation. It results when the image being recorded changes during the recording of a single exposure, due to rapid movement or lo ...

Tyndall effect The Tyndall effect is light scattering by particles in a colloid or in a very fine suspension. Also known as Tyndall scattering, it is similar to Rayleigh scattering, in that the intensity of the scattered light is inversely proportional to the ...

dynamic lighting Computer graphics lighting is the collection of techniques used to simulate light in computer graphics scenes. While lighting techniques offer flexibility in the level of detail and functionality available, they also operate at different levels of ...

, and

depth of field The depth of field (DOF) is the distance between the nearest and the furthest objects that are in acceptably sharp focus in an image captured with a camera. Factors affecting depth of field For cameras that can only focus on one object dist ...

. Users can also rig 3D characters and can use

inverse kinematics In computer animation and robotics, inverse kinematics is the mathematical process of calculating the variable joint parameters needed to place the end of a kinematic chain, such as a robot manipulator or animation character's skeleton, in a g ...

to manually animate movements that do not already exist in the games they imported assets from.

Production and updates

Pre-release

SFM was developed internally at Valve in 2005 and forked from the in-game demo playback tool found in Source. SFM was successfully used to make '' Day of Defeat: Source'' trailers with experimental effects that could not be achieved in real-time. The tool's full potential was finally realized with the release of ''

The Orange Box ''The Orange Box'' is a video game compilation containing five games developed and published by Valve. Two of the games included, ''Half-Life 2'' and its first stand-alone expansion, '' Episode One'', had previously been released as separate ...

'', particularly with the ''Meet the Team'' featurettes for ''

''. This version of SFM, which ran using Source's in-game tools framework, was unintentionally leaked during the public beta of ''Team Fortress 2'' in September 2007. By 2010, the entire interface was re-implemented using

Qt 4 The latest version of Qt is 6.5 released on 3 April 2023. Also still supported, for commercial users, are 5.15 LTS, released on 26 May 2020, and 6.2 LTS, released on 30 September 2021 – long-term support (LTS) versions are generally supported f ...

, and given its own engine branch for further development. Before SFM was released to the public, ''Team Fortress 2'' carried a simplified version of SFM known as the "Replay Editor," which was limited to capturing the actual events occurring throughout a player's life. It provided no ability to modify actions, repeat segments, or apply special effects beyond those already used in-game. However, arbitrary camera angles were possible, such as tracking the movements of other players in action at the time. The Replay Editor also allowed users to upload completed videos to

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

Beta versions

On June 27, 2012, SFM became available on a limited basis through Steam, the same day the final Meet the Team video "Meet the Pyro" was released. The open beta for

Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...

was released . On April 1, 2013, Valve implemented support for the

Steam Workshop Steam is a video game digital distribution service and storefront by Valve. It was launched as a software client in September 2003 as a way for Valve to provide automatic updates for their games, and expanded to distributing and offering third ...

, which allows users to upload their own custom-made assets onto the Steam community. These assets range from video game models and sound to animation project files. An SFM port to the

Source 2 Source 2 is a video game engine developed by Valve. The engine was announced in 2015 as the successor to the original Source engine, with the first game to use it, ''Dota 2'', being ported from Source that same year. Since then, Valve's '' Artif ...

game engine was released on May 15, 2020, alongside the development tools for '' Half-Life: Alyx''.

References

External links