Source Filmmaker

This is one of, if not the easiest program to get into animation or posters.

The first time I opened up SFM, I was pretty overwhelmed seeing the layout and all the little buttons that I don't even know the purpose of. But once I dove into a few tutorials and eventually made something decent, I got completely hooked.

You can make pretty much anything you can think of in regards to animation.

There are some downsides though. SFM can be pretty limited due to the Source engine. A couple of the biggest problems I have with it is that maps can only be so large.
And lights are only limited to spotlights. They only light up what's infront of them in a cone of light.

Despite the limitations, overall, it's a 10/10 for me.

WTF MY REC STUFF LIKE THE GAME WORLD WINDOW AND THE YOU KNOW WHERE IS THE SCREEN IT SOMEHOW JUST GOT DELETED BY ITSELF I NEED HELP PLZ!!

Shits more unstable than my blood pressure

Very good programm. its not hard than gmod videos.. sfm is easy! its awesome

It's a little confusing at first, but it's like riding a bike: once you get the hang of it, it quickly becomes fun.

Posing and animating is inherently better than Gmod( I still like Gmod though). SFM gives you better precision in making things do what you want.

With a little patience, you can make awesome animations and images. If you can imagine it, chances are you can do it in SFM.

There's a con, though:

Maps and models: not enough. The selection of maps and models are tiny compared to Gmod. On the subject on Gmod, with a little work you can import Gmod models into SFM and they work fairly well when you just focus on posing. Animating, though, is a different story. It requires more work to make it animate correctly compared to the models specifically designed for SFM.

I happen to like it. I just wish it wasn't so slow on my computer. :/

I am going to make SSOOOOOOOOO much bizzare stufff with this

You can animate, pose, and edit. all the things you can do with this. not good at animating? pose. Not good at either? edit. not good at any of these? make your own items. This program CAN be very hard to use. but, with enough time put into it, you'll get the hang of it.

will not download on my computer and nothing ive tried works........ but from what ive seen from my friend who have it it is fanomonal and im relentlessly trying to get it to work ;3

It is a good tool when you get the hang of it. It is made well and grate for making posters and movies

Can't access the program anymore. It stopped working after using it twice. It's still a good animator, but I'm definitely not going to be using it anytime soon, haha.

Seriously though, someone help me.

i do recommend this software to everyone who has experience

People could make full-feature films on this software and instead choose to make porn...

...10/10 Would get scarred again.

I mainly have used this to make posters and other stuff. If I had the time, I would probably start animating.
5/5 program for making posters
5/5 if you can make cool animations.

This Software is one of the best i ever used, i almost used for 2000 hours now, easy to animate, you learn very fast on the start etc 10/10

SUP FOO, yo wanna animate FOO, well this is fo yo FOO, but don't get confused FOO.

very very good and very very cheap

i need help for my firsth sfm animation

I don't know how to use it, but 10/10

Complicated but once you've got it down, you'd might as well never stop continuing.

I may have clicked a x and it made me screen black and I cant make it not black so none of the stuff is there...

looking foward to making animations with this cuz garrys mod is hard animating (kinda) with stop motion helper

In one month I learned everything about it!!!
10,01/10

because if y0u x out accedently you cant fix it

A great tool for animators and even Youtubers or wallpaper creators. Allows so much to be done, has been very intuitive and has great power. A must-have for any people wanting to create 3D animations of their favorite Source games!

Flexible but old, it's designed so anyone can pick up and animate they're favorite game characters with ease, although it's extremely outdated in most capabilites and crashes a ton.
It's not a good program to use in the modern day, but dang, this piece of awful software holds so many near and dear memories of mine that I have to give it a thumbs up, I've lost and gained friends using this piece of software. I'll miss you SFM

Shrek Is Love, Shrek Is Life was made from this. 11/10

is it me or did i get this for shits and giggles

Q&A Section:

Yes, this is still in Beta.
Yes, you /CAN/ make porn with this! (If you know where to get the right models, wink wink)
Yes, there are uses for SFM other than porn.
No, you can't just easily port maps into SFM.
Yes, this game software is basically running a weird version of Team Fortress 2
Yes, animation is a tedious process that will take time to get used to, and is also something that requires patience.
Yes, this program can crash and it will make you upset.
Yes, I recommend you get the best fucking RAM in the world before you start making movies that are longer than two minutes.
No, the SFM workshop is not as big as the Garry's Mod cancer workshop.
Yes, this application is free, but your time is not, and this thing drains your time.

I can't believe I'm saying this, but I think this would work well with Apple products.

I REALLY WISH I COULD USE IT TO THE FULL EXTEND, BUT MAH PC IS SO FRAKIN LAGGY, It's not Valve fault mah pc sucks, Anyway, what I could get out of it, It's a pretty good program :D

The easiest program for animation I have ever used, tottaly recomend. Valve simplified it on the level that every nitkanpoop can use it, don't belive me? Try it yourself.

ok so i opened up sfm and it there was no timeline , veiw point none of it was there can u guys halp?

Source Filmmaker looks simular to MikuMikuDance

Overall great software, however I can't speak for animating as I find it to be way too tedious and irritating. But it is fun to make posters. I am currently learning to use stock animations in an SFM film. Anyways, great software.

The game is good but it keeps not reopening and it is also not a game FYI 😜

It's Really An Easy to Use Software,
You can do so much stuff in it when it comes to making movies and posters in the Team Fortress 2 universe
It give You so much options when animating and you can even make animations for a living,since Valve holds a Saxxy Awards Contest Every Year

I really love this software,i use this for my school Posters and Animation Projects

If you need an easy to use program?

definitely use this,it has characters,models,maps,lights And more

AMAZING PROGRAM TO MAKE ANIMATIONS!!!

Tho could you please make this for Mac??? PLZZ!!!!!!

Great app for people who love Team Fortress 2 and have a great imagination! You can make such great things with this program. Also gives you a head start for learning animation, digital arts and 3D modeling even. There's so much to it, and the artwork is lovely when you get good at using the program.

Even if short and brief, this is a good bit of software. However, despite the amazing videos made with it, I cannot recommend it because it doesn't have platform wide support. I used it in its beta towards the end when it opened up. It was neat but I was also on windows XP. Now I run linux as XP isn't useable anymore. Until there is an official linux and OSX client I cannot recommend it.

Well, linux at least. OSX isn't going to be around much longer.

If you wanted to start 3D animating, but is too lazy to be using Blender or MAYA. Use this, but take my advice.

Try Poster-Making before Animating.

This is an awesome tool, and it allows people to use their mind to make some cool stuff, then again, this is just used to make gay midget porn, but still, it's pretty cool.

keeps crashing tbh

2022 update: still crashing

I am slighty confused on how to use

very good for posters and in genarel a good source to feel creative

4 words.

Best. Animation. Software. ever!

Despite the fact that I don't know how to animate, this software is amazing. It has taught me a lot about posing, lighting, and how to animate (a little). All I know is making posters, but it's still a start, right? Oh, and a couple of things that should be added is the new maps in TF2 and updated tutorials.

Its a nice animation/image maker. I recommend it to others

very good for people ho want to get into game design and making movies.

This is the Beta Version of SFM With Extra Tutorial i Made for my Computer.
but it need to have unlimited (not overload) tree if i were going to make movies!

Good for making pc backgrounds and thumbnail art

i am responsible for 23 warcrimes in september of 2003

this a very good and usefull tool it can be a hard thing to learn at the start but when u learn the basics its should be easy from their so if your hesitating to get this then dont i would say get it beacause its a amazing tool thanks

Needs a lot of polishing but its a great program

you know all those cool TF2 animations and shit that you watch on youtube? yeah, you'd want to try that aswell, wouldn't you?

well, strap yourself in, because that's gonna take like a month to learn, and each animation is probably gonna take 4-5 days. i've never done an animation, but i'd imagine that it would take that long for a beginners animation.

so far all i've done is some posing (made my fucking profile pic using this. it's so fucking nice) and it was fun, for about 2 weeks, then i just got too impatient with all the finger posing and gave up.

it takes a good 30 minutes to get the fingers into place, then when you move it, it all fucks up.

still, if you'd like to make a poster about a guy jumping down from a bridge with a blade in his hand ready to stab some rebel scu- i mean someone, feel free to learn how to do it. that's a really cool idea. i should make that.

8/10. is good for making porn, but annoying as fuck to use.

Here are the steps for source film maker
1. Download it
2. Get hyped thinking I can make an actual good video
3. Watch a tutorial of some british guy going through sh*t to fast
4. Stop watching the video after one minute and think that your a pro
5. Try to spawn in a character
6. Freakout cuz you did something wrong
7. Ask a good pal to help you
8. he ignores you
9. delete the program
10. repeat all steps

I think I had acciddentally broke it, I opened a map and now it stays on that one map and wont load any others

The map I loaded was: character_lighting_map.bsp

I Love It, But i wish it was a bit easier

The amount of quality porn made in this... Praise Gaben

you need an nvsya graphcs card

I love this so far I have only been in it for 1 hour and love it! It's very challenging at first but when u watch the Valve tutorials u will start to get the hang of things. Get it if u want to make movies of ur favorite characters

Really Fun! when your bored this is fun. At First. When You Start. It's hard. But When Your Like Me And You Get To A Standard. It's Great! 10/10 Tool.

It crashed steam when it finished downloading.
then it wouldn't open.
then it crashed steam when I uninstalled it.
still don't know why.

10/10 would crash steam again.

Well, well, well! The only that i can and I would say about this filmmaker is that it is AWESOME AND GORGEUS! Pretty hard to understand the interface of this app, but all mostly that is ok! I did not now that this filmmaker also include game in it and you even do not need to play TF 2! That is actually amazingI'm realy interested in this thing and I already love it so much! If you want to make something new in your life instead of playing TF 2 and making shitty games in Flash Macromedia 8, you can do your own small film! I think this a is a huge experience for starters and other people who are interested in this deal! I'll just give it 10/10! You just have to spend sometime on this) And love it!

It's Hard But You'll Get Used to It,

nice but want to have more easy models dor dragons as I have absolute no idea how to make one or how to import