Source Filmmaker

Source Filmmaker ▶ Source 2 Filmmaker

Source Filmmaker

Developer(s)

Valve Corporation

Publisher(s)

Valve Corporation

Release date(s)

July 11, 2012

Platform(s)

Windows

Engine

Source (Alien Swarm branch)

Steam AppID

1840

Written in

C++

Mod support

Yes (Steam Workshop)

SDK

Source Filmmaker SDK

Distribution

Steam

Official website

Official Website (no longer updated)

Links

Steam page
Workshop page

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Source Filmmaker is a powerful engine tool, running on the Alien Swarm engine branch of Source to create a flexible, modifiable 3D recording that can be exported as a movie or as a still image. The 3D recording you create in SFM can contain recorded gameplay, objects, cameras, lights, particles, animations, effects, and sounds—and the motion information for how each element changes over time.

With Source Filmmaker, you can essentially film "on location" in your favorite Team Fortress 2 map whether it's one that Valve released or one that you modded yourself. You can use SFM's large library of maps, models, animations, objects, sounds, and effects, or you can import your own from the Steam Workshop. Because you're working with a virtual world, and your recording stores all the 3D motion data about every element, you can modify any aspect of the recording at any time, which makes it easy to make the kinds of last-minute changes that would be extremely expensive in a live-action studio.

The Source Filmmaker Workshop is bigger than ever with over 16.000 items to download! So now, even if you aren't a professional when it comes to 3D modeling, you can still make animated shorts with the graph or motion editor. Valve has also released many "content packs" for Source Filmmaker that allow users to utilize assets from other Source games easier.

Source Filmmaker is the movie-making tool built and used by Valve to make movies inside the Source game engine. By using the hardware rendering of a modern PC gaming machine, SFM allows storytellers to work in a "what you see is what you get" environment so that they can iterate in the context of what it will feel like for the final audience.

There is a caveat, though: despite the deceptively simple-looking UI, Source Filmmaker is a very powerful and complex tool without a lot of safeguards. Think of it like a tractor: it doesn't have handrails or a lot of padding like you might find in a normal app or game. We recommend that you watch the video tutorials first and then read the documentation to familiarize yourself with the tool as much as possible before you dive in.

There are two distinct releases of SFM:

Source Filmmaker

The original version of SFM, running on the Alien Swarm engine branch of Source, with Team Fortress 2 content included. This version can be downloaded on Steam.

Source 2 Filmmaker

The Source 2 version of SFM, it is only obtainable in:

Counter-Strike 2, Dota 2, Half-Life: Alyx and SteamVR Home Workshop Tools.

History

Source Filmmaker was accidentally released in 2007 during Team Fortress 2's beta prior to the game being released with the SFM tools completely removed (or disabled). Due to its popularity and people using the pirated version of TF2's Beta (which was outdated) to access SFM, Valve planned to publicly make SFM available to all users. In 2012, Source Filmmaker was later officially released for free, which now runs on the Alien Swarm engine branch, and the tools UI is now rendered using Qt instead of VGUI.

In 2015, with the Dota 2 Reborn update currently in Beta. Dota 2 engine was updated to the Source 2 engine, Source 2 Filmmaker was later made available.

Official Valve Shorts

Source Filmmaker for Source

Title	Date	Featured Game	Notes
Day Of Defeat: Prelude To Victory (SFM Post)	2005-12-09	Day of Defeat: Source	SFM Team / Valve Corporation, published 23 May 2013, retrieved 28 May 2013.
Meet The Heavy	2007-05-14	Team Fortress 2	Valve Corporation, retrieved 5 January 2013.
Meet The Soldier	2007-08-22	Team Fortress 2	Valve Corporation, retrieved 6 January 2013.
Meet the Engineer	2007-09-11	Team Fortress 2	Valve Corporation, retrieved 6 January 2013.
Meet the Demoman	2007-10-09	Team Fortress 2	Valve Corporation, retrieved 6 January 2013.
Meet The Scout	2008-04-19	Team Fortress 2	Valve Corporation, retrieved 6 January 2013.
Meet the Sandvich	2008-08-19	Team Fortress 2	Valve Corporation, published 19 January 2009, retrieved 6 January 2013.
Meet the Sniper	2008-06-07	Team Fortress 2	Valve Corporation, retrieved 6 January 2013.
Left 4 Dead Intro Clip	2008-11-02	Left 4 Dead	Valve Corporation, published 2 November 2008, retrieved 6 January 2013.
Meet the Spy	2009-05-18	Team Fortress 2	Valve Corporation, retrieved 6 January 2013.
Left 4 Dead 2 Teaser Trailer	2009-06-01	Left 4 Dead 2	Valve Corporation, retrieved 6 January 2013.
Left 4 Dead 2 Batter Up	2009-10-28	Left 4 Dead 2	Valve Corporation, retrieved 6 January 2013.
Left 4 Dead 2 Trailer - Zombie Survival Guide	2009-11-17	Left 4 Dead 2	Leaked Left 4 Dead 2 Trailer, later used as in-game Intro, with minor changes.
Half-Life 2 on OS X - Free Yourself	2010-05-26	Half-Life 2	Valve Corporation, retrieved 20 December 2012. A parody of the 1984 Apple's Macintosh Commercial.
Portal 2 - Full Co-op Trailer	2010-09-10	Portal 2	Valve Corporation, retrieved 6 January 2013.
Portal 2 Co-op Intro trailer	2011-02-18	Portal 2	Valve Corporation, published 18 February 2011, retrieved 6 January 2013.
Portal 2 TV Spot	2011-03-18	Portal 2	Valve Corporation, published 18 March 2011, retrieved 6 January 2013.
Aperture Investment Opportunity #1: "Panel"	2011-03-24	Portal 2	Valve Corporation, published 24 March 2011, retrieved 6 January 2013.
Aperture Investment Opportunity #2: "Bot Trust"	2011-03-28	Portal 2	Valve Corporation, published 28 March 2011,|retrieved 6 January 2013.
Aperture Investment Opportunity #3: "Turrets"	2011-04-05	Portal 2	Valve Corporation, published 5 April 2011, retrieved 6 January 2013.
Aperture Investment Opportunity #4: "Boots"	2011-04-12	Portal 2	Valve Corporation, published 12 April 2011, retrieved 6 January 2013.
Portal 2 ending cutscenes	2011-04-19	Portal 2	Turret Opera, Wheatley epilogue, and Co-op ending.
Portal 2: Perfect 10	2011-04-29	Portal 2	Valve Corporation, published 29 April 2011, retrieved 6 January 2013.
Meet the Medic	2011-06-23	Team Fortress 2	Valve Corporation, retrieved 6 January 2013.
Dota 2 Gamescom Trailer	2011-08-15	Dota 2	Valve Corporation, published 15 August 2011, retrieved 6 January 2013.
Portal 2 Peer Review DLC "Art Therapy" ending video	2011-10-04	Portal 2	Valve Corporation, published 2 March 2012, retrieved 19 June 2014.
Wheatley's Nomination Speech for the VGA Best Character Award	2011-12-20	Portal 2	Valve Corporation, published 20 December 2011, retrieved 6 January 2013.
Wheatley's Acceptance Speech for the VGA Best Character Award	2011-12-20	Portal 2	Valve Corporation, published 20 December 2011, retrieved 6 January 2013.
Meet The Pyro	2012-06-27	Team Fortress 2	Valve Corporation, published 27 June 2012, retrieved 24 November 2012.
Mann vs. Machine Trailer	2012-08-13	Team Fortress 2	Valve Corporation, published 13 August 2012, retrieved 24 November 2012.
Dota 2: Diretide	2012-10-30	Dota 2	Valve Corporation, published 30 October 2012, retrieved 30 October 2012.
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Trailer	2012-08-17	Counter-Strike: Global Offensive	Valve Corporation, retrieved 18 November 2012, published 17 August 2012.
The Second Annual Saxxy Awards are HERE! (Almost)	2012-11-28	Team Fortress 2	Valve Corporation, published 28 November 2012, retrieved 31 January 2013.
Dota 2 - The Greeviling	2012-12-19	Dota 2	published 19 December 2012, retrieved 19 December 2012.
Mann vs. Machine: The Sound of Medicine	2013-11-21	Team Fortress 2	published 21 November 2013. retrieved 28 December 2013.
Expiration Date	2014-06-17	Team Fortress 2
Jungle Inferno	2017-10-16	Team Fortress 2
CS:GO - Operation Broken Fang	2020-12-03	Counter-Strike: Global Offensive

Source Filmmaker for Source 2 (S2FM)

Todo: List the footage that might be made with S2FM here.

Valve-sponsored Shorts

Title	Date	Game	Notes
Robotic Boogaloo	2013-05-17	Team Fortress 2	The Robotic Boogaloo update to Team Fortress 2 was the first ever 100% community-created update for the game. The video is credited to the writer The Heartsman and the animator MrPopulus89. The video was then featured by Valve on TeamFortress.com for the update's main page.
End Of The Line	2014-12-08	Team Fortress 2	While End Of the Line was made by Violet McVinnie and her team. Valve took interest in the project after a short trailer uploaded on 28. August 2013 and allowed McVinnie to make a community update centered around the video. The video itself was directed by McVinnie and features animation by Luke "Walker" Murray.
Invasion	2015-10-06	Team Fortress 2	The Invasion Update for Team Fortress 2 was released on 6. October 2015, as the third 100% community-created update for the game. It features a Source Filmmaker video animated by Brent "CobaltGemini" Kennedy and Harry Callaghan (who also did post-production work and sound design), produced by Jayson "The Ronin" De Castro, and features original voice work by Cameron Nichols and Sandra Espinoza.

Usage

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User Interface

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See also

• Source Filmmaker SDK
• Source 2 Filmmaker
• Category:Source Filmmaker

External links

• Official Website
• Steam Store page
• Steam Workshop page