Common issues and questions
Note:The SFM is an internal tool made by Valve for its own animators. While you can do some amazing things with it, it has very few safeguards, and it requires a high-powered computer to run well.Installation and setup
Why can't I run the SFM on my laptop?
The SFM requires a somewhat powerful system to run well. Simply because games such as TF2 and Portal will run on the laptop, does not mean the SFM will. Laptops with embedded graphics chips or small screens are unlikely to be able to run the SFM. For more information about minimum hardware requirements, see Installation. If your laptop has a powerful video chip that is capable of running other 3D software without any problems, check your driver settings; it is possible that it may have incorrectly categorized the SFM as a "low performance" application.
Why does my viewport have a white line across it or look washed out?
If this line appears, your computer does not meet the Source Filmmaker's minimum requirements.
Layout
Click the Reset Layouts option in the Layout section of the Windows menu (Windows -> Layouts -> Reset Layouts).
Why does my camera not move sometimes in the viewport?
The camera might be animated. For more information, see "The scene camera and the viewport," in Cameras overview.
Game mode and movie mode
I exited game mode with Alt+Tab ⇆; how do I get my mouse pointer back?
You have to exit game mode with F11 before you can move your mouse pointer in movie mode.
Can I record gameplay in a game other than TF2?
Not at this time, though there is a Portal 2 IFM available here.
Note:The Portal 2 IFM is not maintained nor supported by Valve.Animation tips
How can I move a gun to the position of a character's hand?
Lock the gun's weapon_bone to the hand, use the Zero preset on the gun's animation, and unlock the gun. For more information, see Working with locks and List of procedural presets.
How can I make a gun follow a hand's existing animation?
Lock the gun to the hand, use the Playhead preset on the gun's animation, and unlock the gun. For more information, see Working with locks and List of procedural presets.
How can I animate the scene camera orbiting around a character?
Select the camera, place the pivot on the character, and use the rotation manipulator to move the camera in a circle around the character. For more information, see The screen manipulator and The rotation manipulator.
How do I create smooth camera motion in the SFM?
You can puppeteer the viewport manipulator with left drag and the WASDZX keys and hitting the spacebar. You must have the animation set for the active camera selected and be in the motion editor with all of time selected for this to work. Afterwards, you can apply the "smooth" preset, or select a custom region of time with falloff and use the "round" preset.
How can I pose the Scout's dogtags or the Soldier's helmet straps?
Many less commonly modified controls are hidden on a variety of models by default. You can see these hidden controls by toggling "Show Hidden Controls" from the options menu in the animation set editor. You can also show and hide selected controls from the context menu.
I want to create facial animation—why can't I see the Phoneme and Emotion tabs?
You may not have imported the "hwm" version of the character model. This is a higher-quality version of the model that is used for facial animation and lip-sync. Try adding a new model, and type "hwm" into the Filter text box at the bottom of the model browser. You'll see a list of all nine TF hwm models. Pick the one you want, and add it to your shot. You should see the Phoneme, Viseme, and Emotion tabs now.
How can I make my movie feel more cinematic?
Try narrowing the field of view using one of the lens presets to mimic a real world lens. Movies are rarely shot with a wide angle lens on every shot.
How can I avoid gimbal lock in the SFM?
In order to avoid gimbal lock in the SFM you must use The Motion Editor to rotate objects. Despite SFM using quaternion rotation, The Graph Editor still calculates rotations using Euler rotation before converting back to quaternion rotation which makes it susceptible to gimbal lock. More specifically, gimbal lock will occur when the Y axis of a bone is set to 90 or 270 degrees.
Content creation
How can I get my models and maps to work with the SFM?
If you want to use additional models or maps, beyond those that come with the SFM, recompile them first. This includes any models or maps from Team Fortress 2, or any other Source game. For information about compiling models, see Compiling a model. For information about compiling maps, see Saving and Compiling.
How do I change a model's materials?
Find the .vmt that the model is using and copy it into your own mod. The way source modding works, any files of the same name and location are used instead of the models in tf or tf_movies so you can tweak it however you want. For more information, see the Material System category.
Can I make maps in the SFM?
The SFM, like many Source games, comes with the Source SDK included. This includes the Hammer map editor, which is used to create maps. To use the SDK, launch the SFM from the Steam library and choose "Launch SDK". For more information on map creation, see Level Design.
Working with shots
Why does my animation stop too soon?
You may need to make your shot longer. For more information, see Manipulating shots.
Audio
How do I import custom audio?
Make sure your audio is a 44.1KHz 16bit .wav file and save it somewhere under your mod/sounds directory. MP3's also work, but they don't scrub well. if you want to extract lip sync from a sound file, make sure there is only voice in the file with no background noise or music.
How do I disable reverb on audio effects?
Put a # in front of your path for the sound in the element viewer, and it will be played regardless of the soundscape the player is currently standing in.
Rendering
I am seeing speckles (noisy shadows), how can I remove them?
What you're seeing is a preview of ambient occlusion, which is a lighting technique that simulates certain aspects of real-world light and shadow. Leaving it on means that your rendered movie will have a more realistic look. But if you want to, you can turn it off in the render settings by right-clicking in the viewport.
Note:To be noticeably smoothed out, ambient occlusion requires at least 64 samples of depth of field.Alternatively, you may disable ambient occlusion by right-clicking in the viewport, clicking "rendering settings", and un-ticking Ambient Occlusion. This will have the benefit of increasing the framerate of the viewports, as well as decreasing rendering times.
Why don't I see the option to render at 1080p in the export movie dialog?
To render at 1080p, you have to add –sfm_resolution 1080 to your SFM launch options. For more information, see Rendering at 1080p. If you need help setting the launch options, see Setting Game Launch Options.
Why does my poster/video blur the background when rendered, but not in the SFM?
This is caused by camera aperture affecting depth of field. To fix, select the animation set for the primary camera, and move the slider labeled 'aperture' all the way to the left. This will remove the depth of field blur.
Alternatively, right-click within the viewport. Select 'Progressive Refinement' and untick the 'Depth of Field' checkbox.
Note:The second option will cause renders to appear grainy if SSAO is enabled.Sharing your movies
How can I publish my movie to YouTube?
On the File menu, click Sharing, and then click Publish Movie to YouTube and Steam. In the dialog box that comes up, type in your YouTube username and password. If you don't already have a YouTube account, click Create Account. Note that currently, the SFM does not support 2-step verification.
Resources
What are some good resources I can use to learn to animate better?
Check out 12 basic principles of animation, The Illusion of Life, Timing for Animation, and Acting for Animators.
Reporting bugs
How do I report a bug, ask a question, or make a suggestion?
Visit the forums, and if your bug, question, or suggestion is not listed there, you might create a new forum entry. For bugs, you can also file a bug report and send it to [email protected].