Source Filmmaker

Source Filmmaker ▶ Source 2 Filmmaker

Source Filmmaker

Developer(s)

Valve Corporation

Publisher(s)

Valve Corporation

Release date(s)

Jul 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Official Website (no longer updated)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 mistakenly released in 2007 during Team Fortress 2 beta prior to the game being released with the SFM tools completely removed (or disabled). Due to it's popularity and people using pirated version of TF2 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 Alien Swarm engine branch engine branch, and the tools UI are 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