From Valve Developer Community

The Source Filmmaker

The Source Filmmaker Beta (2012) is a powerful tool that works with the Source engine 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 TF2 map—whether it's one that Valve released or one that you modded yourself. You can use the SFM's large library of maps, models, animations, objects, sounds, and effects, or you can import your own. 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 6000 items to download! So now, even if you aren't a professional when it comes to 3D modeling or just 3D in general, you can make animated shorts of many other games with the graph or motion editor.

Source Filmmaker is the movie-making tool built and used by Valve to make movies inside the Source game engine. It's how we've been making all of our animated short movies. 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 UI, this is a very powerful and complex tool without a lot of safeguards. Think of it like a tractor: it doesn't have railings 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.

Official animated shorts created with SFM

Valve





Title Date Game Ref. Robotic Boogaloo May 17, 2013 Team Fortress 2 Robotic Boogaloo End Of The Line December 8, 2014 Team Fortress 2 End Of The Line Invasion October 6, 2015 Team Fortress 2 Invasion

The Robotic Boogaloo update to Team Fortress 2 was the first ever 100% community-created update for the game. [1] The video was written by The Heartsman and animated by MrPopulus89.[2] The video was then featured by Valve on TeamFortress.com for the update's main page.

While End Of the Line was made by Violet McVinnie and her team, [3] Valve took interest in the project after a short trailer uploaded on August 28, 2013 [4] and allowed McVinnie to make a community update [5] centered around the video. The video itself was directed by McVinnie and features animation by Luke "Walker" Murray.[6]

The Invasion Update for Team Fortress 2 was released on October 6, 2015, as the third 100% community-created update for the game.[7] 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.[8]

See also