Creating Animated Short Films with Source Filmmaker (SFM)

Introduction

• Presenter: Bay Raitt
• Focus: Using Team Fortress 2's 3D world to create an animated short film via Source Filmmaker (SFM)

Getting Started with SFM

1. Launching SFM:

   • Setup window appears upon first launch.
   • Options to open a recent session, create a new session, or browse for an existing session.
   • Action: Create a new session by clicking "Create."

2. Initial UI Setup:

   • Three windows displayed:
     • Animation Set Editor
     • Primary viewport
     • Timeline
   • Red text "NO MAP LOADED" indicates no map is currently loaded.

3. Loading a Map:

   • Right-click in the viewport and choose "Load Map."
   • Filter options available by mod (default: all).
   • Search for a specific map (e.g., type "moun" to find "cp_mountainlab").
   • Click "Open" to load the selected map.

4. User Interface Elements:

   • Game timer: shows elapsed game time.
   • Memory footprint: current memory usage (e.g., 1300 MB).
   • Frames per second (FPS) display.

Setting Up the Camera

• Creating a Camera:

  • Default shot has no camera; click "No Camera" button.
  • Choose "Change Scene Camera" > "New Camera."
  • Camera is now labeled as "camera1."

• Camera Movement Controls:

  • Basic Movement:
    • W, A, S, D for movement (forward, left, backward, right).
    • Z for up, X for down.
    • R key for roll, mouse wheel to zoom in/out.
  • Advanced Movement:
    • Ctrl key to slow down motion, Shift key to accelerate.
    • Alt key with mouse to orbit, pan, and dolly (e.g., Alt+left-drag to orbit).

• Utilizing the Work Camera:

  • Copy current view to work camera by holding Ctrl and clicking the camera button.
  • Toggle between work camera and scene camera without losing the original view (Ctrl+left-click to copy).

Working with Time

• Timeline Navigation:

  • Scrub time using the playhead by dragging left or right.
  • Spacebar plays the shot; Ctrl+Spacebar reviews the shot once and returns to current frame.
  • Up arrow to go to the start of the shot; down arrow to go to the end.
  • Click and drag the playhead to pan the view without changing time.

• Playback Controls:

  • Options for playback, loop, and bounce available in timeline settings.

Final Tips

• Practice camera movements and timeline controls to get comfortable.
• Save Work: Remember to hit Ctrl+S to save your progress.

Next Steps

• In the next tutorial, learn how to add elements into the shot.