Quantcast
Channel: SFM Official Blog
Viewing all 177 articles
Browse latest View live
↧

Plum Blossoms - And Dinosaurs!

September 4, 2014, 4:00 pm
$
0
0


Today we're excited to be able to share a double DLC update with you! First, the Blade Symphony folks have fleshed out their DLC with some beautiful new environments, props and music. There are now snow-covered pagodas, eastern temples, western castles, and even a near-future shopping mall for your virtual location scout to explore. They're also sharing music by their composer Tom Stoffel, so you have new options for music under their media monetization policy.

We're also adding a new DLC today, from the fine folks at Dino D-Day, the World War II first person shooter - with dinosaurs! So now you can give your video that extra oomph - with dinosaurs! They're releasing all of their weapons and player models (including dinosaurs!) under the same style of usage policy as the other DLC in the SFM. So if you've been wanting to give the Pyro a pet T-rex, or have the Soldier wrestle an archaosaur, now's your chance! Get animating!


↧
Search

Let's Begin Again

September 10, 2014, 4:52 pm
$
0
0

As the last of our content pack DLC before the run-up to the Saxxy Awards, we're thrilled to be able to share assets from The Stanley Parable. If you haven't played it, we can't tell you what it's about without spoiling it. Well, we can probably tell you that The Stanley Parable is a game about games. Or rather, in some ways, it's not really a game at all. Or perhaps it's the game that is the most aware of being a game. Or... Well, we've already said too much. All we can say is that it's now available as a DLC from within Source Filmmaker, and that it's under a similar video monetization policy as the rest of the content pack DLCs.

One other thing that we definitely can tell you is that we're very excited for the upcoming Saxxy Awards. We know that many of you are madly making series of final changes punctuated by over-night renders, so we've posted some information on the wiki that we've found helpful when optimizing render time to get those long renders to be a little more manageable.

↧
↧

Now Accepting Submissions For The Fourth Annual Saxxy Awards!

September 16, 2014, 4:00 pm
$
0
0

You can now submit your entries for the Fourth Annual Saxxy Awards!

We can't wait to see everything that you've all created, but before you submit, here are a few reminders and clarifications.

While the deadline is Wednesday, September 24th at 4PM PDT, we strongly urge you to submit early versions, both to guard against your internet connection going down on the last day, and to give yourself time to make any changes after reviewing the uploaded video. (Found in the Videos tab of your Steam Community profile.)

Note that the deadline is the time at which entries must be FINISHED with the submission process, not the time at which they start. So give yourself plenty of time for the upload process, just to be safe.

If your entry uses music or other intellectual property (IP) that wasn't created by Valve or part of an SFM downloadable content pack, don't forget to provide links to the included work in the description for your submission. For workshop items, you can generate the list of used items in your session within the SFM via Show Used Workshop Items under the File -> Community submenu. While you should provide links to used workshop items, you don't need explicit permission from the creators, since it is implicitly granted by submission to the workshop.

Once your entry has been submitted, please add your co-authors as contributors. Remember that only people who worked directly on the entry are considered contributors. If you used workshop items in your entry, the creators should only be considered contributors if they created those items specifically for this entry.

Lastly, remember that entries must be free of advertisements, otherwise they will be disqualified.

So with that out of the way, let the submissions begin!

UPDATE: We were having some configuration issues with the submission process, but they're fixed now. If you tried to submit a video, you will need to resubmit. Sorry for the inconvenience...

↧

New tutorial: Particles

September 6, 2012, 10:09 am
$
0
0


With the announcement of the second annual Saxxy Awards, we're guessing there are lots of you who will be going all out to make your entries shine. In order to help you accomplish this, we'll be releasing more tutorials in the coming weeks to delve further into the SFM's functionality and present some useful tips to help get the results you're looking for. First up -- particles! We'll show you the best way to browse for what you're looking for, and also how to alter particles to change their effects in any way you want. Here you go!

↧

Kickstarting SFM

September 14, 2012, 1:29 pm
$
0
0


One of our early beta testers, Brandon Fayette, has officially become the first successfully funded Kickstarter Source Filmmaker project. It's a great example of what you can do with the SFM using your own, non-Valve assets. We're looking forward to seeing how Dome turns out!
↧
↧

New tutorial: Pose-To-Pose Animation

October 4, 2012, 3:13 pm
$
0
0


We've been really impressed with everyone's work as folks have been coming up to speed animating characters in the SFM. After the initial 12 tutorials, we've received a lot of requests to help beginners animate characters. So here's part one of our crash course in animating in the SFM! It doesn't cover everything, but it's a good place to start. Let us know what you think!

↧

Saxxy Contest Rules Update

October 5, 2012, 11:19 am
$
0
0

In just under a month, we'll start accepting entries for shorts made with the Source Filmmaker, Valve's filmmaking tool. You'll be able to submit in five different categories (Best Action, Best Drama, Best Comedy, Best Original Universe and now Best Replay) with the hope of taking home a Saxxy at the star-studded Second Annual Saxxy Awards. So if you've got an SFM opus in you, crack those knuckles and get creating — November 1st'll be here in no time.


Also, a couple of quick changes for entrants:

We've Added a Replay Category

The Source Filmmaker is the perfect resource for creators looking to dramatize the TF2 mercenaries' off-hours — but after we announced the Saxxy rules, we realized we'd under-represented some of the great dramatic, comedic or just plain violently entertaining moments in-game. So we've added a new category to celebrate all the creators out there who'd rather make their movie magic on the battlefield.

You Can Use Non-SFM Tools for Post-Production

Because the SFM didn't ship with a few post-production features, like titling and transitions, we've decided to let people use other effects and editing tools for this year's contest.

Remember, though, that nothing makes us happier than people using and giving feedback on the SFM. We want this tool to keep getting better and better, and to do that, we'll need creative folks like you pushing the SFM in new directions.



↧

Pose-To-Pose Animation Part 2

October 18, 2012, 1:00 pm
$
0
0


For part 2 of our pose-to-pose tutorial, let's go a little deeper into "blocking". We'll start from the single pose we created in part 1, and then block in a simple performance. Because we're covering a lot of ground today, this tutorial is a bit longer and a lot more in depth than part 1. So let's get started!

↧
Search

They're waiting for you, Gordon, in the test chamberrrr.

August 18, 2014, 2:06 pm
$
0
0


Ten years ago, a group of ambitious and talented volunteers decided to recreate and reimagine the original Half Life on the (at the time) brand new Source game engine. Two years ago, they released the first section of Black Mesa, which was subsequently greenlit by the Steam community. Today, we're excited to announce that they're sharing their assets with you, the Source Filmmaker community! The Black Mesa DLC includes maps, models, sounds, and particles, and is available under the same usage policy as the other DLC in the SFM.

So if you've been wanting to return to the world of Black Mesa, back when humanity still controlled its own fate but vortigaunts were still slaves of the Nihilanth, get going! We can't wait to see why houndeyes make better pets than debeaked head crabs, or watch the events that led to Eli Vance losing his leg!

↧
↧

"You know what I don't hate? This." -Francis

August 27, 2014, 1:57 pm
$
0
0


Today we're releasing our latest DLC, the Left 4 Dead Content Pack! It contains the props, infected and all eight survivors from Left 4 Dead 2, including The Passing and The Sacrifice. We're also releasing music and voice, including all of the stems that were used to dynamically compose the distinctive music for Left 4 Dead. So now you can compose your own soundtrack out of those little snippets of oboe, banjo, saw and vocals to create something recognizably Left 4 Dead but also uniquely your own!

Both the SFM and L4D communities have been asking for this for a while, so we expect great things! Start the download from the Downloadable Content item in the File menu of the SFM, and get animating!


↧

Plum Blossoms - And Dinosaurs!

September 4, 2014, 4:00 pm
$
0
0


Today we're excited to be able to share a double DLC update with you! First, the Blade Symphony folks have fleshed out their DLC with some beautiful new environments, props and music. There are now snow-covered pagodas, eastern temples, western castles, and even a near-future shopping mall for your virtual location scout to explore. They're also sharing music by their composer Tom Stoffel, so you have new options for music under their media monetization policy.

We're also adding a new DLC today, from the fine folks at Dino D-Day, the World War II first person shooter - with dinosaurs! So now you can give your video that extra oomph - with dinosaurs! They're releasing all of their weapons and player models (including dinosaurs!) under the same style of usage policy as the other DLC in the SFM. So if you've been wanting to give the Pyro a pet T-rex, or have the Soldier wrestle an archaosaur, now's your chance! Get animating!


↧

Let's Begin Again

September 10, 2014, 4:52 pm
$
0
0

As the last of our content pack DLC before the run-up to the Saxxy Awards, we're thrilled to be able to share assets from The Stanley Parable. If you haven't played it, we can't tell you what it's about without spoiling it. Well, we can probably tell you that The Stanley Parable is a game about games. Or rather, in some ways, it's not really a game at all. Or perhaps it's the game that is the most aware of being a game. Or... Well, we've already said too much. All we can say is that it's now available as a DLC from within Source Filmmaker, and that it's under a similar video monetization policy as the rest of the content pack DLCs.

One other thing that we definitely can tell you is that we're very excited for the upcoming Saxxy Awards. We know that many of you are madly making series of final changes punctuated by over-night renders, so we've posted some information on the wiki that we've found helpful when optimizing render time to get those long renders to be a little more manageable.

↧

Now Accepting Submissions For The Fourth Annual Saxxy Awards!

September 16, 2014, 4:00 pm
$
0
0

You can now submit your entries for the Fourth Annual Saxxy Awards!

We can't wait to see everything that you've all created, but before you submit, here are a few reminders and clarifications.

While the deadline is Wednesday, September 24th at 4PM PDT, we strongly urge you to submit early versions, both to guard against your internet connection going down on the last day, and to give yourself time to make any changes after reviewing the uploaded video. (Found in the Videos tab of your Steam Community profile.)

Note that the deadline is the time at which entries must be FINISHED with the submission process, not the time at which they start. So give yourself plenty of time for the upload process, just to be safe.

If your entry uses music or other intellectual property (IP) that wasn't created by Valve or part of an SFM downloadable content pack, don't forget to provide links to the included work in the description for your submission. For workshop items, you can generate the list of used items in your session within the SFM via Show Used Workshop Items under the File -> Community submenu. While you should provide links to used workshop items, you don't need explicit permission from the creators, since it is implicitly granted by submission to the workshop.

Once your entry has been submitted, please add your co-authors as contributors. Remember that only people who worked directly on the entry are considered contributors. If you used workshop items in your entry, the creators should only be considered contributors if they created those items specifically for this entry.

Lastly, remember that entries must be free of advertisements, otherwise they will be disqualified.

So with that out of the way, let the submissions begin!

UPDATE: We were having some configuration issues with the submission process, but they're fixed now. If you tried to submit a video, you will need to resubmit. Sorry for the inconvenience...

↧
↧

Vote For The Fourth Annual Saxxy Awards!

September 23, 2014, 3:01 pm
$
0
0


It's that time again! Time for you, the community, to help decide which videos are truly the best of the best! Remember that in addition to helping choose the best videos, you're also helping to find the videos that violate the rules for the Saxxy Awards.

If you've submitted a video, make sure you've included links to any music or other assets you didn't create yourself, and double-check that you've removed any YouTube ads from your submission!

The voting period ends at 11:59PM PDT on Monday, September 29th. So submitters, you have until then to finalize your contributors; voters, you have until then to help decide which videos will win a coveted Saxxy Award!

Nominees will be revealed on September 30th and winners of this year's Saxxy Awards will be revealed on October 1st. So get voting!

↧

Announcing the 2014 Saxxy Awards Nominees!

September 30, 2014, 2:06 pm
$
0
0

We laughed. We cheered. We cried. Some of us wouldn't stop crying, and it got awkward. Then we laughed and cheered again.

We say this every year, but we were blown away at the quality and inventiveness of this year's entries. And now we're proud to present the absolute best of best from the 2014 Saxxy Awards. Check out the nominees here.

Of course, as with any contest, not everyone can win. But that doesn't mean they aren't worthy of recognition. Below, some fantastic entries that just barely missed the cut:

Best Late Entry
"Defuse on The Fly"

Best Five-Minutes-Exactly Piece
"Wanted Warehouse"

Best Original Character
"Cubey"

Best Crossover
"The C4 Courier"

Best Tackling of a Serious Subject
"Behind the Mask"

↧
Search

The Winners of the 2014 Saxxy Awards!

October 1, 2014, 1:45 pm
$
0
0

It was one of the tightest Saxxy races we've ever had, with a lot of heated debate here at Valve. But even with so many great entries, it's still a contest, and someone's got to win.

Luckily, someone did! Announcing the winners of the 2014 Saxxy Awards! Head over and check them out. All winners will get an exclusive, highly rare in-game Saxxy Award, and The Overall Winner's getting flown out to Seattle to spend some time with us here at Valve.

↧

Import / Export

November 6, 2014, 3:00 pm
$
0
0

Our friends over at Mixamo have been busy adding SFM support to Fuse, their character creation tool on Steam. Read more about the new SFM export feature, watch the tutorial, and see how SFM community members lent their expertise to the folks at Mixamo for this update!

We haven't been completely idle ourselves, and after seeing multiple reqeusts for help on how to make characters run along animated paths instead of in a straight line, we've updated Import Sequence to make this easier. We've added an option "Root Drives Pose Params" to the Import Sequence dialog that allows you to animate the rootTransform of your character, and the SFM will figure out how to animate the move_x and move_y pose parameters to make the character animate along that path. Don't forget that the Steady preset is a great way of smoothing out motion speed while keeping the path intact, and have fun making guys run in circles!

↧
↧

End Of The Line

December 10, 2014, 2:19 pm
$
0
0

We just watched End Of The Line for the 100th time in a row, and it occurred to us that it was theoretically possible that someone in the SFM community wasn't yet aware of their fantastic short. If that's you, then you owe it to yourself to go watch it right now. If that's not you, then you've probably already stopped reading this to go watch it again, and we don't blame you. Congratulations to the End Of The Line team on an amazing, action-packed short!

↧

Source Filmmaker Reborn

June 17, 2015, 2:45 pm
$
0
0

Source Filmmaker is being reborn in the Dota universe! The new SFM will be included in the Dota 2 Reborn Beta, and will work natively with Dota 2 and Dota's custom games. This includes recording gameplay, new Dota-specific features, and integration with the new Source 2 engine and all the latest tools. We're incredibly excited to make creating Dota movies much easier, and are looking forward to both growing the SFM community with folks from the Dota 2 workshop community, as well as expanding the choices for the existing community!

While there are a bunch of exciting new features in the new engine, new tools, and the new SFM, there will also be some missing features as well. Check out the wiki to see all the differences that are coming with the Dota 2 SFM. Since this is a beta, you should expect less polish and more bugs for the time being, but you can also expect a more frequent update cycle than the SFM has seen recently. The new SFM is 64-bit only, so while it will allow you to create longer movies and more intricate worlds, it will also require a 64-bit version of Windows to run.

For those of you who live and love Team Fortress 2, don't worry - the standalone SFM you know and love isn't going away, and it's still the best place to create shorts in the Team Fortress universe. It will also continue to have the workshop with the greatest variety of contributions, and remain the best place to create shorts in all the other universes we've released DLC packs for - including Day Of Defeat, Blade Symphony, Portal, Black Mesa, Left 4 Dead, Dino D-Day, and The Stanley Parable.

So get back to making movies - and while you're waiting for your renders to complete, download the new Dota 2 Reborn beta, and check out what's new in the SFM Reborn!

↧

The Fifth Annual Saxxy Awards!

August 21, 2015, 2:35 pm
$
0
0

It's our favorite time of year again! It's time to announce this year's Saxxy Awards, and lay out the rules and deadlines for submissions. We're especially excited to find out how the mix of universes for entries this year is affected by both the release of the SFM within the Dota 2 Reborn Beta and the Dota 2 Short Film Contest.

We're mixing up the categories again this year, to encourage more of you to submit entries. (and encourage the overachievers among you to submit more entries!) The Action, Comedy and Drama categories are all changing to have a 3 minute limit, and there will be a new Extended category that has the 5 minute limit from prior years. We believe that there are a great many stories to be told in the new 3 minute format, and we hope to see more of them by adding categories in the gap that existed between 1 and 5 minutes.

On a more technical note, we're also changing the way that submissions are uploaded, so you upload your entries directly to YouTube, and add them to your Steam profile, instead of uploading through the SFM. The submission deadline is November 11th, but once again, we'd like to remind you that you can upload non-final versions up to a week in advance of the final deadline, to guard against last-minute computer failures, internet outages, YouTube login problems, etc. Check the guidelines for details on the rules and deadlines, and get your entries ready!

↧
Viewing all 177 articles
Browse latest View live
Search