Source Filmmaker
Source Filmmaker (often abbreviated as SFM) is a 3D computer graphics software toolset published by Valve for creating animated films, utilizing the Source game engine. Source Filmmaker has been used to create over 50 animated shorts for popular Source games, including "Team Fortress 2", the "Left 4 Dead" series, and "Half-Life 2". On June 27, 2012, Valve released a free, open beta version of SFM to the gaming community via Steam. Overview. Source Filmmaker is a tool for animating, editing, and rendering 3D animated videos using assets from different games which use the Source platform, including sounds , models, and backdrops. SFM also allows for the creation of still images, art, and posters. SFM provides three different user interfaces and a "work camera" that can be used to preview the current scene without altering the other cameras placed in the scene. The three different interfaces are used for creating clips, controlling animation, and fine-tuned adjustment: SFM allows users to record and edit motion, either from scratch or imported from game play. Characters can be recorded many times over in the same scene, creating the illusion of multiple entities. Additionally, SFM supports a wide range of cinematographic effects  and techniques such as motion blur, Tyndall effects, dynamic lighting, and depth of field, while a character's bones can be manually animated to create movements that do not exist in the games the characters are imported from (since most games store a finite set of animations). Production and updates. Pre-release. SFM was developed internally at Valve from 2005, forked from the Source engine's in-game demo playback tool. SFM was successfully used to make "" trailers with experimental effects that could not be achieved in real-time. The tool's full potential was finally realized with the release  of "The Orange Box", particularly with the "Meet the Team" featurettes for "Team Fortress 2". This version of SFM, which ran using Source's in-game tools framework, was inadvertently leaked during the public beta of "TF2" in September 2007. By 2010, the entire interface was re-implemented using Qt 4, and given its own engine branch for further development. Before Source Filmmaker was officially released to the public, "Team Fortress 2" carried a simplified version of SFM known as the Replay Editor, which was limited to capturing the actual events occurring over the course of a player's life  and provided no ability to modify actions, repeat segments, or apply special effects beyond those already used in-game. However, arbitrary camera angles were possible, like tracking the actions of other players in action at the time. The Replay Editor also allowed users to upload completed videos to YouTube. Beta versions. On June 27, 2012, Source Filmmaker became available on a limited-basis through Steam, the same day as the final Meet the Team video, "Meet the Pyro," was released. SFM was released for open beta for Windows . On April 1, 2013, Valve implemented support for the Steam Workshop, which  allows users to upload their own custom-made assets onto the Steam community; these assets range from video game models and sounds to animation project files. A port of Source Filmmaker to the Source 2 engine was released on May 15, 2020 alongside development tools for "".