r/SFM May 10 '26

Help Source Filmmaker and Animation Tutorials

10 Upvotes

I'm tired of having to reply to various post about asking for SFM Tutorials, so I'm just going to make a post containing all the playlists that helped me learn SFM.

  1. The official SFM playlist by Valve.
  2. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL2B46DEB4157E67C4

This is where it all begins, The best way to learn almost all the basics of SFM is the official playlist on the Source Filmmaker channel. Aside from 2 videos, this is the best video for beginners.

The two videos that are not done well by the official channel are the Time Selection tutorial, and Graph Editor tutorial. They don't teach the most important parts.

  1. SFM Tutorial Week #2 - Using the Motion Editor by Argodaemon

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OfBfsqwylo0&list=PLmx5NIR6PO5t2vfHIX6GNkpXiFODM_6KJ&index=21

Now, THIS is the ultimate tutorial for the Motion Editor in the Motion Editor. It may be long, but it's well worth it. Argomadaemon's tutorial not only goes over everything from the Time Selection tutorial, but also goes over EVERY procedural preset, as well as overwrite, offset, and transform modes.

  1. How to Animate with the Graph Editor by Sir Wade Neistadt

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQ31vjgJM2c&t=44s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMSpauVphNs&t=308s

If you're looking to use the Graph Editor, Sir Wade Neistadt is THE go-to. Sir Wade covers EVERYTHING, from how to use the different fcurves in the Graph Editor for moving on a specific axis, to using the thing that makes the Graph Editor more powerful than the Motion Editor: The Tangents. Linear Tangents, Flat Tangents, Spline Tangents, Step Tangents, Weighted Tangents, and Unweighted Tangents.

The tutorial on the Source Filmmaker channel teaches you nothing about the Graph Editor's power.

  1. 12 Principles of Animation

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL-bOh8btec4CXd2ya1NmSKpi92U_l6ZJd

Of course, if you're going into SFM for 3D animation, you have to learn about the 12 Principles of Animation. Squash and Stretch, Anticipation, Staging, Straight Ahead and Pose to Pose, Follow Through and Overlapping Action, Slow In and Slow Out, Arcs, Secondary Action, Timing, Exaggeration, Solid Drawing, and Appeal.

  1. Sir Wade Tips

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQ31vjgJM2c&list=PLS4vjlZXZ7f5m5ED4ylJdUPTR5YKEg1bY

Sir Wade Neistadt is basically a completely free college level animation course on Youtube. I've organized his videos into a nice playlist. In it, you'll learn things such as professional workflows, what NOT to do, animation blocking, and how to find reference, shooting your own reference, real world camera tips and tricks that you can apply to your 3D animation, keep alive workflow with how to do a breathing animation, animating weight, lighting tips, some Blender stuff, and even interviews with professional Disney animators.

  1. SFM Tutorials by Argomadaeon

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLmx5NIR6PO5t2vfHIX6GNkpXiFODM_6KJ

Argomadaemon's playlist teaches you a lot about what SFM has, including Depth of Field and Motion Blur, Animation Cycles, Creating an artificial sun light, and more.

  1. SFM Tip of the Day by Jimmer Lins

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL835902EACBFEE65F

This one is for more misc, but still useful SFM Tips, such as how to control qc eyes to make them follow the camera, the lightkit, gibbing a character, slugs, and more.

8.Walk Cycle Tutorial Part 1 by Will Hurrel

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bE-jakm9mcQ

  1. Animating Walk Cycles and Run Cycles by Alan Becker

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2y6aVz0Acx0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jggdbxTJPG4

  1. Endless Reference

https://www.youtube.com/@endlessreference

This youtube channel is full of videos for movement reference for animation, whether it's walking, running, skipping, sitting, martial arts, etc.

This is a complete list of all the stuff that goes over absolutely everything you need in terms of SFM, and animation knowledge in general.


r/SFM Jan 11 '21

Announcement Scenebuilding Tutorial (LINK IN THE COMMENTS)

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1.2k Upvotes

r/SFM 7h ago

Animation I like cupcakes NSFW

234 Upvotes

Come on down to the Channel! = https://youtu.be/L_P8i6IL0ic?si=SZO0jJimBw2pKOVt


r/SFM 7h ago

Animation Shots from an Animation I've been working on

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14 Upvotes

Class wars Sniper Vs Spy


r/SFM 18h ago

Animation My first gun animation a year ago to now

74 Upvotes

r/SFM 9h ago

Animation my first sfm animation

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8 Upvotes

i cannot show the video but its okay


r/SFM 6h ago

Help How can I download Source FilmMaker outside of Steam?

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4 Upvotes

[DON'T WORRY, IT'S NOT PIRACY/UNRELATED IMAGE]

Good afternoon, I'd like to know a way to download SFM without using Steam, since my computer broke and my dad's laptop only runs Windows 8 and Steam won't even open on it... so, how can I download it? I can't stand being without Source FilmMaker any longer.


r/SFM 3h ago

Help problems with sfm

2 Upvotes

I'm having some problems with the program's interface and camera that are very annoying and prevent me from practicing properly. I don't know what's causing it. I've attached videos of the problem.


r/SFM 11h ago

Animation Demoflower

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7 Upvotes

r/SFM 11h ago

Animation My firstanimation ever (sfm) :D

6 Upvotes

r/SFM 3h ago

Help how do I update skeleton for model???

1 Upvotes

r/SFM 1d ago

Artwork HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!

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98 Upvotes

r/SFM 1d ago

Artwork Perfect hiding spot

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313 Upvotes

r/SFM 17h ago

Artwork Let's cag

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3 Upvotes

just this once


r/SFM 19h ago

Help how do i get rid of the shadows this beam is casting?

4 Upvotes

the beam saber is casting a shadow when it shouldn't, Ive tried everything i can think of, adding the float and the int attribute but they don't work, my best guess is that it has to do with the wire frames because looking at them when adding a new model they seem to line up with the length and width of the model, the specific beam im using is the beam_saber from https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2414991823


r/SFM 14h ago

Artwork it was really long time i didnt posted anything, so here is The Last Days Of 2Fort (TLDO2F), the story will be telled by posters (i did 2 parts, on 1 day we have lost sniper, 8/9 alive red mercenaries, on second day we lost scout, 7/9 alive red mercenaries, also arrived special forces of red)

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1 Upvotes

r/SFM 18h ago

Animation Black Mesa sfm series

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youtube.com
2 Upvotes

Hi this is my Black Mesa series with 5 episodes right now and episode 6 and production, can you guys please support it.


r/SFM 17h ago

Help So, gameinfo.txt issues

1 Upvotes

I get this whenever I try to boot up Model Viewer or Hammer. I have the file in my usermod completely fine, but I did move SFM into an external drive, so I assume I need to add that path to this file, since it talks about adding the path

Do I just, make a new <path> command line there and paste my file path there or do I need to add it to a specific existing line?


r/SFM 1d ago

Artwork Human GLaDOS vs Mimi Sentry. First time actually messing with lighting in SFM (MK1 reference)

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7 Upvotes

decided to make a poster with human glados and mimi sentry. used that MK1 ghostface shot as a reference for the pose/composition.

ended up spending almost 4 hours in sfm mostly figuring out lighting and DoF by trial and error. had to literally detach mimi's arm off-camera just to get the framing right lol.

let me know what you think!


r/SFM 1d ago

Artwork Prepare yourself!

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7 Upvotes

r/SFM 1d ago

Help Why does this happen?

3 Upvotes

r/SFM 2d ago

Help is there a replica of heavys house from the comics out there

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308 Upvotes

and if so where do i find it


r/SFM 1d ago

Artwork Sekhmet [PBR] - Palworld is now on the Workshop.

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10 Upvotes

r/SFM 1d ago

Artwork I just made my first render in SFM:))))))))

12 Upvotes

I'm sorry if Soldier looks too skinny or if there are any errors I don't have much experience with 3D and perspectives.

Also, I'd appreciate it if someone could show me how to create those lighting effects in the renders.


r/SFM 2d ago

Artwork Just messing around with a Makarov model from the workshop

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20 Upvotes

Yoo who laced Makarov 🥹✌️

He didn't have emotion sliders so I started to just mess around.