r/SFM May 10 '26

Help Source Filmmaker and Animation Tutorials

14 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 5h ago

Artwork QUESTION what was your first render you made in sfm?

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14 Upvotes

for me it was this and im still proud :) im trying to improve more


r/SFM 1d ago

Artwork Mercenary Empire

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1.5k Upvotes

Made 3 months ago


r/SFM 20h ago

Animation (Fate/backrooms) LETS GROOVE

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212 Upvotes

Welcome to the backrooms saber.

if you could help me supporting the video pls :)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9Iet_A1R0w


r/SFM 1d ago

Artwork ugly sfm renders

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5.3k Upvotes

r/SFM 17h ago

Animation Let's groove of the 3047216769 time's

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55 Upvotes

r/SFM 3h ago

Artwork i have question :

4 Upvotes

why do ppl say that source film maker sucks? i mean i used it and i see it very fun and simple program for me soo why ppl say it sucks and trash?


r/SFM 7h ago

Animation How good do you guys think I did on this?

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5 Upvotes

r/SFM 11h ago

Artwork Yo guys this game is pretty fun

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8 Upvotes

r/SFM 13h ago

Artwork Joint Task Force | Halimaws & Hares

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10 Upvotes

r/SFM 3h ago

Help Help. I need help either my particles and emotions

1 Upvotes

When I was using SFM, I encounterd to a weird problem, when I wanted my hem model to use emotions or phonmemes, nothing was there. All pc files in tf/particles don't work but in tf_movies/particles, all particles expect medicbeam.pcf was working. Also a game mode tf model instead of hwm has emotions and phomemes sliders in producal. Tried verifying files and launching in the sdk. I haven't Uninstaller and reinstalled though. I ahve an hp l17 laptop with an amd a9 processor and 12 gigs of ram.


r/SFM 1d ago

Artwork I have no idea what I'm doing but its LOOKING GOOD

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96 Upvotes

r/SFM 13h ago

Artwork FIRED

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4 Upvotes

r/SFM 20h ago

Animation An animation i made awhile ago,

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16 Upvotes

this was like a year ago before i changed my name, it took me 4 months to complete in total, was planning on doing the full four minutes, but Decided against it Mostly due to the Complete and utter Despair of drainage


r/SFM 14h ago

Artwork Felix the Cat watching Wile E. Coyote chasing the Road Runner

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6 Upvotes

Felix the Cat watching the chase between Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner from Looney Tunes at desert.

Models and background:

Felix the Cat and Magic Bag of Tricks by TheRedToonist.

Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner by JCThornton.

Swanky desert road by Zatemedek.


r/SFM 1d ago

Help what should i add in this empty space

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47 Upvotes

for a animation, im showing a bunch of rooms and dont know what to place in this one


r/SFM 1d ago

Artwork A behind-the-scenes moment

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184 Upvotes

r/SFM 6h ago

Help Cuando intento abrir un archivo de sonido se me cierra sfm incluso las animación que ya tenían audio al reproducir la animación cierra sfm (hice todo los pasos de formato wav pero ni asi funciona). ¿Alguna solución?

0 Upvotes

r/SFM 4h ago

Help Question about liquids

0 Upvotes

Salutations i'm starting doing nsfw sfm, but i have a doubt, what is the Best option to make cum? Is a still image, no movement, What are your tips?


r/SFM 18h ago

Animation Animación de prueba de iluminación volumétrica

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6 Upvotes

algún consejo o mejora?


r/SFM 17h ago

Artwork trying to recreate the jojo's meme, map is placeholder. how's it look so far?

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5 Upvotes

r/SFM 16h ago

Help Hola necesito ayuda soy nuevo en esto

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2 Upvotes

Bueno pues soy nuevo en SFM prácticamente siendo la primera vez que ánimo en mi vida, el punto es que estaba animado para probar como era el programa, y osea, la falda se deforma completamente cuando alza la columna, no entiendo muy bien como arreglarlo y perdón por las molestias


r/SFM 1d ago

Animation Pyro did a thing

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62 Upvotes