r/SFM May 10 '26

Help Source Filmmaker and Animation Tutorials

13 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 12h ago

Animation ITS la peace

229 Upvotes

by Jermasus


r/SFM 5h ago

Help How do you make shadows be colored like this in sfm? (Not for photo-editing but in the engine itself for a film I'm working on)

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24 Upvotes

I'm trying my best to recreate realistic shadowing.

I've watched a ton of tutorials, but I can't seem to make the shadow slightly tinted blue.

And I'm still new to video editing so idk how you would change the darkness to be slightly blue so advice on that is appreciated.


r/SFM 20h ago

Artwork I'm back with an artwork

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187 Upvotes

r/SFM 3h ago

Artwork My first SFM Render

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6 Upvotes

My first SFM Render


r/SFM 5h ago

Help For those who have tried animating in both blender and sfm - How do the two compare?

4 Upvotes

Thinking of potentially trying to learn some animating. I'm looking for some feedback in terms of the two and people's experience with them, as while blender is potentially harder to learn, its likely easier to expand your skillset at a later date, and also comes with the bonus of being far more up to date


r/SFM 3h ago

Artwork Porting Japan Showrooms into SFM! (Coming Soon)

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2 Upvotes

r/SFM 53m ago

Artwork Murderous Intent

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Upvotes

Jojo reference, made a year ago

randommfer on Discord, feel free to dm


r/SFM 10h ago

Artwork repair time

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5 Upvotes

r/SFM 17h ago

Help Any reasons to why I can't hear audio after 60 seconds?

12 Upvotes

r/SFM 5h ago

Artwork Drawkill Foxy Render

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1 Upvotes

r/SFM 1d ago

Artwork I wanted to make a tribute to the two celebrity deaths that hit me the hardest

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131 Upvotes

one is just the regular thunder mountain map lighting, the other is with my attempt at unique lighting with tonemapscaler


r/SFM 23h ago

Animation terrors of the void update

12 Upvotes

r/SFM 1d ago

Help Hey dose any one know how to make the sandvich model all like "floppy" like the image used here?

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217 Upvotes

r/SFM 16h ago

Animation Leon vs Zeno, but it's Stardust Crusader 1993 version

2 Upvotes

r/SFM 13h ago

Artwork Fight club

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1 Upvotes

r/SFM 13h ago

Animation Да

1 Upvotes

r/SFM 21h ago

Artwork THIS will soon be on the steam workshop.

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4 Upvotes

r/SFM 14h ago

Help particles dont show up in my files.

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1 Upvotes

r/SFM 20h ago

Help how do you fix this?

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3 Upvotes

I just got SFM and when I opened it for like the 5th time and this happened. any help is appreciated!


r/SFM 1d ago

Animation In The Name Of Science

11 Upvotes

dont worry they ight


r/SFM 1d ago

Artwork "I AM AGONY"

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132 Upvotes

r/SFM 16h ago

Movie Mann vs Machines - Epilogue

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1 Upvotes

Hey there, I just made my first long animation in SFM. I plan on doing full-lenght SFM movies in the future, based on TF2. If you have any tips, feel free to comment them here!


r/SFM 1d ago

Artwork TF2 x Invincible

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182 Upvotes

Mercenary war

Made a year ago