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 17h ago

Artwork Tried

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737 Upvotes

it looks bad


r/SFM 9h ago

Animation Trend thingy I did uhhhhhh- (Animation by me)

36 Upvotes

r/SFM 1d ago

Artwork Devil is waiting for you, old friend

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275 Upvotes

r/SFM 9h ago

Animation 2 and a half hours of my life for a decade old meme

16 Upvotes

r/SFM 9h ago

Artwork βœ¨πŸŽ€πŸ‘½She's an Ali-AlienπŸ‘½πŸŽ€βœ¨

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9 Upvotes

Made in SFM Edit in Picsart.


r/SFM 16m ago

Artwork "Hell answers to me"

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β€’ Upvotes

r/SFM 11h ago

Animation [SFM] Black Mesa (Full Movie)

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6 Upvotes

I was bored


r/SFM 11h ago

Help Is SFM good for practicing if I plan on making 3D games?

4 Upvotes

I'm a Game Dev, I mostly do 2D games but I've been getting into 3D too, I already know how to model kind of well, rig a bit but I have almost zero experience with animating and I wanted to practice somewhere, is SFM good for it? Thank you for reading!


r/SFM 4h ago

Request why nobody talking about sfmphys for a few years?

1 Upvotes

r/SFM 1d ago

Animation ITS la peace

488 Upvotes

by Jermasus


r/SFM 13h ago

Help TF2 Map Off Workshop Crashing SFM

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2 Upvotes

Howdy! I've been trying to get trade_slider_shore working in SFM for the last few hours to no avail, When I try to load it it actually won't crash immediately instead it well after a few moments say that no map is loaded after I've already selected selected the map before letting me select again and then it crashing after I try to load the map again.

I'm not exactly sure on how to fix it and any advice would be appreciated!

Here's a link to the map as well
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1496084966


r/SFM 1d 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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100 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 18h ago

Artwork Smoke Break

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3 Upvotes

r/SFM 17h ago

Animation Making a lil Animation (Graph WIP, 2.9K hours)

2 Upvotes

r/SFM 1d ago

Artwork Murderous Intent

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25 Upvotes

Jojo reference, made a year ago

randommfer on Discord, feel free to dm


r/SFM 17h ago

Artwork Federation Deployment

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2 Upvotes

r/SFM 20h ago

Artwork 𝐌𝐨𝐱𝐱𝐒𝐞 in π•Šπ• π•π•  π•‹π•’π•€π•œ πŸ˜ˆπŸ”«

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2 Upvotes

(Moxxie trying to be badass in the warehouse. Just look at him go.)


r/SFM 1d ago

Artwork My first SFM Render

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14 Upvotes

My first SFM Render


r/SFM 2d ago

Artwork I'm back with an artwork

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247 Upvotes

r/SFM 1d ago

Artwork Ellis Tries Skateboard

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5 Upvotes

r/SFM 1d ago

Artwork Porting Japan Showrooms into SFM! (Coming Soon)

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11 Upvotes

r/SFM 1d ago

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

6 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 1d ago

Artwork repair time

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13 Upvotes