Source Filmmaker

Source Filmmaker

Source Filmmaker (SFM for short) is a tool used to create Team Fortress 2's Meet the Team videos as well as Left 4 Dead's introduction videos. It's a video capture and editing application that works from inside the Source engine. It allows users to record themselves many times over in the same scene, creating the illusion of many participants, as well as supporting a wide range of cinematographic effects and techniques such as motion blur, Tyndall effects, Dynamic Lighting, and depth of field. (Motion blur has now been added to the games themselves, though only when the view is moving at high speeds—not per-object as in the film-maker.)

The tool hasn't been publicly released by Valve, but by the end of 2009 it was leaked from a backed-up version of the original TF2 beta. Since then, many fan-videos have been created with the tool, the most notable of which being Jimbomcb's nope.avi video.

Features

SFM allows you to:

• Record footage to uncompressed AVI directly from the engine
• Record yourself performing one part, then rewinding and record yourself performing another
• Publish videos directly to Steam (option is available in-game, but nothing happens when selected)
• Control camera placement and movement
• Add per-object motion blur and depth of field
• Import choreography scenes
• Ability to modify bone placement and facial expressions of characters

Recording with other games

Right now, Source Filmmaker is only available in the TF2 Beta from 2007, but you can import game files from other Source games into the beta. The only game known to work with this is Portal, but other games most likely may work with it, too.

Gallery

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External links

• [1] - A site dedicated to archiving development and tutorials, made by Spwee1494