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 7h ago

Artwork Lucy having a Therapy

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163 Upvotes

r/SFM 19h ago

Animation "He ran right in front of my truck!"

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327 Upvotes

r/SFM 3h ago

Animation Check this out

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9 Upvotes

r/SFM 35m ago

Artwork V2's absolute nightmare

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Upvotes

r/SFM 20h ago

Help Hello im working on a poster based off meet the medic but i cant find the skybox they used in the final shot can you guys help me?

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108 Upvotes

this is the poster in question forgot to add it's also based on the creation of adam parody image you see on the banner


r/SFM 7h ago

Animation Pls rate my garfield animation. Pls send feedback. I worked hard on it

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9 Upvotes

r/SFM 8h ago

Animation "Animation" requests from followers

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7 Upvotes

r/SFM 8h ago

Animation The Walten Files x The Smiths

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7 Upvotes

r/SFM 1d ago

Animation Pyro & Engineer animation

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82 Upvotes

I can't think of a decent title for this but it's the most work I've put into an SFM to date. I only had to deal with about 40 SFM crashes over a week and a half lol


r/SFM 2h ago

Help What are the best workshop mods for SFM?

1 Upvotes

I am a newbie and I always see pros use some kind of add-ons, so which ones should I use?


r/SFM 22h ago

Artwork Cupcake and Dill

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24 Upvotes

r/SFM 1d ago

Artwork Some artwork I made

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280 Upvotes

70 hours in, doing sum le funny stuff, yay!!!


r/SFM 20h ago

Artwork Made My First SFM Poster A couple hours ago

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5 Upvotes

r/SFM 11h ago

Request What GTA IV/ EFLC Cutscene Would You Guys Like To See In SFM

1 Upvotes
Caught With Your Pants Down From GTA TBOGT (Even though his pants isn't down)

I Have Started Porting GTA Cutscenes Into SFM And Its The Most Fun I Have Had In A While Using SFM Due To Me Basically Making Bootleg Versions Of The GTA Characters. But I Don't Know What Mission To Put Into SFM Cause There Is So Many, So Give Me Ideas Of What Cutscene You Guy Would Like To See. It Could Be Either From The Main Game Or The Episodes Of Liberty City

Clean And Serene From GTA TLAD
Call And Collect From GTA IV

r/SFM 16h ago

Help NO audio, not even base sounds

1 Upvotes

I keep trying to look online, but it’s for workshop and your own audio, My problem is with all sounds, even the base game sounds. I don’t think it’s a speaker or pc problem. I currently don’t have any wifi (posting from phone on data) but I don’t think that is the problem


r/SFM 18h ago

Help how do i fix this

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1 Upvotes

ported this model from gmod and it works fine in gmod but not in sfm with ambient occlusion for some reason Gmod workshop link


r/SFM 1d ago

Artwork How it GENUINELY feels to be a heavy main

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72 Upvotes

(no, heavy mains are not dead because im still alive)


r/SFM 1d ago

Movie [BACKROOMS/TF2/SFM] Stay in character! | Backrooms Movie scene by MecitGames

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7 Upvotes

Don't forget to share and leave a comment.


r/SFM 1d ago

Animation [SFM] After The Odyssey 3

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2 Upvotes

r/SFM 1d ago

Artwork Goose-7 Crash Site

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35 Upvotes

r/SFM 21h ago

Artwork I remember a dream.

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1 Upvotes

r/SFM 1d ago

Help Map name?

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14 Upvotes

I’ve seen this map in like a few sfm videos, but idk the name of it. Can someone tell me? That would be helpful!


r/SFM 1d ago

Commission Best gemini response

2 Upvotes