Is SFM hard to learn?

[Flavorful]

I really wanna try SFM cause it seems like it has more animation options then Blender.
But I already know a little blender animation but I really wanna learn this as well. Sooo how hard is it to learn?

[COUNT FREAKULA]

It certainly has a learning curve, but you'll learn through how much time you sink into it and via exploring it's features one by one. Of course community made guides, tutorials, and advice always help.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDiifbVoGDw
This has always been my favorite tutorial, take a peek, it helped me quite a lot. Plus he has a sense of humor, so that's always been a plus.

However, don't jump into animation w/ SFM right away, I'd recommend to put a decent amount of hours into poster making and understanding how to setup scenes, camera placement, shortcuts, lighting, model manipulation/rigging, etc.

[Paintbrush Poltergeist]

No.

Just don't rely on the official videos since they're poorly done compared to some community ones.

[dooragjockey]

I was like you back then but with enough breakdowns (and mentally for that matter) I was able to get the hang of it I suggest watching
1. Valve made tutorials
2. Jimer lins
3. Jesse baumgarther

Basically, the people who got me here (and of course people on this form)

[Flavorful]

Originally posted by Jolly!:

It certainly has a learning curve, but you'll learn through how much time you sink into it and via exploring it's features one by one. Of course community made guides, tutorials, and advice always help.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDiifbVoGDw
This has always been my favorite tutorial, take a peek, it helped me quite a lot. Plus he has a sense of humor, so that's always been a plus.

However, don't jump into animation w/ SFM right away, I'd recommend to put a decent amount of hours into poster making and understanding how to setup scenes, camera placement, shortcuts, lighting, model manipulation/rigging, etc.

Posters are pretty much just pictures right?

[Capt Fuzzy]

Originally posted by carrotonpotato:

Posters are pretty much just pictures right?

Yup...

[Flavorful]

Originally posted by Capt Fuzzy:

Originally posted by carrotonpotato:

Posters are pretty much just pictures right?

Yup...

Ok noice

[R234]

It's far less advanced than Blender, and far easier to use. If you can handle Blender, you can handle SFM no problem.

I would also say the official tutorials are the best place to start.

[Flavorful]

Originally posted by R234:

It's far less advanced than Blender, and far easier to use. If you can handle Blender, you can handle SFM no problem.

I would also say the official tutorials are the best place to start.

Ok when I opened it it seems, hard...

[12-15 WILD VAMPIRES]

Use Autodesk Maya instead, SFM's rigs are very bad and the software is abandoned since 2015, still not out of beta and has issues.

[12-15 WILD VAMPIRES]

Originally posted by Jolly!:

It certainly has a learning curve, but you'll learn through how much time you sink into it and via exploring it's features one by one. Of course community made guides, tutorials, and advice always help.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDiifbVoGDw
This has always been my favorite tutorial, take a peek, it helped me quite a lot. Plus he has a sense of humor, so that's always been a plus.

However, don't jump into animation w/ SFM right away, I'd recommend to put a decent amount of hours into poster making and understanding how to setup scenes, camera placement, shortcuts, lighting, model manipulation/rigging, etc.

When i was a beginner in SFM, i only made 1 poster to understand how the tool works, then slowly and slowly was digging my way to understand how to animate. Doing posters to learn how to animate is a waste of time in my opinion.

[Jerma Rat]

Originally posted by de_dust2:

Originally posted by Jolly!:

It certainly has a learning curve, but you'll learn through how much time you sink into it and via exploring it's features one by one. Of course community made guides, tutorials, and advice always help.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDiifbVoGDw
This has always been my favorite tutorial, take a peek, it helped me quite a lot. Plus he has a sense of humor, so that's always been a plus.

However, don't jump into animation w/ SFM right away, I'd recommend to put a decent amount of hours into poster making and understanding how to setup scenes, camera placement, shortcuts, lighting, model manipulation/rigging, etc.

When i was a beginner in SFM, i only made 1 poster to understand how the tool works, then slowly and slowly was digging my way to understand how to animate. Doing posters to learn how to animate is a waste of time in my opinion.

It really is better to learn to use posters because it helps you learn the interface, lighting, rigs, etc. You shouldn't think it's a waste of time, it's useful for a beginner.

[12-15 WILD VAMPIRES]

Originally posted by Free_♪:

Originally posted by de_dust2:

When i was a beginner in SFM, i only made 1 poster to understand how the tool works, then slowly and slowly was digging my way to understand how to animate. Doing posters to learn how to animate is a waste of time in my opinion.

It really is better to learn to use posters because it helps you learn the interface, lighting, rigs, etc. You shouldn't think it's a waste of time, it's useful for a beginner.

Well, it was like that at least to me. I was only focusing straight on animation, didn't care about scene bulding, lighting, cameras and etc, just animation.
You eighter do posters, or animation on this software.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmGPJSpRQFE - 15 hrs at animating
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCJQ5pYvHOA - arround 70 hrs at animating
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjnY0PXV2gs - arround 125 hrs of animating
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8M2kl4GbrU - arround 220-225 hrs of animating
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DhhrKjmqjfk - arround 330 hrs of animating
This is proof of me learning to animate with barely making any posters at all and that making posters is waste of time (if you are think they will make you better at animation).

[Capt Fuzzy]

I get what you are saying, however, you should know that sometimes there is not always a perfect map for some projects and in this case, you will have to scenebuild.
If you do end up in a situation where you do have to scenebuild then you will also have to do lighting as well to make the scene look more believable, so these are really necessary skills to have. They may not be necessary to the actual animation, but if you are trying to tell a story or convey an idea, it may get lost in a poorly constructed and lighted scenebuild.

I'm not trying to beat ya up, just trying to let you know that there's a lot more to making a "convincing" animation than just the animation itself.

[12-15 WILD VAMPIRES]

Originally posted by Capt Fuzzy:

I get what you are saying, however, you should know that sometimes there is not always a perfect map for some projects and in this case, you will have to scenebuild.
If you do end up in a situation where you do have to scenebuild then you will also have to do lighting as well to make the scene look more believable, so these are really necessary skills to have. They may not be necessary to the actual animation, but if you are trying to tell a story or convey an idea, it may get lost in a poorly constructed and lighted scenebuild.

I'm not trying to beat ya up, just trying to let you know that there's a lot more to making a "convincing" animation than just the animation itself.

I really get what you're trying to say, however, i mostly practice on body mechanics than a "story" animation, so most of the detail that i spent goes to the character rig. Maintainig a balance for the cameras, scenebuilding and animation is not really easy to maintain and will have very mixed results, so i only focus on one thing.

[Bianca]

If you have Intellectual Disability like I do, don't bother with it. In the time it takes to learn this trash, I could make a decent live action film and it would be a half way success.