How do I make lights flicker in SFM?

[XλNDIOUS13]

Halp

[surfer171]

You know… making the title of your thread as a question isn’t supposed to be a thing. Who even makes the title of a thread a question with little to no explanation of the content but a wrongly spelled “help”

[Marco Skoll]

Adjust the intensity semi-randomly. Puppeteering it in realtime isn't a terrible starting point. Alternatively, the jitter preset can sometimes be helpful, but probably needs to be slowed down and smoothed from the original noise.

[XλNDIOUS13]

Thanks a bunch I didn't think about that.

[Capt Fuzzy]

As Marco pointed out, about the best way to do what you are looking to do is with the jitter preset.
Use only a little and you may have to undo/redo it a couple of times to get it just right, but as you can see in this video, if done right, it makes a nice effect:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sN38WR0-zVk
I used the jitter preset to get the flicker of the fire in this video...

[XλNDIOUS13]

Thanks this worked really well for the fire, now what about making flashing lights like for blinkers on cars and other stuff like that.

[Capt Fuzzy]

Originally posted by Xandious13:

Thanks this worked really well for the fire, now what about making flashing lights like for blinkers on cars and other stuff like that.

Turn signal lights would be easy, you wouldn't even need to use jiggle for that.

Just edit the intensity using keyframes.
Set the intensity to what you want the highest level to be, set a keyframe in the graph editor. This is your starting point. Now move ahead a couple of frames (NOT seconds, FRAMES) and lower the intensity to the lowest level that you want, and then repeat the process for ever how many seconds you need it to flash...

[XλNDIOUS13]

Ahhh. ok its just i read some that you can edit a "flash timer" or somthing like that, but i couldn't find it, much thanks for the help.

[Capt Fuzzy]

Originally posted by Xandious13:

Ahhh. ok its just i read some that you can edit a "flash timer" or somthing like that, but i couldn't find it, much thanks for the help.

Hmm, never seen anything like that in SFM. I love to read this info..., if you happen to know the link, or have it handy...

[XλNDIOUS13]

So the first comment said you could edit it through the motion editor but I don't kno if he meant the same thing a what you said but here:

https://steamcommunity.com/app/1840/discussions/0/38596748105537641/

[Capt Fuzzy]

Originally posted by Xandious13:

So the first comment said you could edit it through the motion editor but I don't kno if he meant the same thing a what you said but here:

https://steamcommunity.com/app/1840/discussions/0/38596748105537641/

Yeah, that is one way to do it, but to be honest, the graph editor way will allow you far more precise control over the process.

[XλNDIOUS13]

Ok. Thanks for all the help going well so far.

[Capt Fuzzy]

Originally posted by Xandious13:

Ok. Thanks for all the help going well so far.

Nice! I'd love to see what you make, when it's done of course... lol

[XλNDIOUS13]

Sure. Might take a while but hopefuly it will be good in the end.

[Capt Fuzzy]

Originally posted by Xandious13:

Sure. Might take a while but hopefuly it will be good in the end.

Time is your friend when you want to do a good job on something.
I have one animation that I've been working on for about 3 months now, and it's only about 6 minutes in length.
I want it to be right, so I'm really sweating the details... lol

[XλNDIOUS13]

Wow. must those 6 minutes must be chock-a-block full.