Exporting Movies in SFM

[NibSmoker]

I'm new to SFM and have tried to export my first movie. When I do, another box opens titled "movie layoff progress" that never goes anywhere or can't close. Is that normal? I've looked on Youtibe but didn't find anything about that. Can someone explain how to export movies?

[Zappy]

Source Filmmaker's AVI export implementation is completely non-compressed, meaning that it can easily fill up to around 4 gigabytes of filesize after not many seconds in the video file.
After it reaches around 4 gigabytes of filesize, Source Filmmaker can't export more of the file, due to being a 32-bit program and thusly limited to 4-gigabyte-size files, meaning that the video file is actually incomplete and thusly broken/corrupted.

And Source Filmmaker's MP4/MOV export implementation requires QuickTime, which is an actual security risk for Windows,[www.us-cert.gov] to be installed, so that's not a (valid) option.
Beyond that, MP4/MOV exports are also either too dark and saturated or too bright and de-saturated, depending on which compression codec you choose, with low-ish quality anyway, making MP4/MOV exports undesireable even if QuickTime was not a security risk for Windows (which it still is, so you should not install it).


Instead, you should do an image sequence export. This will export many individual images along with a sound file if you want.
Then you can use almost any video editor (besides Windows (Live) Movie Maker) to import the images and sound, set the framerate correctly, and export it as a video from there.
A guide on doing so using Blender (which is free, is available on Steam, and can be useful for other things) can be found below, but again, almost any video editor will do.
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=375229570 Note that it's completely okay to export as AVI/MP4/MOV from a video editor. Only Source Filmmaker has such bad export implementations of those formats.

However, there will still be that "movie layoff progress" window when doing an image sequence export. Do keep that in mind. Also note that the final video export is much slower than playing through the session in Source Filmmaker's main interface.

[NibSmoker]

Do most animators do it that way for SFM? Because I see animations from fellow artsit I work with that have smooth animations.

[Capt Fuzzy]

Originally posted by Russty223:

Do most animators do it that way for SFM?

Yes, most do, at least most of the good animators that I know do anyway...

[NibSmoker]

Is there a tutorial or a lesson on how to do it this way?

[EmperorFaiz.wav]

Are you talking about rendering? Zappy already explained that.

[Capt Fuzzy]

Originally posted by Russty223:

Is there a tutorial or a lesson on how to do it this way?

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=375229570

[NibSmoker]

Is there a way to do it without Blender. I don't have money for it, or expereince with it.

[EmperorFaiz.wav]

Blender is free, dude. It's even available on Steam.

[EmperorFaiz.wav]

Are you blind or do you don't want to read Zappy's comment? Whatever question you wanna ask about the rendering, Zappy already explained it hours ago.

[Zappy]

Originally posted by Russty223:

Is there a way to do it without Blender. I don't have money for it, or expereince with it.

I specifically said "Then you can use almost any video editor (besides Windows (Live) Movie Maker) to import the images and sound, set the framerate correctly, and export it as a video from there. - again, almost any video editor will do." in comment #1 of this thread, so yes.

Originally posted by Russty223:

Is there a way to do it without Blender. I don't have money for it, -

I specifically said "A guide on doing so using Blender (which is free" in comment #1 of this thread.

Originally posted by Russty223:

Is there a way to do it without Blender. I don't have - expereince with it.

I specifically said "A guide on doing so using Blender - can be found below" in comment #1 of this thread, followed by said guide.

[Capt Fuzzy]

Sounds to me like this dude wants a 'point and click' solution.., too bad he don't know that there is no such thing when it comes to animation software like SFM.

If you want to produce quality videos like those you've seen in the past, then you have to do what it takes to make them, and this method is the way to do that.
I know it can seem confusing right now, but if you just knuckle down and play with it a few times you will get the hang of it. I can't speak for everyone here, but I'm pretty sure that most of us started out about the same as you, with big dreams and not knowing much at all about how to make them happen. We came to these boards, learned from others, just as we are trying to teach you now, and now we are the teachers and you are the learner.
Most of us were right where you are now when we first started, we know what you are probably saying to yourself because we said the same thing back then.

I will admit, there are some old, outdated tutorials on the guides section, and it's hard to tell which ones are outdated. Some of us, myself included, have been trying to make updated versions of some of those guides, giving people like you the correct information on how to do things.
That's where boards like this come in. If you aren't sure about something, just ask.
Most of us here will try to give you the best answer that we possibly can, we want you to enjoy this software and have fun with it as we do.

Bottom line, we will not tell you to do something that we haven't done ourselves, that's how we know it will work, we've done it too.

[EmperorFaiz.wav]

I still baffled why OP pretends Zappy's comment doesn't exist and basically asking questions that Zappy already said hours ago. This is not the first time someone acted like this, mostly necromancers.

Long paragraphs probably scared him away. That's the best explanation I can think of.

[NibSmoker]

I just don't read ♥♥♥♥ thougrally, Its just seems way too hard to even try right now. I had no idea you pretty much have to be an expert to be able to do all this stuff. I don't even know what half the ♥♥♥♥ y'all are talking about means.

[NibSmoker]

And I've asked friends and they say the "export" part in SFM is supposed to work. They say it worked for them to export movies. Why is it that y'all say otherwise? Is every existing SFM animation made this way?

[NibSmoker]

Originally posted by EmperorFaiz.vmt:

Are you talking about rendering? Zappy already explained that.

I know how to render posters. Is that the same as with movies?