future of SFM - will it be main tool of future CGI movies?

[Aleq]

Hi

I have heard about SFM for a few years. I wasn't sure what that was and later realized that it might be primarily a tool for making TF2 videos. Now, I am finding more and more awesome movies made by SFM with amazing custom content! And by this I am starting to wonder whether this Software will become the worlds best software for 3D animations...



I am very excited about the future of this software. What do you think Valve's plans are with it? Do you think it will be the primary tool of many digital filmmakers?

I am also wondering whether Valve will upgrade their Source engine and therefore SFM, or if they will make a new source engine completely from scratch and therefore make a new version of SFM..

[Pte Jack]

??? Some are suggesting Source2 and that SFM will follow suit. Whether or not this is true, it's only speculation as far as I've seen so far. There 'maybe' an elite group of powerusers out there Alpha testing as we speak, but as far as I know... not!

[raptornx01]

well, we know dota 2 sdk was upgraded to source 2 (or possibly and at the very least, the file formats and things were modified in preperation for source 2). and we know at least some left4dead 2 maps were converted to source 2 and upgraded. as for sfm. that is the hope. we will have to see.

sfm, even in it's current state, can do some impressive stuff and we are just starting to really see what it can do. it can handle some pretty high quality textures, and people have gotten some impressive lighting out of it.

Plus, it keeps getting updated with new features.

will it replace things like maya? possibly, with a few more upgrades. then again. possibly not. it still needs internal model and texture creation abilities. we will see.

[Pte Jack]

Not really sure about that last statement Raptorn, "Replace Maya??" SFM is a moviemaker, not a 3D editor. Personally I can't see SFM making the switch and covering the 2 functionalities. (But then who am I??) Would be a great improvement if Valve took a step like that though... I mean, we can now make taunts, and export Faceposer animations. It has recently been discovered that SFM will do Vertex Animations.

We are all just a bunch of hackers when it comes to this program. Without any formal documentation as to what it CAN do, all we can do is fiddle with switches and watch for results in our renders. (who knows???)

[ConfederateJoe]

SFM is intended for animation and rendering. It will likely never have a 3D creation pipeline. However, it is possible that it will one day support more... modern file formats, nullifying the tedious process of converting literally everything for use in source.

Let's be real here, it's valves animation engine which they use to produce their game cinematics, trailer material, and some art/animations all comfortably integrated with their source game engine. If the engine sees an update to the next gen, so will SFM as they'll be using it for the next gen cinematic material. It's just a matter of time.

Essentially, the render engine powering SFM is the same engine the source engine uses in game but fully unlocked and with increased quality on various things like textures and other 3D limitations. This is what allows SFM to have such a brilliant realtime preview that is close enough to the rendered result.

Source 2 will have updated graphics, likely on par or better than newer game engines. The same applies here, SFM on Source 2 will likely have an unlocked render engine based of the same engine used in game, alongside other quality improvements. As this is the most complicated part of a game engine to create, it might be a while more before we see SFM on source 2, but I'm pretty sure it's coming unless they randomly decide to shelf SFM.

It will never really compare to full 3D packages but its end result quality should be more than enough for a very wide range of ideas while maintaining its superb simplicity and usability.

[Pte Jack]

Everything you say Joe makes sense. The question is, will Steam/Valve release the "new" moviemaker to the public or keep it for in-house use only. I mean look how long it took for Valve to release SFM to us. 13 versions of GMod. For a while, I actually thought that that was what they were using for their cinematics and trailers... lol.

Anyway, I still maintain that all this is speculation and that to put money on it would be like investing in the futures market. We won't know until someone "leaks" something from HQ itself.

Let's wait and see what Half-Life3 looks like... (and tutorial 13-4 Pose to Pose)

[Zappy]

Originally posted by Pte Jack:

(and tutorial 13-4 Pose to Pose)

The author of VALVe's Source FilmMaker tutorials has still left VALVe.

Anyway, to answer the original poster: Absolutely no. Maybe indie people will use it, I don't know, but it's definitely not something those big blockbuster movie makers will switch to use. Source FilmMaker is not, and will never be, a really big great movie editing tool. It may appeal to many, since it's free, and supports Source engine game assets, but... that's about it.

Source 2 FilmMaker, though? Not likely, but possibly. That would highly depend on how amazing it'll be. Also, Pte Jack, VALVe will definitely release it (as they've "always enjoyed seeing what people could come up with" or whatever, which was why they released Source 1 FilmMaker). Maybe not as soon as they'll upgrade Team Fortress 2 to Source 2, but they will most likely within at most a half year of that. My estimate is 1-2 months after Team Fortress 2 Source 2.

[Aleq]

Originally posted by raptornx01:

it still needs internal model and texture creation abilities. we will see.

<-- would be nice to begin with simpler tools like importing 2D sprites (images) and vector animations, like SWF

[raptornx01]

well, you can pretty much to that now.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ya3P3AufABI

(video i did to test the idea)

what we need is more control over it.

[Zappy]

Originally posted by raptornx01:

well, you can pretty much to that now.
(video i did to test the idea)
what we need is more control over it.

Tip for that: Disable lighting. That helps with flat colours (however, whether you want that or not, I don't know). Also, he said import, as in open, not make.

[Kibōchen]

i heard disney's next movie will be powered by sfm

[Pte Jack]

AND they found a live Mammoth in Iceland!!!! His name is Stan.

[raptornx01]

Team Frozen 2: The Search For More Winter Hats.

[Pte Jack]

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=345077963