Welcome to the SFM academy students!

Hi everyone:

This is the first tut in this academy and it talks about how to make a basic one model poster in SFM. It's easy to follow I think and really schematic, but if you have any question, you can ask here.

Let's begin!

Final Art

http://i.imgur.com/AyyZnMf.jpg

1.- Open SFM, right click black screen with "No Map Loaded", select Load Map. You can search in the gap the map you want (2Fort, Granary, etc) In this exercise, I'm going to use black_void.bsp. This map has only a black background.

http://i.imgur.com/eNUpWbT.jpg

2.- Now create a New Model, create a New Camera (camera1) and find the model you want searching in the gap (Scout, Spy, Heavy, etc) that you want to use in the pic. In this exercise, i'm going to use Maskless Spy: you can download it here[source.maxofs2d.net]

NOTE: in more advanced pics, you will need this because some weapons, hats, etc filenames aren't the same as the real's weapons, hats, etc names.

http://i.imgur.com/Lfn8xNQ.jpg

3.- When you select the model you won't see nothing (in this map). Then, create a New Light and adjust it to see the model. Another thing you can do is disabled the lightnings of the map.

http://i.imgur.com/C2HK11b.jpg

4.- Now you can see the model. Let's pose it! To make a simple pose (in-game pose) click right on the model > Import > Sequence. You can choose the pose you want with this! In this exercise I select run_SAPPER.

http://i.imgur.com/IHMuZUd.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/5nymYt5.jpg

5.- This model looks ugly, right? No problem! Click right on the model > Add Team Fortress Item. Now find the cosmetic/weapon you want in the list and apply it to the model. In this exercise I use AP-Sap, Au Courant Assasin and Sneaky Spats of Sneaking.

NOTE: remember that you must select a weapon according to the pose if you want to look great!

http://i.imgur.com/3VUyCUw.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/JYf68lc.jpg

6.- Lights on! This is an easy trick to use with single models to create a really really good automatically lightning. In advanced pics you will need to adjust lightning manually. Go to big_head (press + close to the model) > right click > Dag_Utilities > create_lights. Don't forget to disabled the first lightning that you create. Now you will have created your first light kit!

http://i.imgur.com/4KwzHJq.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/aZVeHI1.jpg

NOTE: right click on key_light and disabled volumetrics if you don't want to see the halo of the light.

http://i.imgur.com/izMAzje.jpg

7.- Now Create An Animation for Existing Element and select your camera1. This step is you want to adjust the camera or whatever you want with it. When you do this you MUST select the camera1 on the left to move it.

http://i.imgur.com/EGOBnUC.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/8QwOy8f.jpg

8.- Time to save our work! Go to File>Export>Poster and save it wherever you want.

http://i.imgur.com/A67H4Q4.jpg

9.- Post-processing time! To make it look better I usually use Magic Bullets Look and Topaz Vivacity Clean 3. All of them are plugins for Photoshop.

http://i.imgur.com/2FoUdlO.jpg

9.1.- Magic Bullets Look has a lot of profiles, but i use Subtle Film Shot (increase Bloom) but i decrease Difussion a bit to don't overbloom the picture.

http://i.imgur.com/tht4xx5.jpg

9.2.- I usually resize the picture to improve quality to 1280x720 pixels.

9.3.- In this step I use Topaz Vivacity Clean 3. I select Cartoneed filter and I put Strenght in 0.

http://i.imgur.com/lKmXuQr.jpg

10. And voila! Your picture is ready! In this image you can see how the post-processing afects to the original poster. Cool right!

http://i.imgur.com/t5tExdy.jpg

______

Hope you help you and I hope this helps you in your future endeavors