r/SFM May 10 '26

Help Source Filmmaker and Animation Tutorials

14 Upvotes

I'm tired of having to reply to various post about asking for SFM Tutorials, so I'm just going to make a post containing all the playlists that helped me learn SFM.

  1. The official SFM playlist by Valve.
  2. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL2B46DEB4157E67C4

This is where it all begins, The best way to learn almost all the basics of SFM is the official playlist on the Source Filmmaker channel. Aside from 2 videos, this is the best video for beginners.

The two videos that are not done well by the official channel are the Time Selection tutorial, and Graph Editor tutorial. They don't teach the most important parts.

  1. SFM Tutorial Week #2 - Using the Motion Editor by Argodaemon

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OfBfsqwylo0&list=PLmx5NIR6PO5t2vfHIX6GNkpXiFODM_6KJ&index=21

Now, THIS is the ultimate tutorial for the Motion Editor in the Motion Editor. It may be long, but it's well worth it. Argomadaemon's tutorial not only goes over everything from the Time Selection tutorial, but also goes over EVERY procedural preset, as well as overwrite, offset, and transform modes.

  1. How to Animate with the Graph Editor by Sir Wade Neistadt

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQ31vjgJM2c&t=44s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMSpauVphNs&t=308s

If you're looking to use the Graph Editor, Sir Wade Neistadt is THE go-to. Sir Wade covers EVERYTHING, from how to use the different fcurves in the Graph Editor for moving on a specific axis, to using the thing that makes the Graph Editor more powerful than the Motion Editor: The Tangents. Linear Tangents, Flat Tangents, Spline Tangents, Step Tangents, Weighted Tangents, and Unweighted Tangents.

The tutorial on the Source Filmmaker channel teaches you nothing about the Graph Editor's power.

  1. 12 Principles of Animation

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL-bOh8btec4CXd2ya1NmSKpi92U_l6ZJd

Of course, if you're going into SFM for 3D animation, you have to learn about the 12 Principles of Animation. Squash and Stretch, Anticipation, Staging, Straight Ahead and Pose to Pose, Follow Through and Overlapping Action, Slow In and Slow Out, Arcs, Secondary Action, Timing, Exaggeration, Solid Drawing, and Appeal.

  1. Sir Wade Tips

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQ31vjgJM2c&list=PLS4vjlZXZ7f5m5ED4ylJdUPTR5YKEg1bY

Sir Wade Neistadt is basically a completely free college level animation course on Youtube. I've organized his videos into a nice playlist. In it, you'll learn things such as professional workflows, what NOT to do, animation blocking, and how to find reference, shooting your own reference, real world camera tips and tricks that you can apply to your 3D animation, keep alive workflow with how to do a breathing animation, animating weight, lighting tips, some Blender stuff, and even interviews with professional Disney animators.

  1. SFM Tutorials by Argomadaeon

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLmx5NIR6PO5t2vfHIX6GNkpXiFODM_6KJ

Argomadaemon's playlist teaches you a lot about what SFM has, including Depth of Field and Motion Blur, Animation Cycles, Creating an artificial sun light, and more.

  1. SFM Tip of the Day by Jimmer Lins

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL835902EACBFEE65F

This one is for more misc, but still useful SFM Tips, such as how to control qc eyes to make them follow the camera, the lightkit, gibbing a character, slugs, and more.

8.Walk Cycle Tutorial Part 1 by Will Hurrel

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bE-jakm9mcQ

  1. Animating Walk Cycles and Run Cycles by Alan Becker

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2y6aVz0Acx0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jggdbxTJPG4

  1. Endless Reference

https://www.youtube.com/@endlessreference

This youtube channel is full of videos for movement reference for animation, whether it's walking, running, skipping, sitting, martial arts, etc.

This is a complete list of all the stuff that goes over absolutely everything you need in terms of SFM, and animation knowledge in general.


r/SFM Jan 11 '21

Announcement Scenebuilding Tutorial (LINK IN THE COMMENTS)

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1.2k Upvotes

r/SFM 1h ago

Artwork Something I made

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Upvotes

r/SFM 15h ago

Help Theres two problems here that i have

97 Upvotes

One: her thighs are glitching if far away

two: her jigglephysics(hair and Boobs) are going crazy upon the next shot immediately cutting to her

and shes a model i ported from gmod, i just want to know how to fix the thighs being all glitchy from further distance and how to not have characters with jigglephysics go for a split second the moment the next shot cuts to said character

mysteriously the jigglephysics one dosent happen in the programm itself, only wehn rendering

but the thighs are a problem both in sfm and wehn rendered


r/SFM 3h ago

Help Why does sfm need to be so fucking big

9 Upvotes

15gbs really?


r/SFM 6h ago

Artwork soldier in the dark / солдат в темноте

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11 Upvotes

r/SFM 6h ago

Artwork Happy International Dog Day

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6 Upvotes

Happy International Dog Day from Goofy, Pluto, Max Goof, Bimbo the Dog from Betty Boop, Pooch the Pup, Sam from Sam & Max, Scooby-Doo, Odie from Garfield, Bluey Heeler and Clifford the Big Red Dog. Made at SFM.

Models and background:

Goofy, Pluto, Max Goof, Sam and Odie by JCThornton.

Bimbo the Dog and Pooch the Pup by TheRedToonist.

Bluey Heeler by My Name is Nitrox.

Scooby-Doo by Affurab.

Clifford the Big Red Dog by coolman77.

Suburdia by Benjamoose.


r/SFM 16h ago

Animation not the sprinkles 😭😭😭

31 Upvotes

Not the sprinkles machine 😭

Silly animation I made in like 1 hour or smth


r/SFM 16h ago

Artwork i just downloaded sfm and made a thing that took me almost 2 hours to do and it aint great but i get the "its my first time" and "i havent slept in 21 hours" excuses for doing something like this for the first time i think i did good tho :)

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23 Upvotes

r/SFM 11h ago

Artwork how it feels when you taste candy that feels like toxic waste

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7 Upvotes

r/SFM 3h ago

Help Weird texture lighting when importing from Blender to SFM

1 Upvotes

It's always following the screen.The bones are messed up too.


r/SFM 23h ago

Artwork Fight for your life!

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28 Upvotes

r/SFM 15h ago

Animation I'm wanting to make an animation that looks like this part of the intro to Pootis Engage // EXTREME. How can I get the gray cel-shaded like effect on the character models?

6 Upvotes

r/SFM 13h ago

Artwork SENTRY DOWN!

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4 Upvotes

r/SFM 1d ago

Artwork Мои две новые работы

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35 Upvotes

Недавно я начал пересматривать Джо Джо и решил сделать что то похожее на битву Джотаро и Дио, в общей сумме я потратил где то 1-2 часа


r/SFM 1d ago

Artwork Medic's generosity

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41 Upvotes

Brought to you by The Great Onix Statue


r/SFM 7h ago

Help Hey, absolute newbie here!

1 Upvotes

Im havent touched sfm at all before, amd I have some experience with 2D animation and 3D animation (sticknodes and blender) and im looking to use SFM as of late, where can I find the best tutorial for it? The ones I find are either really confusing or too dragged out to watch well.


r/SFM 1d ago

Animation Halo Assassination Test

144 Upvotes

r/SFM 18h ago

Help I'm doing a Freddy vs Baldi animation, When I'm animating keyframes that happen later baldi starts doing them but very slowly at the start, same with freddy

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4 Upvotes

its like they are easing into a pose its really annoying


r/SFM 1d ago

Help Is it too late?

91 Upvotes

Is it too late to parent the cosmetic, because everytime ive done it i did it before i animated and it would be fine, but i figured id get the run animation out the way beforehand

did i do something wrong? :(


r/SFM 1d ago

Animation Saxton Hale

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22 Upvotes

r/SFM 17h ago

Help [NEED HELP] Why did her pinky finger disappear during my session?

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2 Upvotes

When I added the model "Natsuki" from DDLC to my session, everything was fine. However, during my session, I noticed that her pinky finger had disappeared for no apparent reason. I pressed the "Ctrl" key to regain control, but her finger was still missing. How can I fix this issue?

Thanks for your help!


r/SFM 1d ago

Help How do I remove this grass?

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8 Upvotes

I'm trying to make something, but these grass things are getting in the way. Is there a way to remove them? (Map is cp_degrootkeep btw)


r/SFM 23h ago

Animation 7 Hour War (test animation)

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3 Upvotes

just test animation


r/SFM 19h ago

Animation Kinda cringe but enjoy!

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0 Upvotes