Tutorial: Source Filmmaker for intros, posters and other [SFM]

[KITAEC]

There’s a program that can help you make more interesting-looking intros, outros and other stuff - Source Filmmaker. You can download it on Steam for free (click on image above). I’m no expert with it, but I can guide you through the basics and especially models. I don’t know if it will help somebody or not, but I will try. In this tutorial I’ll be talking mostly about models. At some point it was a problem for me, so I thought I should share with you. That way, if you’ll be starting out in SFM, it won’t be a big problem for you For other things like cameras, overlays, effects, slow motion, etc check “More complex covering of tools and other things” below. Of course, I could do it all myself, but those people know better and talk better. Making a video isn’t available for me right now and reading isn’t always helps the way it should, so please, check them out.

Before we start, keep in mind these little things:
MODELS folder is for 3D files of the model
MATERIALS folder is for 3D model’s texture files
NOTE: Again, I’m not a pro, I can make mistakes, sorry

TOMMY VERCETTI MODEL
Now of course, there is people who don’t use Tommy as their player model, but I’ll have to explain about it later. There will be a similar process, so it’s easier to focus on Tommy for now.
We already have Tommy model from GMod (made by Voikanaa) with biped rig inside, so all you have to do is download it from here:
DROPBOX
NOTE: you can use GM models too, but you have to purchase and install GM first. Then download models from workshop, go to workshop folder(in GM folder) and you will see them there.

Let’s say you've downloaded SFM (Important thing: you should get TF2 as well, so SFM can run properly).
Find your Steam folder and go to \steamapps\common\SourceFilmmaker\game\usermod
Here we will store our models, maps and other stuff. If you already downloaded Tommy model, extract and open “Tommy” folder. There you will see two folders: “materials” and “models”. Usermod folder have same folders. Go to usermod’s materials>models and place “player” folder from Tommy’s materials>models. Do the same thing with usermod’s “models” and Tommy’s “models” folder and that’s it Just to make sure, open Steam and SFM. This window will pop up:

Select SDK and launch it(or right click SFM to find same ‘launch SDK’ button). Hit File>Load Model and select your model from usermod’s “models” folder. If there’s no errors and you can see your Tommy model, you can now close SDK and go to the next step! If there’s some kind of an error shows up, make sure that you did everything right. Shouldn’t be any, but if error appears, ask about it and I’ll try to help.

TEXTURES \ SKIN
As far as I know, there’s two ways of doing this:
1) Create multiple models
2) Add textures right into the model in SFM
Download this program: VTFEdit
It allows you to edit VTF(valve texture files). You can also use VTF plugin for Photoshop
For the first method it goes like this: in ‘models>player’ folder in usermod, you simply duplicate all six files and renaming them however you like(for instance, rename tommy_vercetti.mdl, tommy_vercetti.phy, etc to tommy23.mdl, tommy23.phy, etc). In the materials folder you duplicate tommyvercetti folder and rename it, too. Enter renamed folder, open tommy_vercetti.VMT file with notepad(I recommend notepad++) and rename your folder there as well.

When you done with Tommy's .VMT file, open .VTF with VTF Edit. After this you should press File>Import and select your VC skin .BMP file. Then export it as tommy_vercetti.VTF to your desktop. Go to folder with tommy_vercetti.VTF file and then replace it when the one that you just exported on your desktop. And that’s pretty much it for the first way. I, for one, have never used second way, but here’s some tutorials that will help you with it:
Changing Textures Using Material Overrides
How to Apply Multiple Custom Skins

ACTION
Now, when we’re all done with our models, let’s open SFM
When you open it, you will see this window:

Common things like name, directory, framerate, etc. Name your project however you like, set framerate to 30 or leave it at 24(sometimes 24 looks even better if you're using motion blur) and click ‘create’
To fix “NO MAP LOADED!” simply right click black screen and select ‘Load Map’. Unfortunately, I don’t have any VC, LC or other GTA location maps, but I believe it’s possible to export them somehow. Or maybe I just couldn’t find them. For now let’s just use “stage.bsp” for testing. Write ’stage’ in filter box and hit open. If you want to run some tests with the model or with something else(beside maps), stage.bsp may be quite useful. Once it’s loaded, take a look at the icon, which opens “animation set” menu

You can also right click blank area below '+' to enter that same menu. Select ‘create animation set for new model’. If you click on ‘MDL Files’ or 'All', you will see a bunch of random objects that you can use, animate and decorate with. Scroll down a bit. You will see ‘player’ folder, click on it. Click on model "tommy_vercetti" and open it.

Your model spawns right in front of your camera, so if you don’t want it to spawn in the ground like that, move your camera first.

Moving your camera is easy:
Select motion editor(right here: http://i.imgur.com/4znNry6.png) and
1) Hold down left mouse button on the main screen and use WASD to move it
2) Z - up, X - down
3) Hold R and left mouse button on the main screen and move your mouse to rotate
4) Scroll up and down stands for FOV

Camera have it’s own settings:

Go back to ‘+’ icon and select ‘create animation set(s) for existing element(s)’. camera1 is there by default, so it’s always there. You can create another camera if you want to. In “Select Dag” just select camera1 and hit OK. Now click on camera object in your left panel and you will see it’s settings. They’re not hard to understand. Simple things like FOV for zoom; focalDistance is working with aperture, creating depth of field(if you move focalDistance behind your model and adjust aperture to the right, it will blur your background); toneMapScale is useful when you’re using lights; and other options are for more detailed models, which have more complex shading.
Tip: if you’re going to use other models, useful thing might be right clicking on the main screen > render settings. If you want SFM to work faster with them, uncheck ambient occlusion while working. But when it comes to exporting, you should turn them back on.

OTHER VICE CITY NPCs
1) Import one NPC
For this one you should get GMod. After purchasing go to this link and press 'subscribe' to get them: STEAMCOMMUNITY (Made by Nightstalker). When finished, go to Steam\SteamApps\common\GarrysMod\garrysmod\. There will be the same “models” and “materials” folder, where you can find your desirable NPC (or it may be called "workshop" or "addons". I don't have GM and I can tell for sure. You can use search anyway, so I don't think it will be a problem for you to find those two folders). You can use GTA IMG editor or this post on SPACEEINSTEIN or GTAFORUMS to find the one you’re looking for. Write a name of the ped somewhere and go back to garrysmod folder. Open models>vicecity>npc folder, find your ped’s model files(should be six of them). Then go to \steamapps\common\SourceFilmmaker\game\usermod\models and create folder ‘vicecity’. Enter this folder and create another folder ’npc’. Enter npc folder and paste those six files in there. Now do the same thing for the materials folder. Open usermod’s ‘materials’ and ‘materials’ from the garrysmod folder. In the usermod’s 'materials>models' create vicecity folder, in vicecity folder then create playermodels folder and copy paste VTF and VMT files from garrysmod’s playermodels folder
2) Import All NPCs
For this method all you have to do is simply copy past what’s in the garrysmod’s materials and models folders to usermod’s materials and models folders. That way you will have all the peds available for you in SFM.
Now the important thing: rig. Download it from here:
DROPBOX
A guy named 'OMG Theres A Bear In My Oatmeal!' once made it for me and I’m very thankful for it! Just drop it into the usermod folder and you’re done. Then, when you’re in SFM and already loaded up your model, right click on it and select “load rig script”. Select "rig_gta.py" from your usermod folder and click OK.

You already know how to replace model texture from Tommy’s section, so I think that’s it for the models
 
ANIMATION
Instead of writing, I’ll show you all this with some tutorials, which are more useful than my own information:
1) Valve’s official tutorials:
Full
Episodic
But for the basics I suggest you to use one from “More complex covering of tools and other things” first, because it’s a very good tutorial. Covers some very useful stuff like rigging, lights and animation.
2) Next one is this:
Pose to pose animation
It’s already in the episodic playlist, but I decided to highlight it. If you’re all set and want to animate very seriously, watch this tutorial.

But you don’t always have to animate like this. I don’t know about this much, but it seems that you can use your own body to create animation. You can record yourself with kinects and use it as a mocap animation in SFM.
iPiSoft Mocap Studios Tutorial
MoCap transfer from Ipisoft Studio to SFM
Head, Hands and Fingers Animation
I didn’t tried it, but you might have this ability

MORE COMPLEX COVERING OF TOOLS AND OTHER THINGS
Basics
   It says “basics”, but there’s more to it. This is a must watch material for you
Green Screen
Choosing animations
   Helpful if you don’t want to make an animation
Text to SFM
Camera
Particles 1
Particles 2
Lights 1
Lights 2
Object lock
Scenebuild
Scaling
Slow Motion
Argodaemon’s tutorials
There’s much more, but I’ll leave it for you to find. I just wanted to give you some base material, from which you can then proceed to new things yourself. You can also get some DLCs for SFM like 'L4D2 pack'. When you're in your Steam library, click on SFM and you'll see them right away. It may come in handy, because it has game animations, models and props

OTHER
SFM Workshop
GM Workshop
Vice City cars
Vice City bikes
Vice City boats
Vice City weapons
Other GTA models
Single CJ model
I don’t know how to get clothes for CJ, sorry. If I will, I’ll update this post. Right now I can only suggest you to wear TF2 clothes on him (if you're really going to do this, use 'object lock' tutorial above)

TRIVIA
It may take a while to get better at this, but when you will, SFM will become a very powerful tool to work with. I’m not good with it, so it’s a very poor way of animating I did here. I’m sure you can do it a lot better. Just try it out. It’s looks hard at the beginning, but believe me, it’s really not! You can really push your ideas to the top with it

Special thanks to:
ARS,  Simon and to all the creators of tutorials

[ARS]

1st! Thank you so much for this tutorial, my friend! Everyting is neat, i think all SFM beginners will understand "how to make something". Great job!

[J.Mario]

Nice stuff! Thanks for making such a detailed statements and tutorials.