SOURCE FILMMAKER

WendyLuvsCatzWendyLuvsCatz Posts: 37,666
edited October 2012 in Art Studio

quote " Have you ever heard of source filmaker?"

I don't know if it is spam, trolling or genuine software fanboi gushing but a lot of people feel compelled to post this on my Yiutube videos.
It uses Steam which pretty much rules it out for me on 3G broadband like MMORPG's and secondlife, if I need to do it continually online, forget it!!
lag not to mention the massive amount of broadband used would make it impractical.
but I am not going to explain this to EVERY troll posting the quoted comment as they will just launch into a neverending circle if, you must get a landline, you must do this, that whatever and finally you must learn to animate first befire putting stuff on Youtube (which is why they have no uploads!)

that off my chest,

Have you tried Source filmaker? anyone?
does it work with Daz models exported as fbx . is it any good? have you got some examples?

Post edited by WendyLuvsCatz on

Comments

  • WendyLuvsCatzWendyLuvsCatz Posts: 37,666
    edited December 1969

    I take the underwhelming response as a "no!"

    from what little I can find out, it uses the game engine for halflife to render movies like machinima using Garrys mod does with games but as a dedicated movie studio like iClone or Moviestorm.
    Do not see if it has any advantages over either or Unreal game engine or "theMovies"

  • FirstBastionFirstBastion Posts: 7,184
    edited December 1969

    I hadn't heard about FilmMaker but "Source" is the name of the 3D game engine that is used for the Halflife2 series of video games as well as countless other games. It's been used for "machinima" for years. I haven't tried Source filmmaker but it would seem to be a logical evolution of the software. Valve (the video game company) created STEAMpowered to be their internet portal for distribution at least 8-10 years ago. Game engines can be pretty robust in delivering animated video. Yes I admit it, I was an avid gamer and level designer in the not so distant past. ;-)

    Most DAZ models would have to be decimated to reduce the polycount significantly to be used efficiently in any of the game engines. Game engine content is highly optimized.

  • FirstBastionFirstBastion Posts: 7,184
    edited December 1969

    Went have a look. Interesting and exciting stuff.

    http://www.sourcefilmmaker.com/post.php?id=7948&p=1

  • WendyLuvsCatzWendyLuvsCatz Posts: 37,666
    edited December 1969

    yes I looked too (after the 6th comment by a Youtube viewer)
    and two of them actually had a few videos using it, so they were fanbois for sure
    (though I can't say "their" videos looked that impressive! but given they were new to it at least they were enthusiastic!)
    the other 4 had no video uploads in two cases or just screen captures of their gaming exploits as many do so prob more the trolling type, I tend to think if you suggest something, you should at least be using it yourself!!
    I tend to think it would be more of a "fun" or "toy" app myself like Xtranormal that gamers would use to entertain each other.
    though I admit, I myself kinda use Daz software that way rather than as a serious artistic tool!! ;-P
    infact ALL my videos were made solely for my own amusement! I just post them on Youtube so others can be amused or amuse me with their comments!

  • 3dView3dView Posts: 0
    edited December 1969

    Wendy,
    I actually looked at this when it first came out as indeed it looked like a very powerful tool to make animations with. And in fact it is a very powerful tool.....but it takes a bit of work to wrap you hands around how you are to do things. I started watching the tutorials and tried to get something done but I was not catching on that fast ....I have to admit.

    Since it free ----though, it might be worth the efforts as the results can be amazing.

  • SeiginotoraSeiginotora Posts: 106
    edited December 1969

    I am very curious about Source Filmmaker. I wonder if it's possible to convert Poser/Daz models into SFM for use with the app. Perhaps not straight away though. I'm thinking through use of the Decimator app it might be possible.

    Has anyone tried to convert Daz/Poser models to SFM?

  • Steve KSteve K Posts: 3,179
    edited December 1969

    ... I tend to think if you suggest something, you should at least be using it yourself!!
    I tend to think it would be more of a "fun" or "toy" app myself like Xtranormal that gamers would use to entertain each other.
    though I admit, I myself kinda use Daz software that way rather than as a serious artistic tool!! ;-P
    infact ALL my videos were made solely for my own amusement! I just post them on Youtube so others can be amused or amuse me with their comments!

    I agree with all of that.

    On a hopefully related note, I am interested in the use of game footage in animations, and have in fact done some experiments, e.g. this one (I have posted the link earlier, nothing new):

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bv7hMnkApk

    The car jump sequence starting about 0:49 was done with Grand Theft Auto 4, which has a built-in video capture/editor feature (PC version only). It does not just record the video output from the game, but actually captures the animation info, and allows post game play adjustments, e.g. camera angles. Grand Theft Auto 5 came out only for consoles (Xbox 360 and PS3) and so does not (yet) have the same feature. So I got the ElGato video capture box which works very nicely. More here:

    https://www.elgato.com/en/gaming/game-capture-hd

    Here is a GTA5 video capture (again, posted earlier):

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Myq6UuJlnPQ

    The good news (for me, anyway) is that GTA5 will come out for the PC (and Xbox One and PS4) later this year, and the PC version will have the video capture/editor. The bad news is I have to buy it again, but I probably will. The programming is almost unbelievable.

  • IvyIvy Posts: 7,124
    edited June 2014

    After Reading through all the documentation Wendy, it looks like too me a 3D studio subscription service , kind of like how Adobe's Creative Cloud works
    They charge you a monthly fee to access their online services to create 3d gaming and animation & films you pay a determined price for each part of the service you want to use . for example they have Maya LT for $30 a month and , then if you want you can pay or add another $12 for the video fx effects, and $9 for the movie editor and so on. its all accessed through the internet, on their site. its not a downloadable program you just download the software skins & controls but not the main software that is used to make it work., so in order to use it you need to keep your subscriptions current. very much like Adobe creative cloud. you only pay for what you want to use for as long as you want to pay for it but when you stop paying the program stops working very much like adobe creative cloud. and it only works if you haver broad band connection as well

    Post edited by Ivy on
  • IvyIvy Posts: 7,124
    edited June 2014

    I should add here is their software list of stuff you can choose to pay for monthly and what its about here
    http://store.steampowered.com/about
    they give you the free editor but you need the plugins to make it work from my understanding
    http://store.steampowered.com/software/


    edited once for adding the about link to this post

    Post edited by Ivy on
  • WendyLuvsCatzWendyLuvsCatz Posts: 37,666
    edited December 1969

    this is an old thread, been on landline quite a while :lol: I have Steam for Skyrim and downloaded Source Filmaker today may look at it eventually

  • argus1000argus1000 Posts: 701
    edited December 1969

    I dunno, but it seems to me that Source Filmmaker's characters look like cartoon characters, not realistic characters like Daz's. Is this a software to create cartoons or movies?

  • none01ohonenone01ohone Posts: 862
    edited June 2014

    I thought it uses the Half Life 2 characters and environments, so I presume you need those games. I've downloaded it from steam but not tried it out yet.

    Post edited by none01ohone on
  • 1MoreThreadDeleted1MoreThreadDeleted Posts: 56
    edited December 1969

    SFM is an awesome animation program. It has great potential and has been used to win competitions like 11 SEC animation club. There are a few downsides to the software for me. And that starts with the complexity to get things to work that are not part of the base set of characters and props. There is the community workshop for extra content and that is great and will continue to grow. But if you want your content in it can be a hassle.

    SFM and iClone are very similar in purpose ie using a game engine to produce movies/animations. SFM offers more control over the animation process than iClone atm. But this should change some with the introduction of iClone6 timeline editor with curves. And with the introduction of DirectX 11 advancements in iClone6 game engine the renders will look a lot better.

    So if you have iClone the future looks bright, but if you don't SFM is a great alternative.

  • argus1000argus1000 Posts: 701
    edited December 1969

    The immense advantage that iClone has over SFM is that you can import ANY character and export it back either as an animation (BVH) or as a character with animation (FBX), that is if you have DXchange Pro, which has a sophisticated re-targeting feature. With SFM, as of now, you are limited to a few characters.

    I regularly use my Genesis characters in iClone. It's wonderful, because iClone has, especially for facial animation, more sophisticated tools than Daz Studio. However, since Daz Studio FBX import is broken or inoperative, you can't import the facial animation

    BTW, where did you head about iClone 6 tieline editor with curves? It sounds like a graph editor is coming to iClone. That would be great.

  • edited December 1969

    I use both Poser and SFM, and they both have their advantages. One question I have, though, is if one can be converted to the other; I've got a custom model made that's going to be rigged for both, and the person doing it for SFM wanted to know if I can get the rigging off of the copy being rigged for Poser, so he can just implement it into the SFM version without having to rebuild the rigging from scratch.

  • mCasualmCasual Posts: 4,601
    edited December 1969

    wonder if i'll be able to pull Aiko3/Amy into Team Fortress

    5 GB i think it was for Team Fortress, i played 25 minutes !

    7.7 GB for SFM, downloading ... at 1.3 MB/s peak

    rocketwoman.gif
    800 x 800 - 539K
  • TrollgoblinTrollgoblin Posts: 22
    edited December 1969

    I'm more interrested into getting game-characters in Daz without too much of a hassle for a nooblet....

    I really want the deadpool & Wolverine from the Highmoon studios game, and the model can be found all over the net.
    But it's for XNALara and SFM. All my searches lead to intricate processes of which I don't get half of what is said with my noobie-head xD

    Anyone know the simplest way?

  • tmaltby89tmaltby89 Posts: 2
    edited December 1969

    I would like to take my models from DAZ3D into the source filmmaker. I use Fuse from Mixamo to create characters as well, and on their website they allow you to download your characters as playable characters to use in the source filmmaker. Which is really convenient. Mostly I use it as a generic character creator. However I want to be able to do the same in DAZ3D because I use Facegen for creating my main characters and by use of genesis I am able to make my characters look like anyone I have pictures of. Since Facegen will not work on Fuse I resort to DAZ3D. Is there anyway DAZ3D can create a plug-in I can download via install manager that would let me export my DAZ3D characters as .mdl and .dmx files so I can import them into the source filmmaker. This would save a lot of time rather than going through another program like Maya, 3DMax, Blender or Cinema 4D. Because it's a hassle just to get plug-ins for those programs to export which half the time doesn't even work. An export plug-in for DAZ3D would be great.

    Thank you.

Sign In or Register to comment.