Digital Art Zone

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?

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”

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.

Went have a look.  Interesting and exciting stuff. 

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

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!!
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!

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.