DigitalEro Offline
Source Filmmaker image making guide
Fri, 01 Mar 2013 12:21:28
Vitezislav
This guide will focus on making images in Source Filmmaker.
What do you need for this tutorial:
Map: Femsheps Quarter (ME3), <!-- l --><a class="postlink-local" href="https://digitalero.org/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=57">viewtopic.php?f=28&t=57</a><!-- l -->
Models: Nude Miranda Lawson (Mass Effect 3 ) Gmod & XNALara, <!-- l --><a class="postlink-local" href="https://digitalero.org/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=85">viewtopic.php?f=22&t=85</a><!-- l -->
Miranda Lawson Nude (Rebuilt Faceposing), <!-- l --><a class="postlink-local" href="https://digitalero.org/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=121">viewtopic.php?f=22&t=121</a><!-- l -->
Put the map, models and materials folder in: steam/steamapps/common/SourceFilmmaker/game/usermod
Now lets begin by creating a new file.
If this is your first time using SFM, you will probably only have the Primary Viewport, but we also want to see the Secondary Viewport, which will make posing a lot easier.
We don't have a map loaded yet, so lets load a map.
For this tutorial we want to use the map called femshep_quarter_hdr.bsp. You can either type the name of the map in Filter or manually select it from your list of maps. Once you have found the click, select it and click open.
Don't panic if you don't see the quarter section of the map yet, but only space.
We don't have a camera yet, so we want to set up a camera.
Once we have our camera1, we will do two things. First we click on camera1 in the Primary Viewport, so that it changes to Work Camera. After that we want to add camera1 to our Animation Set Editor. We can do this by right clicking in the area of the Animation Set Editor and selecting Create Animation Set(s) for Existing Element(s) and we select camera1.
Now it is time to navigate through the map and find the quarter section of the map.
Place your mouse in the Viewport with the Work Camera and hold the left mouse button. With w,a,s,d you can now navigate through the map and find the quarter. If you look up from the starting point you will see it. As you can see in your Secondary Viewport, camera1 hasn´t changed its view yet.
Now we want to move our camera1. Underneath our two viewports we have the Timeline with various buttons. When you load a file, you always start with the Clip Editor being active, but we want to manipulate our camera1 model, so we will change it to Graph Editor. You can do this by clicking on the Graph Editor button or by pressing F4.
Now we select camera1 in the Animation Set Editor and look for it in the Primary Viewport. Once we have found it (just move your screen down and you will see it). In your Primary Viewport section, just under the screen you will see four buttons: Select, Move, Rotate and Screen. We will be using Move and Rotate most of the time. We want to move the camera so we will click on the Move button. You will see a blue/red and green arrow and three colored circles, which will allow you to move the model. Click on the blue arrow and hold your left mouse button and move the camera up. In your Secondary Viewport you will see your screen moving. Move and rotate the model around untill you see the bed in the Secondary Viewport.
Time to add a model. In the Animation Set Editor area, right click and select Create Animation Set for New Model. SFM will start loading all your models and we want to find our model fast, so type Miranda in Filter. We will use the model by LordAardvark, since it has amazing face posing, but why did I need to download the Miranda model from DxN? LordAardvark's Miranda uses materials from DxN Miranda folder. Select the Miranda model and click Open. The Miranda model will load in the centre of your camera. Don't worry if the model looks dark and grainy, we will fix that soon.
Since it's a bit dark, lets add a light so we can see what we are doing when we try to pose our Miranda model. Again right click in the Animation Set Editor area and select Creat Animation Set for New Light and this will spawn a very bright light source at the camera position.
Select the light and bring down the Intensity, by holding down your left mouse button and sliding the intensity bar to the left.
Now we have enough light to start posing the Miranda model. When you look at the Animation Set Editor area, you will see our three models: camera1, miranda1 and light1. In front of them you see three icons: an eye, an arrow and a +. Click on the + of the Miranda model and the model options will expand into: Face, Body, Arms, Fingers and Unknown. These are subsections of the model. We will want to expand the Unknown section now, since the bone called ValveBiped.Pelvis is in there. The Pelvis bone will allow us to move and rotate the entire model.
First we need to come up with a pose. Lets try and do something like, but without all the roses, of course we can always add roses.
Lets start by rotating Miranda, by selecting the ValveBiped.Pelvis bone and rotate the model, so she is on her back and lower her on the bed. After that move her around by selecting the red/green circle. It will allow you to move her left/right and back/forward at the same time.
Now we have our starting position and are almost there already. Lets move her arms up a bit. We do this by rotating the bones: ValveBiped.LeftShoulder and ValveBiped.RightShoulder. Select one of them and make sure you Rotate selected and move the red and blue circles untill you have the arms in the desired position. After that we move on to the bones: ValveBiped.LeftElbow and ValveBiped.RightElbow. Rotate them into position, but this time we will also use the green circle on ValveBiped.LeftElbow. The green circle will twist the arm, but not move the arm up or down. Be careful not to twist the arm too far.
Now that we have done that, we need to work on her hands. Those bones can be found under the subsection Arms of the model. Press the + and you will find two bones: ValveBiped.Bip01_L_Hand and ValveBiped.Bip01_R_Hand. Lets rotate those into position.
Lets worry about the fingers later and do the legs first. Those bones can be found under Unknown again: ValveBiped.RightHip, ValveBiped.RightKnee, ValveBiped.RightAnkle, ValveBiped.RightToe, ValveBiped.LeftHip, ValveBiped.LeftKnee, ValveBiped.LeftAnkle and ValveBiped.LeftToe. Lets start by rotating her hip bones and move your way down the bone list. If you are having trouble with your view, simply navigate around in your Primary Viewport by holding down your left mouse button and using w,a,s,d. That way you can see if body parts are clipping into each other or not and than you can simply adjust the bones that are clipping into each other.
Now that her legs are in place, we can work on her fingers. They can be found in the subsection Fingers. Click on the + and you will see two new subsections called: RightFingers and LefFingers. Click on the + and they will expand showing all the finger bones. Each finger has three different bones. Top, centre and bottom of the finger. Simply rotate them into position and make sure they aren't clipping or looking broken.
Lets rotate her neck a bit. Her bones ValveBiped.Neck and ValveBiped.Neck1 can be found under Unknown. Simply rotate them a bit untill you are satisfied with the result. We now have faceposing left to do, but it's a bit dark, so move the light around, so you can see her face a bit better. You can move Miranda's eyes with the options under the subsection Face. Simply use the sliders to centre her eyes, move the up/down, left/right.
Under the subsection Unknown you will have noticed bones without a + in front of them, like jaw_drop. Those are all facial flexes and can be controlled with sliders. Play a bit with them, untill you have your desired outcome.
We are done posing now. Time to start working on the lighting.
The map already shows a few good spots where you can place lights.
Lets start by moving our light1. I will place light1 above Miranda and having it shine down on her and play with the sliders red/green/blue untill I get the light color I want. Adjust the intensity so that the light isn't too bright, but also not too dark. With quadraticAttenuation you can also increase and decrease the strenght of the light. Add a few more lights.
Finally move the camera into the position you want and with FieldOfView you can zoom in and out with the camera, toneMapScale will darken or lighten the image, bloomScale manages the intensity of the bloom effect, the SSAO sliders determine the shadows and noise on the model.
Happy with the result go to File, Export, Poster, choose your settings and Export Poster.
Here the final result without editing it in GIMP or Photoshop.
This is just a simple and basic tutorial. I will expand it later on and go deeper into certain elements.
Advanced lighting
At first it might seem there is only one way to do lights, by simply creating a new light. With this simple light you can do much more.
Select the light and click on Show in element viewer - light
Now lets go to the Element viewer and expand light1. You will see a lot of things, most things are the sliders. As you can see I already adjusted most sliders, but the thing that is interesting is Texture. That is right, in SFM you can add your own light textures. You can basically create any light effect you want, by simply changing the texture.
As you can see in the image I used a nice waterfall effect, but toned it down by placing a volumetric light behind it.
You can also create volumetric lights in another way, which I will show later. Just wanted to share how to add different textures for your light for now.
If this is your first time using SFM, you will probably only have the Primary Viewport, but we also want to see the Secondary Viewport, which will make posing a lot easier.
We don't have a map loaded yet, so lets load a map.
For this tutorial we want to use the map called femshep_quarter_hdr.bsp. You can either type the name of the map in Filter or manually select it from your list of maps. Once you have found the click, select it and click open.
Don't panic if you don't see the quarter section of the map yet, but only space.
We don't have a camera yet, so we want to set up a camera.
Once we have our camera1, we will do two things. First we click on camera1 in the Primary Viewport, so that it changes to Work Camera. After that we want to add camera1 to our Animation Set Editor. We can do this by right clicking in the area of the Animation Set Editor and selecting Create Animation Set(s) for Existing Element(s) and we select camera1.
Now it is time to navigate through the map and find the quarter section of the map.
Place your mouse in the Viewport with the Work Camera and hold the left mouse button. With w,a,s,d you can now navigate through the map and find the quarter. If you look up from the starting point you will see it. As you can see in your Secondary Viewport, camera1 hasn´t changed its view yet.
Now we want to move our camera1. Underneath our two viewports we have the Timeline with various buttons. When you load a file, you always start with the Clip Editor being active, but we want to manipulate our camera1 model, so we will change it to Graph Editor. You can do this by clicking on the Graph Editor button or by pressing F4.
Now we select camera1 in the Animation Set Editor and look for it in the Primary Viewport. Once we have found it (just move your screen down and you will see it). In your Primary Viewport section, just under the screen you will see four buttons: Select, Move, Rotate and Screen. We will be using Move and Rotate most of the time. We want to move the camera so we will click on the Move button. You will see a blue/red and green arrow and three colored circles, which will allow you to move the model. Click on the blue arrow and hold your left mouse button and move the camera up. In your Secondary Viewport you will see your screen moving. Move and rotate the model around untill you see the bed in the Secondary Viewport.
Time to add a model. In the Animation Set Editor area, right click and select Create Animation Set for New Model. SFM will start loading all your models and we want to find our model fast, so type Miranda in Filter. We will use the model by LordAardvark, since it has amazing face posing, but why did I need to download the Miranda model from DxN? LordAardvark's Miranda uses materials from DxN Miranda folder. Select the Miranda model and click Open. The Miranda model will load in the centre of your camera. Don't worry if the model looks dark and grainy, we will fix that soon.
Since it's a bit dark, lets add a light so we can see what we are doing when we try to pose our Miranda model. Again right click in the Animation Set Editor area and select Creat Animation Set for New Light and this will spawn a very bright light source at the camera position.
Select the light and bring down the Intensity, by holding down your left mouse button and sliding the intensity bar to the left.
Now we have enough light to start posing the Miranda model. When you look at the Animation Set Editor area, you will see our three models: camera1, miranda1 and light1. In front of them you see three icons: an eye, an arrow and a +. Click on the + of the Miranda model and the model options will expand into: Face, Body, Arms, Fingers and Unknown. These are subsections of the model. We will want to expand the Unknown section now, since the bone called ValveBiped.Pelvis is in there. The Pelvis bone will allow us to move and rotate the entire model.
First we need to come up with a pose. Lets try and do something like, but without all the roses, of course we can always add roses.
Lets start by rotating Miranda, by selecting the ValveBiped.Pelvis bone and rotate the model, so she is on her back and lower her on the bed. After that move her around by selecting the red/green circle. It will allow you to move her left/right and back/forward at the same time.
Now we have our starting position and are almost there already. Lets move her arms up a bit. We do this by rotating the bones: ValveBiped.LeftShoulder and ValveBiped.RightShoulder. Select one of them and make sure you Rotate selected and move the red and blue circles untill you have the arms in the desired position. After that we move on to the bones: ValveBiped.LeftElbow and ValveBiped.RightElbow. Rotate them into position, but this time we will also use the green circle on ValveBiped.LeftElbow. The green circle will twist the arm, but not move the arm up or down. Be careful not to twist the arm too far.
Now that we have done that, we need to work on her hands. Those bones can be found under the subsection Arms of the model. Press the + and you will find two bones: ValveBiped.Bip01_L_Hand and ValveBiped.Bip01_R_Hand. Lets rotate those into position.
Lets worry about the fingers later and do the legs first. Those bones can be found under Unknown again: ValveBiped.RightHip, ValveBiped.RightKnee, ValveBiped.RightAnkle, ValveBiped.RightToe, ValveBiped.LeftHip, ValveBiped.LeftKnee, ValveBiped.LeftAnkle and ValveBiped.LeftToe. Lets start by rotating her hip bones and move your way down the bone list. If you are having trouble with your view, simply navigate around in your Primary Viewport by holding down your left mouse button and using w,a,s,d. That way you can see if body parts are clipping into each other or not and than you can simply adjust the bones that are clipping into each other.
Now that her legs are in place, we can work on her fingers. They can be found in the subsection Fingers. Click on the + and you will see two new subsections called: RightFingers and LefFingers. Click on the + and they will expand showing all the finger bones. Each finger has three different bones. Top, centre and bottom of the finger. Simply rotate them into position and make sure they aren't clipping or looking broken.
Lets rotate her neck a bit. Her bones ValveBiped.Neck and ValveBiped.Neck1 can be found under Unknown. Simply rotate them a bit untill you are satisfied with the result. We now have faceposing left to do, but it's a bit dark, so move the light around, so you can see her face a bit better. You can move Miranda's eyes with the options under the subsection Face. Simply use the sliders to centre her eyes, move the up/down, left/right.
Under the subsection Unknown you will have noticed bones without a + in front of them, like jaw_drop. Those are all facial flexes and can be controlled with sliders. Play a bit with them, untill you have your desired outcome.
We are done posing now. Time to start working on the lighting.
The map already shows a few good spots where you can place lights.
Lets start by moving our light1. I will place light1 above Miranda and having it shine down on her and play with the sliders red/green/blue untill I get the light color I want. Adjust the intensity so that the light isn't too bright, but also not too dark. With quadraticAttenuation you can also increase and decrease the strenght of the light. Add a few more lights.
Finally move the camera into the position you want and with FieldOfView you can zoom in and out with the camera, toneMapScale will darken or lighten the image, bloomScale manages the intensity of the bloom effect, the SSAO sliders determine the shadows and noise on the model.
Happy with the result go to File, Export, Poster, choose your settings and Export Poster.
Here the final result without editing it in GIMP or Photoshop.
This is just a simple and basic tutorial. I will expand it later on and go deeper into certain elements.
Advanced lighting
At first it might seem there is only one way to do lights, by simply creating a new light. With this simple light you can do much more.
Select the light and click on Show in element viewer - light
Now lets go to the Element viewer and expand light1. You will see a lot of things, most things are the sliders. As you can see I already adjusted most sliders, but the thing that is interesting is Texture. That is right, in SFM you can add your own light textures. You can basically create any light effect you want, by simply changing the texture.
As you can see in the image I used a nice waterfall effect, but toned it down by placing a volumetric light behind it.
You can also create volumetric lights in another way, which I will show later. Just wanted to share how to add different textures for your light for now.Sat, 02 Mar 2013 09:23:47
BlazBro
This is a really helpful tutorial for beginners. I actually figured all this stuff out myself, though... somehow. SFM is a pretty friendly program to use (despite the crashes and shit) ._.
Sat, 02 Mar 2013 11:44:26
Vitezislav
I never have problems with SFM really. Never had any crashes.
Thu, 14 Mar 2013 19:31:33
ClockworkBeast
Thanks, really helpful!
Thu, 14 Mar 2013 23:21:40
USAgent
While this tutorial is assisting me, I believe a few more screenshots here and there to better illustrate your guide will go a longer way. Took me around five minutes to find the "second viewport" option in the Windows droplist. Little junk like that can expedite the process.
Thu, 14 Mar 2013 23:46:29
ClockworkBeast
SFM never works as it should.Somethimes when I click on something (example:Animation set editor), every oder window just disappears.But somethimes not.Or I load a svae, and its all black.But naot always....WHAT THE FUCK?
Fri, 15 Mar 2013 01:07:04
Ganonmaster
"ClockworkBeast" said ...That is probably a hardware problem. SFM has known issues with several Intel graphics devices. Your screens going black might be an indication of that.
SFM never works as it should.Somethimes when I click on something (example:Animation set editor), every oder window just disappears.But somethimes not.Or I load a svae, and its all black.But naot always....WHAT THE FUCK?
Fri, 15 Mar 2013 07:36:39
Vitezislav
"USAgent" said ...It shows how to get the secondary viewport in the second screenshot.
While this tutorial is assisting me, I believe a few more screenshots here and there to better illustrate your guide will go a longer way. Took me around five minutes to find the "second viewport" option in the Windows droplist. Little junk like that can expedite the process.
Fri, 15 Mar 2013 13:50:53
ClockworkBeast
Today, SFM decided to work without any problems, so I made a test picture:
I like SFM, but too many work, and I'm too lazy.A bit complicated, but much much better for making poses than Gmod...In my opinion.
I like SFM, but too many work, and I'm too lazy.A bit complicated, but much much better for making poses than Gmod...In my opinion.Fri, 15 Mar 2013 17:23:14
Vitezislav
Looking good :)
Fri, 15 Mar 2013 20:56:37
ClockworkBeast
Thanks, your tutorial is really a big help for the beginners, helped me a lot, thanks again. :-)
Mon, 18 Mar 2013 22:30:30
Eddie Riggs
Thx for the tutorial man. But somehow my SFM doesn't find the models/maps I put into the folder. :(
Any ideas how to fix that?
Tue, 19 Mar 2013 07:17:02
Vitezislav
You using the filter to search for them? If so make sure you have All Mods or usermod selected and MDL Files.
Tue, 19 Mar 2013 14:52:12
Vitezislav
Models spawn in the centre of the camera. So if you haven't added a camera as model and moved it into the room, the Miranda model will spawn at the place you started when the map got loaded.
Tue, 19 Mar 2013 12:29:24
Eddie Riggs
Ok, now it works. The filter was the name of an other map so the SFM didn't found the femshep map.
Edit: Loading map works fine but I have an other problem now. When I try to load Miranda into the set I see her neither in the preview-window nor in the set.
Tue, 19 Mar 2013 20:24:29
Eddie Riggs
I already have a cam.
And the model is not even shown in this window that you see when you load the model...
Edit: fixed. That vid helped me: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zgmR67mJ ... e=youtu.be
I needed to put the materials into the materials folder... :D
Left it all in the folder of the model.
Mon, 22 Apr 2013 07:00:53
USAgent
"Vitezislav" said ...For some utterly retarded reason the topic didn't load the screenies when I first viewed it. It's totally working now, though. Sorry for the confusion."USAgent" said ...It shows how to get the secondary viewport in the second screenshot.
While this tutorial is assisting me, I believe a few more screenshots here and there to better illustrate your guide will go a longer way. Took me around five minutes to find the "second viewport" option in the Windows droplist. Little junk like that can expedite the process.
Mon, 22 Apr 2013 07:41:16
Vitezislav
"USAgent" said ...No worries."Vitezislav" said ...For some utterly retarded reason the topic didn't load the screenies when I first viewed it. It's totally working now, though. Sorry for the confusion."USAgent" said ...It shows how to get the secondary viewport in the second screenshot.
While this tutorial is assisting me, I believe a few more screenshots here and there to better illustrate your guide will go a longer way. Took me around five minutes to find the "second viewport" option in the Windows droplist. Little junk like that can expedite the process.
Tue, 23 Apr 2013 09:39:31
USAgent
I ran into an issue upon loading Shepard's Cabin as a background, the majority of everything is white. I received a caution window telling me something about HDR but elected to ignore it because everything else was working fine. After messing around with the cameras as per your tutorial I went to load a model (Ashley). However I don't see anything. SFM tells me it's there but doesn't bring up an image. Help?
EDIT: This is what the caution window says.
EDIT: I was able to load Miranda. There's still the issue of this HDR thing, though.
EDIT: I was able to load Miranda. There's still the issue of this HDR thing, though.Tue, 23 Apr 2013 09:49:37
Ganonmaster
Make sure you load the map version that has HDR enabled. Without HDR, you can't use the map in Source Filmmaker.
Sun, 05 May 2013 00:55:16
AyatollaOfRock
Only got SFM a few days ago, and I have to say this tutorial really helped out a newbie like me!
Sun, 05 May 2013 07:05:28
Vitezislav
I am glad it helps :)
Thu, 09 May 2013 22:59:21
Ape
First of all, this tutorial is very easy to follow and is a great start for any newbie like me.
However, I stumble upon a problem early...
I downloaded all three files and put them in the section as mentioned aka usermod section.
I put the femshep_quarter in the maps section and the models in the model section.
Now, when I follow the step to load map, which is easy and clear.
SFM doesnt load the map and leaves it to no map loaded!.
Here is a link to show that sfm does recognize the .bsp file.
http://imgur.com/ddmKQwT
Fri, 10 May 2013 09:20:50
Vitezislav
That is odd. Can you load the tf2 maps?
Fri, 10 May 2013 09:57:36
zhulikkulik
"Ape" said ...Isn't it because of "usermod/maps/femshep's quarters/maps"? Try to place map directly to "usermod/maps" so it looks like "usermod/maps/femshep_quarter_hdr.bsp"
First of all, this tutorial is very easy to follow and is a great start for any newbie like me. However, I stumble upon a problem early... I downloaded all three files and put them in the section as mentioned aka usermod section. I put the femshep_quarter in the maps section and the models in the model section. Now, when I follow the step to load map, which is easy and clear. SFM doesnt load the map and leaves it to no map loaded!. Here is a link to show that sfm does recognize the .bsp file. http://imgur.com/ddmKQwT
Fri, 10 May 2013 19:09:21
Ape
Great, it works!!!
Although, I honestly think I tried that before and it didn't.
Maybe, I'm crazy.
Thank you both for your time, zhulikkulik and Vitezislav, greatly appreciated.
Sat, 18 May 2013 15:18:29
Too_Human
Thanks for taking the time to make this great tutorial Vitezislav! I was so lost when I first loaded SFM but your guide cleared up a lot of the confusion and got me started. I spent about an hour trying to figure out if I could adjust light brightness before I read your tutorial. :oops:
Tue, 04 Jun 2013 17:47:35
Vitezislav
Updated first post with how to add Textures to your light.
Tue, 04 Jun 2013 17:52:19
Rastifan
Time to kiss Vitezislav's ass for being such a resource and a fine addition to the forum :great:
I said kiss it :rage:
This will be useful when I get my thumb out and start learning SFM :mrgreen:
Tue, 04 Jun 2013 22:13:10
DemonicLemon
I noticed there were no mentions of IK rigging, easily what makes posing ragdolls easier. Think you can make an addon to this tutorial?
Wed, 05 Jun 2013 06:33:37
Vitezislav
Of course, going to be adding a lot more.
Wed, 05 Jun 2013 09:51:07
Mr_Tooth
Thanks a tons for the tutorial, man! I was exporting pics as movie frames until I read this guide and saw that I was doing it wrong. You're a lifesaver, dude!
Thu, 06 Jun 2013 01:00:01
Ganonmaster
You know, you can also enable light volumetrics in the Animation Set Editor by just right clicking the light's animationset and clicking "Enable Volumetrics"
Thu, 06 Jun 2013 05:54:52
Vitezislav
"Ganonmaster" said ...Yes I know.
You know, you can also enable light volumetrics in the Animation Set Editor by just right clicking the light's animationset and clicking "Enable Volumetrics"
Thu, 06 Jun 2013 12:05:47
kp0988
"Vitezislav" said ...I didn't... :D But, I know now, and it's way helpful. Thanks for that, and the tutorial on the whole."Ganonmaster" said ...Yes I know.
You know, you can also enable light volumetrics in the Animation Set Editor by just right clicking the light's animationset and clicking "Enable Volumetrics"
Thu, 06 Jun 2013 22:08:29
VagrantStomp
I would like to thank you for this tutorial. It is easy to understand (even for me who pretty much suck in english by the way sorry about that i hope you will understand me).
I discovered SFM a few week ago and i was so lost at first but after i read this i was finally able to take fun with it so thank you very much.
I hope to see more of your work and maybe another tutorial.
Sun, 09 Jun 2013 15:05:54
Ganonmaster
Something else that might be helpful to add to the "Advanced lighting" part of this tutorial would be the ShadowFilterSize of scene lights. If you're unfamiliar with this property, it basically controls the softness of the shadows this light casts. In the example below, you can see shadow artifacts when using the default light settings. When raising the value, these artifacts disappear and the overal shadows and highlights look better.
[spoiler:2i7yg00d]
[/spoiler:2i7yg00d]
[/spoiler:2i7yg00d]Sun, 09 Jun 2013 15:32:47
Selph80
"Ganonmaster" said ...Are you sure that's the name of the setting you need to change to improve that? Because when I move that slider it seems like it only increases the sharpness of the shadows cast by the light source.
Something else that might be helpful to add to the "Advanced lighting" part of this tutorial would be the ShadowFilterSize of scene lights. If you're unfamiliar with this property, it basically controls the softness of the shadows this light casts. In the example below, you can see shadow artifacts when using the default light settings. When raising the value, these artifacts disappear and the overal shadows and highlights look better. [spoiler:e15k3vqt]
Sun, 09 Jun 2013 15:48:09
Ganonmaster
"Selph80" said ...Pretty damn sure. Are you sure you're moving ShadowFilterSize and not ShadowAtten?"Ganonmaster" said ...Are you sure that's the name of the setting you need to change to improve that? Because when I move that slider it seems like it only increases the sharpness of the shadows cast by the light source.
Something else that might be helpful to add to the "Advanced lighting" part of this tutorial would be the ShadowFilterSize of scene lights. If you're unfamiliar with this property, it basically controls the softness of the shadows this light casts. In the example below, you can see shadow artifacts when using the default light settings. When raising the value, these artifacts disappear and the overal shadows and highlights look better. [spoiler:22p6c608]
Sun, 09 Jun 2013 15:58:47
kp0988
If I could ask, can you add somethings about ambient occlusion?
I've read about it, but I don't understand the practical effects behind it. I've look at Valve's notes on adjusting the options, but I just don't see the world of difference people have mentioned.
Sun, 09 Jun 2013 16:00:13
Selph80
"Ganonmaster" said ...Yeah I am. I also went to look up what it's actually supposed to do and they showed it in this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=4IzCAhNNOCU Now it might have the side effect that you're showing, but I'm not entirely sure that that is the intended goal of the slider."Selph80" said ...Pretty damn sure. Are you sure you're moving ShadowFilterSize and not ShadowAtten?"Ganonmaster" said ...Are you sure that's the name of the setting you need to change to improve that? Because when I move that slider it seems like it only increases the sharpness of the shadows cast by the light source.
Something else that might be helpful to add to the "Advanced lighting" part of this tutorial would be the ShadowFilterSize of scene lights. If you're unfamiliar with this property, it basically controls the softness of the shadows this light casts. In the example below, you can see shadow artifacts when using the default light settings. When raising the value, these artifacts disappear and the overal shadows and highlights look better. [spoiler:3amgraz2]
Sun, 09 Jun 2013 16:26:06
Ganonmaster
"Selph80" said ...I guess it depends on the situation. I prefer the soft shadows it gives. As you can see in the picture I shared, by default it seems to give me really shitty sharp shadows around all the polygons of the model. This disappear when I slightly increase the filter size. When I decrease the filter size, the shadow silhouette, does indeed become sharper, but the artifacts also become more visible on the model itself. I think that, unless you're going for a certain style, it's best to avoid sharp silhouettes.
Yeah I am. I also went to look up what it's actually supposed to do and they showed it in this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=4IzCAhNNOCU Now it might have the side effect that you're showing, but I'm not entirely sure that that is the intended goal of the slider.
"kp0988" said ...This would be useful. A lot of people say to turn it off to "get rid of the grainy shadows", but it's a nice effect if you know how to use it.
If I could ask, can you add somethings about ambient occlusion? I've read about it, but I don't understand the practical effects behind it. I've look at Valve's notes on adjusting the options, but I just don't see the world of difference people have mentioned.
Fri, 14 Jun 2013 16:21:28
kp0988
"Ganonmaster" said ...I found this on the Valve wiki not too long after asking: If there's ugly black speckles frequenting the scene upon enabling AO, that is normal. All this means is that you are not looking through your scene camera with at least 8 samples of depth of field rendered in the viewport (you must be in the Clip Editor). Camera Settings: SSAO Bias: Determines the threshold for visible ambient occlusion SSAO Strength: Determines the intensity of the shadows cast by ambient occlusion SSAO Radius: Determines the filtersize (spread) of shadows cast by ambient occlusion Tip:In almost all situations, you will find that increasing your bias while restricting your radius will produce the most realistic ambient occlusion. In order to refine your AO to a precise level, go into your viewport render settings and check "Show AO". Your viewport will only show your ambient occlusion shading and you'll be able to know exactly where it's affecting your scene. I've been doing this and I've seen somewhat of difference in the shadows. It about doubles the rendering times, just as a note."kp0988" said ...This would be useful. A lot of people say to turn it off to "get rid of the grainy shadows", but it's a nice effect if you know how to use it.
If I could ask, can you add somethings about ambient occlusion? I've read about it, but I don't understand the practical effects behind it. I've look at Valve's notes on adjusting the options, but I just don't see the world of difference people have mentioned.
Sun, 23 Jun 2013 14:41:03
Horsey
Thanks for the tutorial, it was extremely helpful for a neophyte like me.
Mon, 08 Jul 2013 06:27:32
USAgent
"Ganonmaster" said ...I have no idea why I didn't say thank you before. But thanks, man.
Make sure you load the map version that has HDR enabled. Without HDR, you can't use the map in Source Filmmaker.
Mon, 08 Jul 2013 06:59:08
USAgent
Man. I have Miranda loaded and standing in front of me, right? But I totally can't move her. I navigate to Unknown, hit the droplist and go down to ValveBiped.Pelvis and there I see 'pos' and 'rot'. Hitting the droplist for those two gives me "x", "y", and "z". I'm not seeing an option to place her atop of the bed or...anything, really.
Mon, 08 Jul 2013 07:45:41
Ganonmaster
"USAgent" said ...Make sure you are in the Graph Editor like the tutorial says. (you can hit F4 to open it up) Then just select "ValveBiped.Pelvis" and you should see one of the transformation gizmos in the viewport. Use those to move the model around. I really suggest reading the instructions and looking at the screenshots. It's all in there.
Man. I have Miranda loaded and standing in front of me, right? But I totally can't move her. I navigate to Unknown, hit the droplist and go down to ValveBiped.Pelvis and there I see 'pos' and 'rot'. Hitting the droplist for those two gives me "x", "y", and "z". I'm not seeing an option to place her atop of the bed or...anything, really.
Fri, 12 Jul 2013 09:47:19
Blahsted
Very useful tutorial, my first attempt at anything like this but I kinda like how it came out.
Fri, 12 Jul 2013 20:39:16
Vitezislav
Nice work, looking good.
Thu, 01 Aug 2013 22:14:50
USAgent
"Ganonmaster" said ...I have the reading comprehension of a grade schooler. Thanks, man."USAgent" said ...Make sure you are in the Graph Editor like the tutorial says. (you can hit F4 to open it up) Then just select "ValveBiped.Pelvis" and you should see one of the transformation gizmos in the viewport. Use those to move the model around. I really suggest reading the instructions and looking at the screenshots. It's all in there.
Man. I have Miranda loaded and standing in front of me, right? But I totally can't move her. I navigate to Unknown, hit the droplist and go down to ValveBiped.Pelvis and there I see 'pos' and 'rot'. Hitting the droplist for those two gives me "x", "y", and "z". I'm not seeing an option to place her atop of the bed or...anything, really.
Tue, 22 Oct 2013 06:38:50
kinetic
After holding it off for quite some time, I finally took the plunge to learn how to use SFM.
You're guide was extremely helpful, thanks so much man !
Fri, 25 Oct 2013 16:39:24
MrFluffles
Thanks for the tutorial. After a couple of hours, I made this: http://a.pomf.se/J9l9R6.jpg
Got a weird problem with Leon not rendering properly, but it isn't very visible at that resolution. I don't think I have the patience for this kind of stuff though, so I doubt I'll try to make more pictures.
Fri, 25 Oct 2013 17:26:25
Vitezislav
"MrFluffles" said ...Nice work, the lighting is really good.
Thanks for the tutorial. After a couple of hours, I made this: http://a.pomf.se/J9l9R6.jpg Got a weird problem with Leon not rendering properly, but it isn't very visible at that resolution. I don't think I have the patience for this kind of stuff though, so I doubt I'll try to make more pictures.
Wed, 20 Nov 2013 20:13:05
Vicious Shepard
Thanks for this detailed tutorial, Vitezislav. You really helped me out learning the basic controls in SFM and most important rendering the final pic to get a nice poster. Thank you very much, man! :geek:
Sat, 07 Dec 2013 02:33:13
spooky_kitty
Thank you so much for the Tutorial, I too had a little difficulty finding how to make the second viewport but that wasn't too difficult. Also your images show a wide angle lens setting. Mine looks normal like through a 50mm lens. (I used to be a Pro photographer many moons ago)
What I am having trouble with is moving Amanda once I load her.On your screengrabs she loads in the middle of the bed. In mine she loads in the same point as the camera. I know I am probably missing something very simple here.
My SFM crashed shortly after so I need to re-try it this evening. :)
I have already learned more in the first parts of your Tutorial than I did in 6 + videos from Valve.
I hope to see other tutorials from you in the future.
-SK
Mon, 09 Dec 2013 21:11:49
spooky_kitty
I fiinished the tutorial. Thank you again for making it. I still have a lot of subtleties to learn let alone experimenting with animation within it.
This was a great help. Thank you.
-SK
Tue, 10 Dec 2013 19:18:52
Vitezislav
I am glad the tutorial helps.
Tue, 11 Mar 2014 03:52:15
ozzy
Super helpful, dude. Just completed my first pose based on your instructions. Inspired to pursue this as a side activity and now I'm getting the hang of it. A start, but again thanks for the instructions.