Valve releasing free movie-making tool
By
Eddie Makuch, News Editor
Source Filmmaker for PC used to make Team Fortress 2's "Meet the Team" videos to be released for public use, beta applications now available.
The technology Valve used to create its "Meet the Team" videos for Team Fortress 2 will be made available to the public. The firm announced today that gamers can now submit a beta application for free access to its Source Filmmaker (SFM) tool for Team Fortress 2.
To request a beta key for SFM, users must have Steam installed and running on their PC. Additionally, Valve said it is limiting the number of beta users initially, but will "soon" release the SFM to all users for free. There is no guaranteed way to score access to SFM's beta, but Valve said contributing a "highly rated" workshop item is a "good place to start."
According to a FAQ page posted on the SFM website, the technology is different from other movie-making tools in that it is a hybrid of various workflows, including a renderer, a 2D video clip editor, a keyframer, a motion capture editor, and a sound editor.
Those accepted into the beta for SFM can make use of Team Fortress 2's nine characters, hundreds of locations, and thousands of props, particles, textures, and sounds, Valve said. Additionally, assets that players build in the Steam Workshop can be loaded into the SFM. The SFM works at present only with Team Fortress 2, and Valve made no mention of extending functionality to its other properties.
Once users are satisfied with their SFM creations, they can export them to the Web or share them like any other movie file. Additionally, Valve said players can make money from their SFM movies, so long as they're not using Valve's assets.
"You can use Valve’s game assets (things like characters, props, particles, textures, and sounds) to create movies and images to share with the game community, as long as what you create is free," reads a line from the SFM's FAQ. "We’re not giving you a license to commercialize our assets. However, if [you] do not include any of Valve’s assets in the movies and images that you make, then there are no restrictions on what you do with your content and you can make money with it."
Valve said it is giving away the SFM for free because it sees potential in its audience to create "amazing things for themselves and for others."
To mark the launch of the SFM, Valve launched "Meet the Pyro," the ninth and final installment in its "Meet the Team" series. It introduces players to Team Fortress 2's flamethrower-wielding pyro class, giving players a glimpse of the character's motivations.
For more on the SFM, check out the tool's newly launched website and its FAQ.
By
Eddie Makuch, News Editor
Eddie Makuch (Mack-ooh) is a News Editor at GameSpot. He works out of the company's Boston office in Somerville, Mass., and loves extra chunky peanut butter.
47 comments
3 Like Valve is the best! Technically they are "indie" and support themselves. No wonder they're such a great company. Bellevue WA, USA represent!!
2 Like I'm an aspiring film maker and I really see that this tool could be a healpful means for me to make my films.
7 Like Valve, I love you. The one game company who actually does care about its players.
Does this mean more funny Gmod videos? I get the impression that those are time-consuming and somewhat pain-staking.
7 Like Valve, wow! I know why every developer in the world would love to work for you. Too cool.
1 Like I'll be trying this out whenever it's out or gives me an invitation to try it out. So curious!
It's gonna be intresting to see what people do with this also more then likely horrifying perhaps intrestingly horrifying who knows still cool
so.. how can i get it? i'm logging into steam but i don't see any invitations or even when i search for the program by typing "source film maker" nothing shows up!
and it's not even April!
1 Like Very nice! I know there's a lot of talented people out there who will take full advantage of this. Can't wait to see some L4D short films :)
1 Like Look to me like Valve is following in the footsteps of Crytek and releasing their movie making tools. For record Crytek already does this with CryEngine CineBox.
@4-Legged-Shark also a game company that only owns pc gaming (at least to the braindead fans) but only publish 3 games for the last 5 yrs. Good Luck, fapping to HL3
4 Like It is good that Value continues to give away things for free, showing generosity. Keep it up, Valve, you will be rewarded.
There's a reason it is called Source Film Maker, meaning that the program can be used to work with every game that uses the Source engine. i.e. TF2, L4D, CS:S, HL2, and so on.
1 Like This is big for people like me who want streamlined tools to produce videos as a hobby. I can't wait :)
2 Like A shame it's only for TF 2 for now :( I really could see me having fun making CS machinimas.
2 Like I would be excited, but Valve is releasing everything but the Half Life series. ~sigh~
2 Like Pretty damn cool. As an editor, I'm interested; I'll have to keep this in mind for future reference.
2 Like Hmmm... so a fleshed-out suite of tools similar to that of the Source SDK (and other game) authoring toolset? Sounds interesting (:P @zzamaro )
I wonder if this will replace the former eventually.
No way! Imagine some of the funny stuff we'll see on YouTube because of this. :D @zzamaro
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