Beginner-friendly, easier than Blender
Mentioned in ~1 in 4 positive reviews
“best animation studio and is less complicated than blender”
Steam review · 53.5 h played ↗
Source Filmmaker
Worth buying? What 300 Steam reviews say.Worth buying? Here’s what 300 Steam reviews actually say.
Very Positive · 93%Very Positive · 93%Valve2012Sandbox · Survival Horror · Souls-like
The verdict
Free, old but capable Source-engine animation tool with a huge Workshop library and a steep learning curve. Skip it if crashes and abandonware bother you or you need a modern pipeline.
Great for
Hobbyists and beginners making TF2/Source posters and animations who will watch tutorials and save often
Main risk
Frequent crashes lose your work in an abandoned, outdated 32-bit program with a steep learning curve
What players love
Free and powerful for posters and animations
Mentioned in ~1 in 11 positive reviews
“it's still free, still around, is pretty flexible”
Steam review · 249.4 h played ↗
Huge Workshop and Source asset library
Mentioned in ~1 in 13 positive reviews
“you can go from freddy fourbear to a tesseract”
Steam review · 600.5 h played ↗
Fun TF2/FNAF content creation
Mentioned in ~1 in 13 positive reviews
“You can make TF2, FNAF animations and more. It's simply a great program.”
Steam review · translated · 10.7 h played ↗
Rewarding results and creative community
Mentioned in ~1 in 15 positive reviews
“when it works it's unbelievably rewarding”
Steam review · 240.8 h played ↗
What players complain about
Lag, bugs and technical limits
Mentioned in ~1 in 4 negative reviews
“it lags as hell if you add some lights and models”
Steam review · 189.2 h played ↗
Frequent crashes and lost work
Mentioned in ~1 in 5 negative reviews
“Needs an update so badly crashes whenever I do anything whether its loading a model or animating even 1 sequence it just crashes”
Steam review · 49.3 h played ↗
Steep learning curve, confusing UI
Mentioned in ~1 in 5 negative reviews
“Unless You want to spend 120 hours learning how to animate then no, do not install this if you want a quick and simple animation app.”
Steam review · 8.2 h played ↗
Won't launch, grey screen or compatibility issues
Mentioned in ~1 in 6 negative reviews
“when ever i open the app it is just a grey screen with the options on the top left and i tried all of them and nothing works”
Steam review · 14.5 h played ↗
Abandoned and outdated
Mentioned in ~1 in 7 negative reviews
“Valve abandoned this app since 2015. Right now this movie-making tool is super outdated”
Steam review · 0.4 h played ↗
Just use Blender instead
Mentioned in ~1 in 8 negative reviews
“If you're a full-blooded masochist, sfm is the one for you. If you want to keep your sanity, just use blender.”
Steam review · 541.1 h played ↗
System requirements
From the Steam store page
Steam Deck: Playable15 GB
Minimum
OSWindows 7 / Vista (Windows 7 64 bit suggested)
Processor3.0 GHz P4, Dual Core 2.0 (or higher) or AMD64X2 (or higher)
Memory2GB (4 GB suggested)
GraphicsNVIDIA GeForce 200 series card or better, or AMD Radeon 3000 series or better (NVIDIA GeForce 400 series or AMD Radeon 5000 series preferred)
StorageAt least 15 GB of Space
OSWindows 7 / Vista (Windows 7 64 bit suggested)
Processor3.0 GHz P4, Dual Core 2.0 (or higher) or AMD64X2 (or higher)
Memory2GB (4 GB suggested)
GraphicsNVIDIA GeForce 200 series card or better, or AMD Radeon 3000 series or better (NVIDIA GeForce 400 series or AMD Radeon 5000 series preferred)
StorageAt least 15 GB of Space
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