Anonymous at Wed, 31 May 2023 20:29:25 UTC No. 947295

>>947294
That program is long dead anon. There's a reason you can't find any help.

Anonymous at Wed, 31 May 2023 22:25:43 UTC No. 947298

>>947294
Sfm used to be incredibly popular but it died for a reason. It's pretty limited in a lot of ways and it's competition has only continued to surpass it. I would recommend learning blender if your interested in animation, and eventually if you discover you have a passion for 3D in general you can move on to other softwares. Blender isn't the best at anything, but it is the best place to get started.

Anonymous at Wed, 31 May 2023 22:45:02 UTC No. 947300

>>947298
Understood. So I guess there are no such communities? Shame

Anonymous at Thu, 1 Jun 2023 02:16:49 UTC No. 947304

There's a second version of sfm, s2fm. Should have updated resources for it to learn, not sure though.

I would suggest learning either blender if you don't have the resources for maya if you want to do animation.

ChadChan3D at Fri, 2 Jun 2023 07:42:37 UTC No. 947371

I still use SFM but I'm low-key embarrassed by using it.

I've tried S2FM (available with Half-Life Alyx) which is a big improvement, but there's few models available for it on places like SFMLab.

I believe SFM to be serviceable for 3D art, but shit like fluid (sweat and cum) is a nightmare. There's also a million NSFW models for it, and some dedicated people like LordAardvark still use it as their 3D porn workhorse.

If I were to do things over, I'd just bite the bullet and learn Blender from the beginning. But if you're a masochist, watch the official Valve YouTube series on using SFM and visit LordAardvark's site. He has written a boatload of scripts for SFM to help make it a little less shit.

Anonymous at Fri, 2 Jun 2023 18:31:30 UTC No. 947413

>>947371
Why don't you learn blender? If your so familiar with SFM making the jump probably won't be very difficult.

🗑️ ChadChan3D at Fri, 2 Jun 2023 19:15:05 UTC No. 947414

>>947413

I look forward to making art in Blender. Right now I use it exclusively to edit SFM models.

All my current projects are made with scenes and assets in SFM, so I've no hurry to change.

I've spent my time with SFM learning the basics of good art--composition, human form, lighting and storytelling.

When I do graduate to Blender I hope to make even hotter art.

🗑️ ChadChan3D at Fri, 2 Jun 2023 19:33:58 UTC No. 947417

>>947413

I will. Right now I use it exclusively to edit SFM models.

All my current works are made using scenes and assets in SFM so I've no hurry to change.

SFM has taught me the basics of good art--composition, human form, lighting and storytelling.

I look forward to graduating to Blender.

ChadChan3D at Fri, 2 Jun 2023 19:46:55 UTC No. 947418

>>947413

I will. Right now I use it exclusively to edit SFM models.

All my current works are made using scenes and assets in SFM so I've no hurry to change.

Anonymous at Fri, 2 Jun 2023 20:17:21 UTC No. 947419

>>947418
If you're already using blender for the models, try looking into unreal for the sequencer. It's made my life animating imports from blender 1000% easier.

Anonymous at Fri, 2 Jun 2023 23:20:44 UTC No. 947423

I miss SFM's animation and rigging system.
motion paths automatically update and it's incredibly easy to constrain bones to other bones.
With blender you have to recalculate motion paths every time you want to see them and the constraint system is a convoluted mess because constraints live on the armature object you have no idea which ones are active and where they are.

Anonymous at Fri, 2 Jun 2023 23:36:05 UTC No. 947425

>>947371
Op here. Looking at stuff on r34 it looks like sfm can be quite decent even for porn. Animations made by leeterr seem impressive to me and have stuff like cum and sweat and recently this animation by howlSFM inspired me with how great results you can get with it. https://rule34.xxx/index.php?page=post&s=view&id=8012294
Problem is I know there's probably a boatload of hidden techniques and add-ons/plugins/scripts that you "need" for sfm and I can't even find any info anywhere.
I'll check out lord's site for sure though, thanks!

Anonymous at Sat, 3 Jun 2023 01:47:26 UTC No. 947427

>>947425
Because it's a dead platform you fucking idiot. Pay attention to what people are telling you in this thread.

ChadChan3D at Sat, 3 Jun 2023 03:47:09 UTC No. 947435

>>947425

I guarantee you those two cum trails were a headache to animate.

I don't know how Blender handles fluids, but sweat (or cum) in SFM must be painstakingly added and individually keyframed or super-imposed digitally in After Effects.

I love sweat and cum; it makes sex look real. But Jesus Christ does it take a fuck-ton of time to do right in SFM.

Regardless, all these obstacles are from your reticence to start. The only way to learn is to do and Blender and SFM are free bro.

Anonymous at Sat, 3 Jun 2023 08:11:38 UTC No. 947442

>>947435
And start I shall. Just wanted to share that sfm can make some very impressive results even for how old it is. Thanks

Anonymous at Sat, 3 Jun 2023 09:15:55 UTC No. 947443

>>947435
aren't there jigglebone physics in sfm? I think those can be applied to strands like that as long as you know how to go about it?

Anonymous at Wed, 7 Jun 2023 22:58:46 UTC No. 947763

>>947435
Why Blender? Why not Maya indie, if you don't mind them being allowed to install whatever malware they want on the side.
Why not use UE5 for making a control rig with its skeleton? Why not use Cascadeur? Seems like busting ass again away from one's specialization area just to get good at rigging and animation isn't viable when an Nvidia AI will be incorporated and provide better workflow, before a novice reaches proficiency.

ChadChan3D at Thu, 8 Jun 2023 03:11:36 UTC No. 947770

>>947763

Blender seems like the next step-up from SFM.

You've named modeling programs I've never even heard of--there's so many out there.

I don't believe the toolset really matters but what you do with it.

Anonymous at Fri, 9 Jun 2023 07:03:55 UTC No. 947872

>>947294
You missed the glory days, yes. Only pursue if it's a dream of yours.

Anonymous at Fri, 9 Jun 2023 10:33:09 UTC No. 947877

>>947435
>>947425
As someone with 1,500+ hours in SFM I'm almost 100% sure that video isn't SFM. A lot of animators who got their start with sfm and had it in the name just kept it in their names once they moved over to blender.

And if you're still here OP as someone with 1,500+ hours I'd listen to the people in this thread. I was mainly doing still renders back when I used it, not even animating, and there was so many annoying issues with it as a 15 year old program and I needed to learn many little tricks (some stuff I only picked up on when I hit like the hundreds and even into the thousands of hours) that you had to do to ensure you came out with something decent that you realise it's too much work putting in time for one project compared to what it's worth, particularly since I wasn't making money off it.

It's only benefit is that it's very accessible and easy to use along with their being a decent amount of models readily available ported from various games. This could make it an easy jumping off point to learn some basic principles about art, composition, lighting (and animating) which is one thing I came to understand a bit better in my time using it. That's really the only good thing about it, but I assume you'd learn all about that using any other modelling/animating program.

If you still want to learn about it, the most active community left is the discord linked on the sfm subreddit.

Anonymous at Fri, 9 Jun 2023 17:50:30 UTC No. 947904

Is it true that SFM and S2FM are absurdly faster than Blender when rendering?

Anonymous at Sat, 10 Jun 2023 00:53:07 UTC No. 947938

>>947294
Let's hope not.

Anonymous at Tue, 20 Jun 2023 05:29:19 UTC No. 948880

>>947423
There's a motion trail addon that has auto updates
https://blenderartists.org/t/updated-version-of-the-old-motion-trail-addon/1395865