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The4thaggie — [Tutorial] A Newb's Guide to Pony SFM
Published: 2014-03-07 09:05:32 +0000 UTC; Views: 6840; Favourites: 53; Downloads: 62
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Description
This tutorial is to help all those getting their feet wet with Pony SFM. It covers the basics from loading a map to working on a pony model.Since I originally put out my first tutorial video in 2012, I have gotten hundreds upon hundreds of comments saying they can't get so and so to work. This addresses the stuff inside of SFM for the bare bones basics. It assumes you have already imported the models CORRECTLY.
Production time was 5 hours on this. Most of which was done doing the Photoshop and other stuff. It's more intensive than my video tutorials, but I hope it is more understandable.
Edit: Apologies if I am being terse. The common trend I see is people don't grasp my former video training and they don't explore the program or the multitudes of training out there. You have to have a problem-solving mind to be a 3D artist. SFM is easier than traditional 3D programs, but the learning curve is NOT as relaxed as many people tend to treat it. In other words, you need to be able to seek guidance, but more importantly, think and do.
Do you just want to mess around with 3D ponies and don't want all that confusing stuff? Perhaps get your feet wet? Play with this: ponylumen.net/ It is essentially a web-based pony creator using SFM ponies as a base. You can pose, color, etc all within that, and it is 95% easier than trying to learn the basics of SFM. Like what you see?
Explore the SFM Wiki: developer.valvesoftware.com/wi…
Watch the best tuts for SFM basics: www.youtube.com/playlist?list=…
Use this subreddit for your general SFM questions: www.reddit.com/r/sfm
More advanced [SFM TUTORIAL]s: www.youtube.com/user/Ronaldthe…
Remember, Pony SFM is just Source Film Maker with ponies instead of TF2 or other characters from Valve. There's no real reason to duplicate efforts when there are mountains of excellent material pre-existing.
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Comments: 20
Well this tutorial has greatly assisted me especially as I'm in the early days of working with SFM. If you have more I'll be looking into them.
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Thanks man...err pony.. stallion....AHHGH Whatever!!
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Oh damn, this is probably what I needed, the basics. Not a 2 hour tutorial video that rambles on about how to animate and such, just glossing the basics over quickly, as well I have no plans for that in the foreseeable future.
Reading over it, pretty dang clear, I could easily see me getting the basics with this alone.
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Yeah. That was my point. For people who just want to get started. I tend to avoid tutorials until I mess with stuff a bit. It's funner figuring it out on your own.
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Okay, so... I know it's possible. I want to apply a material or something that makes the mane look wet, how do I do dat?
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Right click the models animation set and choose "Add override materials". Right click again and go into Show in element viewer>Model. Now go into "materials". Depending on what pony you're using, you may see either one material for the mane or two (hairfront and hairback). Right click on the appropriate material and add>float. It's essential you choose the right one or else you will have to reload an earlier save of the session. A small box should pop up. In it, type $phongboost. Add a number in there. It can be as high or as low as you want it to be.
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I kindof left Deviantart for a bit, so I never got a chance to say thank you. So... thanks. x~x
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How do you apply already made poses to the models? I know there's a way i just don't know how
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If I download a map which has maps, materials and models, where do I place it so I can load the map in SFM?
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usermod/maps
If it is a BSP. You'll also have to put the materials in the materials folder, and do the same with the models because there is a dependency. Folder hierarchy is important. If you have a downloaded archive that is for a map, it should already have folders "maps", "materials", and "models". If that is the case, take all three folders (don't go inside of them) and dump them in usermod.
If you did it right, it should work. If the person who packaged the maps did a bad job, it could cause problems.
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OMG
FINALLY! i have given up on this but now that i have this i will try it the moment im at home! and il post anything that goes wrong
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It's also worth noting that when you are first starting out, your screen is not going to look like this at all. The animationset editor will be on the left side. Hell, i've been using sfm almost two years and I still run with the default layout. XD
also, scrubbing the playhead out of the shot then back in will fix the hair thing as well.
Hopefully though this helps people.
You should consider on for installing ponies as well. It seems alot of people have trouble with this, and end up either with checkerboard ponies or invisible ponies. (i've tried to upload the overhaul pack to the workshop to solve this, but it's never worked out.)
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I'm considering it, but it will take hours like this. The issue people have with "installing" the ponies goes down to basic computer usage. I've shown people how to do it from the first step to the last as simple and thorough as humanly possible. The first time, I told them to download the folders and extract THEN showed them how to copy them and open them in SFM. The second tutorial went "play by play". Not too much info to confuse and overwhelm IMO, but showing the download/extraction/copy/opening process. Despite all that, I still got the same amount of 3-4 word Youtube comments
"I doesn't work"
"I don't see anything"
etc
I tried in the beginning to reply to these comments asking for more information and working through their hand-holding. I found that I was spending more time, work, and stress with these partial responses than I was on my $50K government job protecting 55,000+ students' data. I couldn't justify it, and it hurts me to ignore people looking for help. So I unlisted my videos. The individual people also couldn't grasp the overall (mentality? workflow?) of SFM by just answer case-by-case questions. More video training meant more questions of the same like.
I think there's a time and place for everything, but this kind of stuff, it seems, needs a more focused and deliberate method of instruction. Video is good for those who have a grasp of things, but when I get comments like "where's this button or that", it tells me that they don't have a foundational level of understanding with the UI.
From the beginning, I wanted to be more of a teacher than a "do 'er" with Pony SFM (as seen in my mid-2012 vids), and I want to give aspiring students every opportunity to learn. I have to be a bit more firm with my "real talk" because the only way they will succeed is if they explore and play around like all of us have. One does not simply walk into SFM(ordor) and expect to be able to make cool stuff with a few clicks of the mouse. That's more along the lines of ponylumen.net/
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I found that my UI config worked best for staging the blocks of text and such, and anyone who spends more than a few microseconds looking at the screen should be able to find the basics (which are made to stand out in this tutorial). I had to balance both my time and the expected attention span of my viewers. The route I chose was the one that required the least amount of thinking.
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"Scrubbing through the playhead" or hitting play works sometimes, but it depends on the camera and where the model is in the map. I did the least amount of camera movement and non-mentioned supporting steps. Doing it like this, the tail's jigglebones were hitting some plane and going everywhere. I could say "move the model, hit play, and then move the time slider back to 0". They would get frustrated, give up, and essentially get nothing or a bad experience from SFM. Doing it like this, it works and has the least chance of legitimate confusion.
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I'm considering writing a book called "Pony SFM for Dummies", but I don't think I can use their trademark/copyrighted material.
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Pony SFM for Scrubbinators. For Bronies. For Uninformed-Intellectual-Hopefuls.
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Basically was parodizing, " 👍: 0 ⏩: 0
Also, thanks for this, I was actually able to freaking learn some stuff and got my toes wet in SFM.
very nice guide. one thing though: you don't necessarily have to load a rig to fix the hair. what I do is move the model some random direction after loading it in, then immediately undo it, which usually fixes it.
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There are ways to do it differently, but the people this is geared torward would likely stop, flip a table, and then ask me to explain the thing you just said. It's less confusing to some people, and I don't notice any ill effects doing it this way.
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