SFM Tutorial: How to Improve Your SFM Artworks

[@UncleScorch]

The segment on outdoor lighting alone would have been enough to make your tutorial one of my SFM favorites. I mainly make outdoor WW2 posters and your technique is EXACTLY what I needed. I used the tut info on posters I’d already made and the difference in output is amazing. BIG thanks - liked and subscribed!

[@cosmicviking6829]

Thank you for being honest about file size. I see so many KZbinrs telling people to download assets and fail to mention that one realistic car is 100 GB of space!

[@_zuri_]

I cannot thank you enough for this. I've felt pretty confident on indoor lighting but lighting outside... had no clue what I was doing. This tutorial saved my life and my marriage.

[@TheSilliestWilly]

One thing that I really appreciate about this video is that there is really loud ear rape played in between each section of the video. It really adds to my viewing enjoyment. Edit: So I am not only saying something negative, the video overall is helpful and you know your stuff, just good lord some of those transitions caught me off guard lol.

[@cgijoe5671]

Yeah, that’s not gonna be a thing in future vids. I was still trying to figure out my style when this was uploaded

[@TheSilliestWilly]

CGI Joe hey man no worries, that’s why I added the edit because I realized I was only saying something bad about a video that I thought was overall very helpful. By this point in my life I have probably seen 100+ hours of SFM tutorials but your section on lighting especially helped me understand better what some of the sliders did. So good work overall, you know your shit, and anyone that helps make my degenerate self-made SFM porn look better is doing the lord’s work.

[@jakobmayberry7427]

@@cgijoe5671 Besides those ear rape sections, this tutorial is great for explaining methods in an easy to digest manner. Some tutorials get so damn complicated, or there's a bunch of fluff and slow explanation that bores me.

[@cgijoe5671]

Video starts at 1:09 EDIT: Facepunch was taken down sometime after I finished recording this, and the CK pack, afaik, isnt available for download anywhere on the internet, though you might be able to get a mega link from somewhere on reddit if you ask around enough. As for the scenebuild megapack, that is thankfully available here nebulous.cloud/threads/sfm-scenebuild-megapack-by-mask.37893/

[@brickbagel1315]

Is there a different place to download it from? Mega is literal garbage.

[@cgijoe5671]

BrickBagel the official link is gone, and linked to mega anyways. If you want to download it from somewhere else, you’re just going to have to ask around on reddit or something

[@brickbagel1315]

@@cgijoe5671 Oof

[@oim8882]

BrickBagel I used my big brain and downloaded both packs by using the way back machine, I can’t provide links as I am on mobile currently but if you want both packs use the way back machine on the expired links and it should work (worked for me 2 months ago anyway)

[@brickbagel1315]

@@oim8882 Ok thanks! I'll try!

[@beats3726]

My good sir, you are the SFM tutorial god.

[@rainjurfox1230]

underrated. This is good advice to someone that doesn't even do cgi.

[@OutlawEagIe]

Thank You for this. I struggled with lights for some reason, watched many tutorials and you sir just made my lighting work in a few seconds.

[@stellarr1]

honestly the best tutorial ive ever seen. Legend.

[@AWProductions2017]

when you got to lighting i paused the video and my mouth could not close back to original position. This will help me a lot with all the stuff I do. Thank you for making this video

[@cgijoe5671]

Glad that segment helped. I hope you recover from your lockjaw soon

[@ZepAnimations]

Finally who told me how to do lighting overlays- atleast I know what it's called now like you don't know how long I've been trying to find someone who taught how to do it XD

[@Plymouth_Belvedere]

Thank you for uploading this. It helped me find a way to port gmod stuff into SFM but also learn some fundamentals I lacked in making SFM posters.

[@thecompletedluigitwat4827]

Not only did I learn stuff But I laughed too! Ur tutorials are great.

[@MelRosewood]

O-oh.. oh my gosh. I found it, I found the channel that is funny, helpful as all heck, and is actually incredible at what they do. I love this Channel, thank you so much!!

[@Starkillerscat]

First tutorial in years I actually learnt something from.

[@TheNarwhal784]

that transition at 6:25 caught me off gaurd, but this is a splendid tutorial 👌🏿

[@touchmenot9977]

Extremely helpful. Especially lighting, cause that shit is the bane of my sfm poster making

[@ThatGuyHearo]

talks so softly then music comes in so fecking loud LIKE WOW my volume button has never been used this much.

[@cosmicviking6829]

Just a heads up, the megapack is no longer available. The link provided in this comment is to an amazing human being who put it back up with his own files nebulous.cloud/threads/sfm-scenebuild-megapack-by-mask.37893/

[@apostleraffan6773]

Tysm dude.

[@idiotsincorporated2080]

brr you have to wait five hours to get it brrr

[@cosmicviking6829]

@Fisher you can do either, but I pasted it into it's own new folder and then deleted it after I transfered it to avoid data loss or confusion.

[@meefington]

Does anyone know where to find the other pack he mentioned?

[@FrednnardSFM]

now its gone too

[@Pluvillion]

I've searched far and wide in the internet for proper lighting techniques but not once did they come out right (wrong methods). I was positioning the four ambient lights and I was already feeling giddy because I could see it coming together. Added the sun itself and a few touchups and my god. Heads up for everyone: If making portraits, even if it's an outdoor setting, don't forget the fill lights (preferably in red to mimic skin colour)! They're really handy in making the faces look okay instead of having too much contrast.

[@khav3519]

*I've been using gmod like some sort caveman to do scenebuilding. Beautiful tutorial thank you.*

[@fukudacal]

finally a tutorial about ambient lighting, thank you so fucking much for making this

[@cgijoe5671]

I’m working on a new and improved one right now. Spoiler alert, this tutorial is way outdated. Glad it helped though

[@aguy1107]

i cant download scenebuild mega pack and crazy knife terrain it says 404 page unavailable is it gone? Please help

[@jdo2014]

0:00 - 1:24 Intro 1:24 - 3:35 Cameras 3:35 - 6:24 Scenebuilding 6:24 - 11:09 Lighting 11:09 - 11:52 Posing (Kind of) 11:52 - 13:56 Misc 13:56 - 14:40 Outro

[@tygetingcang990]

Where is the mega file its not in the desc :(

[@wojowpierollo1684]

You deserve a medal

[@henrybadger785]

This was incredibly helpful and entertaining! I’ll be sure to use ALL of this information!

[@erickkingofarmy2777]

4:40 "Hey" I didn't find the site that talks about it? Cgi Joe search and I didn't find anything even by pack link😢😢😢😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

[@junhyeokwoo2130]

I finally found what I really need. Thanks man!

[@darkzillarex4688]

where do i get those packs

[@vicvoss1285]

If you don't like the mega link, I found this one of the Scene Build Mega Pack. www.mediafire.com/file/4yjc4wlf1i7cc7i/Scenebuild_Megapack_%28Basic_+_01-09%29.zip/file Credit to angelsaur for uploading it.

[@jaidensmith2012]

You are a hero my dude give yourself a pat on the back

[@Fizzle_Films]

HHHH- HUUUUUU- HHHH that was me breathing when you taught me how to make lights reach further than literally 10 feet- : )))

[@SloRush]

Where's the scene pack link? Can't seem to find it..

[@TackSFM]

nice

[@TremorWatt]

Anyone ever gotten the "Out of Keyvalue String Space" error after mounting all the models?

[@SparkyDaWolf]

thanks this tutorial really helped me to improve my lighting skills

[@swift5045]

when making a new file for sfm the "scenebuild" file nothing is in it even tho i have models in it what is it im doing wrong?

[@duallyentertainment3005]

This video is really good quality!

[@d3rpybac0n83]

Man why do the packs have to not exist online anymore. I can't even download that one someone made bc MEGA file share is stupid

[@margarinoslav]

Is there any good place to het high quality rock models besides the megapacks

[@oxenwolfproductions-oficia8522]

Hey Joe, how tô Lock a light in a character's eyes

[@vinu4086]

Nice tutorial plzz make more tutorials like tis man

[@GhostFoxy1955]

5:08 Cgi joe, how do i make a new mod on sfm?

[@elwetritsch3654]

where are the links i could really use some high-quality props

[@balkanscenekid]

This is great

[@WolfBane-yd4sk]

Where can I get some quality skydomes/skycards? I'm having an extremely difficult time finding some

[@TwoWhales-NoWhales]

Thanks, really useful

[@Pawelek00_]

Does anyone have a working link to this scene item pack?

[@The_Caledonian]

An excellent coherent video, my only 'complaint' would be the audio for the transition slides. Gets annoying real quick, good work anyways though.

[@cgijoe5671]

Yea don’t worry, my next tutorial is going to be a lot less like a pyrocynical ripoff

[@NukeMyHouse]

1 sky light, quadratic attenuation, with shadows enabled looks infinitely better than 5 sky lights with constant attenuation

[@cgijoe5671]

I disagree. Tested it out on a quick scenebuild i threw together imgur.com/a/hmv3dTh (5 constant sky lights) imgur.com/a/TPLvaqU (1 quadratic sky light) AFAIK, attenuation just affects light falloff.

[@idontlikethis980]

@@cgijoe5671 wow you just talked back to a god

[@cgijoe5671]

mineyourbrains \{•-•}/ ive since changed my view on constant attenuation and will concur that high intensity quadratic light looks better in most cases But I stand by having 3 or 4 high fov ultra high radius ambient lights.

[@privatejoker4391]

Hi thanks for the tips especially in lightings cause i suck at lighting but just a question if you are gonna cast shadows do you need to turn the shadow filter size way down? Or slight? Cause when turn the shadow filter way down i get this blocky shadows not from the character but the shadows from the building any ways to fix that?

[@TheFrogChannel]

As sinful as this might sound, if you don’t have ambient occlusion (integrated graphics), turn up the shadow filter just a *tiny* bit. The filter helps fill in crevices that wouldn’t get shadows with the filter turned all the way down, similar to what ambient occlusion does.

[@cgijoe5671]

Why would you not have ambient occlusion in sfm? It’s a part of sfm

[@TheFrogChannel]

For whatever reason, SFM won’t render ambient occlusion if you have integrated graphics on your PC. From what I hear it’s because AO relies on VRAM, and since iGPUs don’t have VRAM, AO won’t work at all.

[@cgijoe5671]

AmphibiousSwag weird, never heard of anyone having that issue. Nonetheless, you should only turn shadowfiltersize down, turning it up gives softer shadows that might not project as accurately.

[@MrPanker]

where did you get that model call dar_skeleton1 in workshop it doesnt appears

[@lanied09]

where are the links to the models?

[@oim8882]

Great video, very informative especially considering the length of it. I am having a bit of a problem though, I can’t find any download links for the scenebuild mega pack thread and the crazy knife terrain pack, all I have managed to find is a compressed version of the scene build mega pack, was wondering if you could provide me with the download links for both packs, or maybe create your own download links? If not, no worries, still a really good video, liked and subbed :)

[@cgijoe5671]

Sadly, the two packs I mentioned in the video were on facepunch, which is no longer active. However, a hero put together a zip of the entire sbmp pack on MEGA, so it’s ok mega.nz/#!J3J0ECJY!kko39u7u1XbhIjHVsgF99969A4jBt4DxQ7a2L_-HgjQ As for the crazy knife terrain pack, I’ll see if I can just upload that and link it myself

[@oim8882]

CGI Joe thanks man, appreciate it a lot

[@idontlikethis980]

@@cgijoe5671 cant wait to see the crazy knife terrain pack

[@enikmo8359]

@@cgijoe5671 No longer available, imma kill myself

[@EmilyPrime]

But how do I fit it to the canvas I've been looking for so long why does no one explain how to do it?

[@cgijoe5671]

Not sure what you mean

[@EmilyPrime]

@@cgijoe5671 as you see your camera view takes up the entire viewport but it's really small in the middle for me how do I make it like yours?

[@cgijoe5671]

EmilyPrime oh, ha. You just drag the edge down, just like you would do to make a window on your computer bigger

[@EmilyPrime]

@@cgijoe5671 drag the edge of what down?

[@boniestcorpse]

@@EmilyPrime The camera, hierarchy, and the timeline have edges around them that allow you to make them smaller or bigger. You just hover over that edge of the camera's viewport (the bottom of the viewport) then click and drag down on it to enlarge it.

[@grime5371]

now that the ck terrain pack on face punch is gone, is there an alternative download link to it?

[@pipo7748]

Can somebody explain this pls: On some maps I can't move models or scale them... why?

[@cgijoe5671]

are you able to move the models at the beginning of your timeline?

[@justm6712]

@@cgijoe5671 poor Joe got left hanging by pipo

[@cgijoe5671]

Just matthew eh, his loss

[@justm6712]

@@cgijoe5671 yup

[@justm6712]

@@cgijoe5671 oh hey Joe since your here can you tell me which export settings for sfm films you use?

[@NeoOreo]

Am I dumb or are the links not there?

[@daveynorton]

7:14 Link to Scout model please

[@cgijoe5671]

Scout comes with sfm, along with a side of fries

[@daveynorton]

CGI Joe but it says scout enhanced to the left

[@cgijoe5671]

Swoozle oh right. I got it off of DeviantArt, just search sfm enhanced scout

[@takizoli]

great tutorial, with good tips. My only problem is the music. I got blasted with full volume a lot.

[@YaBoi_Marcel115]

This is one of the Tutorials I always will watch over and over for a guide on SFM, meanwhile, somehow can't get a good lighting going when it comes to ambient, unless, which choice is the best? Linear Attenuation or Constant Attenuation?

[@cgijoe5671]

This tutorial is super outdated. Working on a new tutorial rn. Best ambient lighting is one shadowed light, super high radius, with 150 vertical fov. Place it overhead, as close to the ground as possible.

[@YaBoi_Marcel115]

@@cgijoe5671 Good idea, I'll screenshot this to keep it in Mind, Thanks a lot

[@YaBoi_Marcel115]

@@cgijoe5671 also small little question What kind of lighting do I need to do, to create that sort of Night setting

[@cgijoe5671]

@@YaBoi_Marcel115 realistic night lighting is gonna be super dark but that usually doesn’t look good. Artistically, you probably want a dim, dark blue light. I’d recommend using a single ambient light with really high radius as your main night light. Always will help to check a reference too

[@YaBoi_Marcel115]

@@cgijoe5671 Alrighty, Thanks a lot man, keep it up!

[@MMT_Malvin]

Bro is the first tv man

[@gasser6856]

Sir is there any where I can find your wallpapers?

[@nikitosirussischausspreche2966]

where are the links?

[@michael_v6050]

the mega links are sadly not loading

[@bosniaknight3737]

The packs are gone.

[@neptunestudio2857]

uhhh how are you able to set background?

[@cgijoe5671]

You mean like a sky? Just use skydome or skycard models

[@neptunestudio2857]

skycard models? never heard of them before

[@cgijoe5671]

NEPTUNE Studio there’s one on the workshop. Just search skycard and you’ll find it

[@neptunestudio2857]

@@cgijoe5671 g thanks

[@WiihawkPL]

what's your opinion on grilled cheese?

[@cgijoe5671]

It’s fine I guess

[@Cubacub05]

Quick question what about the sky boxes? can you use a dome? but how do you get a sky box

[@cgijoe5671]

Well skyboxes are a bit different then skydomes. You would use skydomes if you’re on a map like black void, where it’s just all black and you’re scenebuilding. But if you’re just making something on a tf2 map, you’re able to change the skydome by putting in a console command. It’s really easy, I’d recommend looking up a tutorial to see how to do it

[@Cubacub05]

@@cgijoe5671 Thanks I did that and i finally made my own piece? you could say i dunno but if you want to see it, it's: imgur.com/a/T7GsBO6

[@laurasarmiento3398]

when i make a seperate mod for the scenbuild, and i put it in the game.info file the mods i put in the scene build file wont show up in sfm when i look at only the scenbuild folder

[@cgijoe5671]

PotatoFace I’d say go into your scenebuild folder, and find the exact model it is you’re looking for, then type that into your search in sfm

[@pigeonidle541]

thank you SO MUCH

[@KajmanX]

Tnx dude,you helped me a LOT!

[@acceptedsniper]

What model is that punk Robot? It looks really nice!

[@cgijoe5671]

Dar from killing floor 2, with the chonn3 cosmetic. It’s on the sfm workshop

[@acceptedsniper]

@@cgijoe5671 Hey man, thanks! Really liked the vid, got yourself a new sub :)

[@cuppedcup]

I find animation so so hard, after trying it for a few months I’m going to just try to make high quality posters instead

[@TwistedFireX]

Just realized that symbol on the crotch of the robot is a fertility symbol that's funny.

[@MrPanker]

what map you used?

[@cgijoe5671]

Scenebuild_hugevoid on the workshop

[@dynamictrilogy266]

Noice!

[@grungesw1222]

There is actually an even easier way to extract your workshop .gma files without using the website. Just go into your garrysmod/garrysmod/addons folder and then open a separate window and go to garrysmod/bin and drag whatever .gma file you have onto an exe called gmad.exe and it will extract it into a folder back into your garrysmod/garrysmod/addons folder.

[@cgijoe5671]

Don’t you have to own gmod to do that? Also the website is super straight forward, you just copy and paste, then hit download

[@grungesw1222]

@@cgijoe5671 That is true, but most people that I know that do SFM now usually started with Gmod and moved upwards.

[@beats3726]

@@grungesw1222 that's not how I started, it was sfm first.

[@skeleton_trees]

@@cgijoe5671 once u have it downloaded tho how do u get it into SFM

[@cgijoe5671]

Hapkin you just select both models and materials folders from the download, and drag and drop them onto your scenebuild mod (or usermod if you’re feeling extra unorganized)

[@boi6739]

I noticed that shadows look darker at night but look lighter in the day time

[@cgijoe5671]

Because shadow lighting comes from the sky, so if the sky is darker, the shadows will be darker

[@atlas9852]

eyy, thanks so much. too bad my new laptop decided to die

[@gameman5804]

I think the Bloom Scale is useful when the scenebuild or map has lot's and I mean LOT'S of emission textures. cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/585811030609887242/756632240389357619/unknown.png

[@ScruffySFM]

I question why I have more subs than you. You deserve more lol

[@cgijoe5671]

Bro lemme borrow some of that e-clout I promise I’ll give it back

[@ScruffySFM]

@@cgijoe5671 I don't really got much e-clout, but sure

[@doc882]

Thing I learned from this is just do random bullshittery until it works (I’m joking)

[@The_Caledonian]

*do not bully people*

[@Socser_45]

Who saw tv women at the starting of the video

[@MMT_Malvin]

It's the first tv man

[@omegalul5549]

Actual genius too bad they removed facepunch download site tho

[@johnchan754]

You can use another site called: steamworkshop.download/

[@johnchan754]

Oh wait did you mean the download site to the props?

[@omegalul5549]

@@johnchan754 true there are like mega packs from the mask

[@khav3519]

Hey if you're still looking for the links I have both here: www.mediafire.com/file/rjacllprqzb5sz7/CK_props_all.rar/file nebulous.cloud/threads/sfm-scenebuild-megapack-by-mask.37893/

[@HillSii]

cjoe

[@aguythatanimates]

Where to get the props