The Decay of TF2 SFMs
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- Опубліковано 8 чер 2024
- March 8th is important, because it marks the day the last saxxy awards was announced, 6 years ago... What happened to SFMs???
TIMESTAMPS:
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0:00 - Silly Intro
0:27 - 9 Years
1:30 - Decay of SFMs
2:38 - Source FilmMaker
4:06 - Meme Culture
4:52 - UA-cam Culture
5:42 - Saxxy Awards
7:30 - TF2
9:19 - To Conclude
10:56 - O_O
Music playlist
• TF2 SFM OST
idk how anyone can put [more] than 3000 hours in tf2 today and not go insane, im personally quite done with the game now
Thumbnail by
www.deviantart.com/epicgaminp... - Розваги
Being shown as part of the 'small pockets of genuine talent' alongside people like Winglet and Fortress Films is quite the honor!
As someone who has been in the SFM community since 2014 I have to agree anywhere between 2012 - 2014 (maybe even early 2015) was sort of the ''Golden age'' of SFM animations back when creativity and the saxxy awards were the main driving force for creating animated short films.
Nowadays, sadly it's but a shell of what it used to be. Quality is still out there but it becomes harder to find.
It's still cool that SFM generally is a popular software because of how easy it is to learn and use, however that's arguably also one of it's bigger weaknesses because it's almost too easy. #
Before people needed to have a legitimate animation background in order to create a high quality animation, nowadays anyone can just pick up SFM and hope for the best.
As someone who's most viewed video literally was a remake of a meme (though dare I say at least one where I put plenty of effort in to), it definitely is demoralising.
What's the point in even attempting larger projects knowing they might potentially fail in the algorithms.
I know UA-cam shouldn't be about views and money but it's a waste when no one sees it anyway.
It sucks that the current SFM Meta is either memes/trends or insanely ambitious masterpieces over 5-10 minutes long that rival Pixar in terms of quality, and inevitably take months if not years to produce, which doesn't help when no one wants to wait (totally not speaking from my own experience here)
There really is no in-betweens especially ever since the Saxxies were cancelled.
So making anything ''original'' that is shorter than 5 minutes but longer than a minute, good luck...
Obviously most people choose the latter because it's far more rewarding and easier to do. It's no surprise that again animation in general always gets the short end when it comes to UA-cam and SFM is no exception to that, unless you sell your soul to doing memes and sadly even I fell into that trap many times because sometimes there just isn't any other option which is quite a shame. I hope that whoever is left steps up their game, hell even I have to at this point because I myself refuse to give up on TF2 and SFM
Srry for the ted talk, have a good one!
Thank you for the informative talk
I read all that(I didn't)
Myy brain dont understand, pleasee explain with less words😭
Hi.
Clearly you don't own an air fryier Sultan
Yeah the tf2 community in general has been on a saddening decline and you're not allowed to say anything about it
i really wanna say positive things here, but i don't think tf2 can even be defended from having sprays banned. just a matter of time unitil someone makes drama about sprays and the one employee of tf2 has had enough
Funny ARG man
no thanks to you
@@user-lr7cc8iu3mWhat did he do?
@@user-lr7cc8iu3mwhat did he do?
TF2 sfms is like a core part of the internet, sad to see it in this state
TF2 Gmod Smexaul animations are better. Too bad no one makes Smexaul (audio only ytps) anymore.
ARG videos are the only thing keeping it alive right now
@@diegodankquixote-wry3242 "heavy and medic get it on 2", "sniper and spy lewd micspam", they still do lmfao
@@PeelyMcPeel those are 5 million years old and the had animation with the orginal videos. I'm talking about videos like Obnoxious_trolldier_cop_harasses_everyone_in_a_random_malicious_pizza_place.cupcake and Some_engineers_make_a_buildin_2day.sylveon
@@diegodankquixote-wry3242 are you actually looking for the shit or?
You pretty much hit the nail on the coffin with this take. SFM as it stands now is incredibly aimless, and too few genuinely passionate creators have their projects in the spotlight. However, despite the overall lack of progression since the older SFM days I can still sense that same spark from newcomers that I once had when it came to making SFMs. It's really about inspiring enough people to create something they're passionate about; naturally when the modern scope is all about memes and trending fads people are just going to keep creating them. I'm definitely guilty of making short form meme content and it's exactly because they get more views and are considerably easier to put out, although I always try to put the same amount of effort into every video in order to warrant it's existence. Like many, I look up to alot of veteran SFM animators, enough so that I want to inspire others the same way they do me. It's moving forward that I want to release longer form content that gets people to engage and not rely so heavily on passing trends to gain relevancy. Both TF2 and SFM have been a massive part of my life, so knowing that a TON of other people share that sentiment obligates me to put out content that celebrates and perpetuates the artistic integrity of this beautiful game.
Real
I think it's kind of awful we have to be "guilty" about making short form meme content, especially if we put just as much effort into it as the more serious projects. if we had fun making it and gave it our all, it's not worthless.
It’s less about effort at that point and more about how it perpetuates the short form content trend. Whether it has effort put into it or not; if it is short and popular, people will want to bank off of that.
Real
Bro aged from
13-17 in 1 year
Shoutout to youtubers whose voices change drastically in like 1 year, gotta be one of my favorite genders
@@dudemp4 as the old wojack memes go.
Male Puberty go brrrrrr
he sounds like a 21 year old professional narrator
Hoovy Tube is a good example of the decay of TF2 SFMs, literally makes nothing much more than low effort models with TF2 heads slapped onto them. AI voice cloning is the cherry on top. It sucks.
Hoovy Tube is also the hugest Stan for that terrible Dota card game.
Fr and people like eltro64rus and stblackst don't get as mentioned as much. They do humor in a great way along with having great animation. But we live in a time where brainrot with little to no talent gets more attention than creators that deserve more love. It sucks man
I've got to agree. I've heard the AI voices he uses and they all sound like dogwater. He relies too much on visuals to carry, much like Fortress Films did with Emesis Blue. Fuck, he legit didn't even bother making a proper movie, he just stitched all of the episodes he made together and called it a movie. That's how lazy he truly is.
I HATE MIMI
@@rockomattta stblackst has been making the same video for 5 years now pls dont glaze that mass produced slop
Honestly, having small gems occasionally pop up from young artists warms my heart, regardless if it's in SFM, Gmod or Blender.
Hell, even a shitpost or something that emulates 2010's Gmod content can be funny.
If anything, for the rare remaining veterans it should be their responsibility to set the gold standard to which others can aspire to, while making it accessible (with feedback, making-ofs, tutorials...).
This man has the voice of a child 2 years ago. Dam adolescence changes a mf 😭😭😭
Puberty hits hard 💀
fr 😭😭
I saw his slendytubbies video and then 3 months later his voice change become way too clear
Reminds me of how the SFM animators for HDTF cried so hard while using SFM
"You fcked up my face" *bang*
I'm one of those animators that remake memes in sfm, and I'm happy that you brought up this issue. I sometimes make original videos but people seem to only watch the memes that had been done to death already.
Then stop making those memes? You are the part of the issue bro
@@yamstree2454 easy to say
@@yamstree2454idk man just let them make what they want
loser alert
Then don't do memes? Simple as, you're not obliged to make memes.
While i agree with this take for the most part, i think the general reason might be cause most of the Old Guard has progressed to other software like Blender and that might be where we get the next generation of these eventually.
But making these kind of TF2 meme videos while learning SFM is a good way to encourage new creators and more importantly NEW ANIMATORS to keep learning and doing silly stupid videos, at least until they get a hunger to become more creative. Animation can be painfull to keep at it without support and especially view wise at the very least it can end up feeling very demotivating.The shorter time to make a decent meme recreation is also a encouraging way to finish projects, even if its little by little.
As someone coming from the Gmod era and as someone who uses both Gmod and SFM for his videos i would recommend people learn Blender, but SFM is a great place to start if anything cause the problems, as many small ones as there are end up getting predictable, and the unevolved state of SFM does make it a lot easier to look up solution as its a closed enviroment essentially and theres a decently large community with videos to teach you how to approach certian aspects, not to mention all the ported assets
+ At the end of the day so long as people like the memes it helps the game stay relevant which is far from a bad thing but like said before i do agree with the fact that things seem to degrade and things like the bots are a problem you cant just ignore if your a fan that actually WANTS TO PLAY THE GAME.
WHEN IS EPISODE 5
Completely agree, I don't get why people hate on content creators for publishing a poor-quality product or just something they dislike, because it's just a way of learning to create art and understand the consumer psychology. My heart breaks when silly creations or questionably made videos get hated on and destructively critiqued, it just destroys the motivation and joy of content creators, who might have gotten to something more professional or wanted to find a career in life..
This video speaks to my soul, because I too have been here since the beginning of SFM. SFM has always been a thing I've been dreaming to do, but after failed video after failed video because I didn't find them "good enough", I finally managed to make something good and publish it on YT. You probably haven't heard of me, but I'm making two SFM series right now - one of TF2 and one of FNaF. Since this talks about TF2, I'll talk about that one: The Scratched Universe is my tribute and passion project to TF2 and SFM ever since SFM got publicly released. It's a series with story, characters, lore, worldbuilding, familiarity and ambition. It's my loveletter to the best of TF2 and SFM, done with respect, care and love. Obviously the first episodes are not 100% in great quality there because the fact that TSU got recognized after 2 years of exposure was a miracle to say the least. This was meant to be a "swan song" of a series: if it worked, great I'll keep going; otherwise I'd quit.
But your points about the decline and devolution of SFM are spot on, and I'm very glad someone has finally managed to put it into words. I thank you for doing that because it honestly relieves me and probably other fellow animators who are trying to do something original here, something with love, care and respect towards the identity of TF2 and SFM themselves, without the today's problems and shticks shoved into their legacy.
You hit square in the head about view counts and popularity, because jesus christ...being an animator sometimes SUCKS. Putting your soul into a project to only see some people (I love all these people btw) enjoying it while effortless videos are made with 3 or 4x your views is incredibly demoralizing to say the least, but I digress.
But hey, if you want to see a TF2 series made with love and care, with episodes that start at a minimum of 23 minutes and then rise into +1h long (not going to be a standard thing, it happened because the episode itself demanded it), The Scratched Universe might be up your alley! Obviously do it if you want to, don't feel obligated.
Anyways, I greatly appreciate you doing this video because sometimes people like us just need some reinforcement, some assurance that we're not alone in this. Thank you.
I love the scratched universe Blackimus! You’re doing an amazing job overall and I can’t wait for the next episode
omg hi blackimus i hope you are doing good. i love your videos
I love your stuff dude, Scratched Universe is my 2nd favourite sfm series under Crash Maul's. The characters,the story,the lore and decent voices are such a treat.
Yap city. Im happy for you though.
OH MY GOD ITS YOU
As someone who grew up in the Saxxy awards era and got into SFM through that, It's sad to see the decay of originality due to YT algorithm hurting animators and Valve's neglect of TF2. Sadly, many animators (myself included) got into that golden cage of making short and easy meme remakes to satisfy the algorithm...
I hope the Saxxy Awards return one day. Community Saxxy awards were a great initiative for original works, but they can't replace that official recognition and prizes from Valve (and exposure), which gave the main motivation for originality.
Here's to hoping the Saxxy Awards and TF2 return to their former glory. Maybe one day we'll see SFM 2 or even new official Saxxy Awards accepting Blender submissions!
Thank you for this important video essay! Been waiting for something like this
Fully agree
You deserve a sexy award
I am surprised how you didn't even mention how ceno0's animations have changed the SFM scene (in a good way). He definitely did what "Spiderverse" did with the animation cinema industry.
Anyway while I agree that gone are the "good ol' times" of Saxxy Awards animations, there is still plenty of awesome animators around. Just because you focus on Skibidi Toilet or those TikTok shorts doesn't mean that's all the content there is. You just need to know where to look and have the patience to go through some "lower quality" content. And even than, sometimes someone has huge creativity but is limited by the tools he is using. It's also fun to see how someone manages to overcomes SFM limitations.
We are not a big company like Disney that could let you say "SFM is bad nowadays". That argument simply doesn't apply to SFM because we are all separate individuals doing their things.
Some of us animators are just making silly things for the sake of it, some are just doing it in their free time as a hobby, some of us are doing this as a job and they have to please what the algorith wants. And that is a tough decision since what for you is a "short 1 minute animation" could literally take a month if not more.
With that said I think that if someone wants to try out SFM they should do it and do not listen to the "SFM is the devil" arguments. Because while it has limitations it's not as bad as it is depicted. Is it outdated? For sure! You should never prevent someone from expressing their creativity with it, even if in your eyes it's "bad". Who knows, maybe that person that made a 3 seconds meme-remake will grow the confidence to make a bigger project!
I am pretty sure most of the greatest artists around wouldn't have kept going their path if their parents didn't say how awesome their scribbled abomination was when they were kids.
"I am surprised how you didn't even mention how ceno0's animations have changed the SFM scene (in a good way). He definitely did what 'Spiderverse' did with the animation cinema industry."
lol he did not change the SFM scene "in a good way", that guy is the top idol for those unfunny meme imitators. it amazes me how the some of you fail to do something as simple as acknowledge adjacent fandoms (even when ceno0 himself does that directly in his very own videos) and correlate things. like what do guilty gear fans, spiderverse fans, and guys who find ceno0 videos funny have in common? it is (not) a mystery!
@@theskitmouse3179 Well made animations? I am sorry but I don't get your point
Wut u talking about theskitmouse
@wolfalberto when it comes to the things such as the skibidi toilet and replicated memes, it’s not the people are not focusing on it but rather how it’s being pushed.
Ive seen amazing SFMs that don’t even crack 10k in a year. Some SFM/gmod creators that I know has changed such as Medix2012 are getting millions of views for doing this practice, as passion doesn’t always pay the bills nor gets your art out for those who want to stick to the modern platform.
Hoovytube is one of the prime examples to me because his larger vids like his series sometimes don’t even hit a million, but his shorts hit big as soon as skibidi Toilet was mentioned.
When I comes to SFMs limitations it’s kind of a mix bag for some creative people. When it comes to perfectionist, it will burn them out real quickly (I myself had to learn the hard way myself and moved to blender) For people who focus on the small things it’s really a slug. And not to mention the hardware limitations as well. It crashes for the simplest things or sometimes give weird unsatisfying artifacts.
(Love ur animations BTW :D)
@@user-tg4rp4iw8u Thank you!
I would add Blackimus to that list of "small pockets of genuine talent".
Like seriously, his TF2 series called "The Scratched Universe" is getting slept on and it is very unfortunate because it is an incredible series made by a single, talented and passionate person.
The series features high quality animation, charming characters, great action, interesting story, well built world, good horror and so much more...
Some people wish for more original SFM content yet sleep on this series and seem to only care about anime stuff, Sentry Waifus and other memes instead, it is frustrating.
I subscribe to your comment fully.
Absolutely, even with the long hiatuses between episodes, they're worth it
So something id like to say: I feel as though veteran sfm animators also scare away new people to try sfm by talking about how bad the program is. I mean hell you did it too in this vid. Think of how many times we’ve heard: “sfm is literally satan!” I mean when you this enough from VETERAN animators you probably wont want to use sfm leaving new creative talent to avoid the program as a whole
To be fair they are 100% right, I've tried to get into the SFM game in the past and I simply couldn't get past the steam screen after downloading it for days, the program is a bloated, buggy mess, I've seen more than a few veterans move to alternatives after contending with it for years.
people used to get talented back in da day i guess huh
To be honest, it's become more of a meme, that "SFM is horrible to work with", rather than the actual issues!
Your first animation doesn't have to be perfect, and if you keep it simple, a lot of issues can be avoided, as they are tied to the tech limitations of the outdated software trying to cope with new high-poly models, plugins, maps etc, that isn't native to the Valve Games.
Getting started, rather than getting it perfect, is the way to go! You'll learn along the way with every crash, glitch and bug. There will be some, but if it was as much as people make it seem, NOTHING would ever have been finalized over the last decade!
y
"No sleep" Let me introduce myself.
Massive W for showing her the peak of animations in sfm
Emesis Blue is probably the best sfm we had in a good while
glad to see someone else notice this issue, all i have been getting is shitty quantity over quality sfm memes are getting too repetitive
sfm has just turned to gen alpha brainrot, sadly.
I've been playing TF2 since 2008 and went a few years without playing before rather spontaneously deciding to pick up SFM starting this February. And.. it's strange to say the least. To be 12 years late to the party of something I've cared about so much for so long. I recently looked at saxxies and saw they stopped happening many many years ago already.. but even with all the memes and stuff, the fact that SFM still has a following *at all* on UA-cam is incredible to me, and inspiring. I think the demand is there. People want to see good SFMs, there just are so few being made.
honored to be in this for like two seconds! but i gotta say i fundamentally disagree with most of the points here.
i wouldn't have nearly 5k hours in SFM if it was agonizing. There's limitations to a lot of things, true, but using its other tools to overcome those limitations is half the fun. instead of bashing my head against a brick wall trying to get this game-only beam particle to work, i could just use a volumetric light with a low FOV to get exactly the same effect. There's tons of ways to accomplish the same result if you think even a little outside the box. And honestly, it's a program you can chuck a map on, throw in some characters and get straight to animating, and you really miss that once you start using industry standard programs or blender, where there is no free assets and maybe 5/6 free character rigs.
The Saxxy Awards for sure pushed us all to our absolute limit and forced us to think and collaborate. It built this community at the start. We saw the tricks others were doing, went 'how did they even do that??', shared techniques with other animators and we all got stronger as a result. It brought the heaviest hitters together to create crazy ambitious projects like Turbulence, Agent Gunn, Timeless Thief, End of the Line and a lot of others. Losing it created a hole in the SFM community that never really got fixed,
until we entered the current renaissance (and it IS a renaissance). ceno0 built the current gen of TF2 sfms - nearly all of the newer artists emulate his style of dynamic, extreme poses, stepped keys, and messing with depth with the black bars. artists who had been grinding in the bg on their skills like Hoovytube and Kostamoinen (who i've both worked with, briefly, and respect immensely) got their chance to step up. Alyx brought us S2FM, creating another wave of passionate/hyperfixated artists like CoreyLaddo and Komegatze. Emesis Blue got so many people starting up SFM it was unreal.
And you can say the current gen is all memes and pointless content, but *we've been doing that all along.* the thing that has never changed is that through all these generations, from gmod to the first Saxxy awards and zachariah scott to the golden age of sfm in 2014-2016 to the winglet's utter domination to the current age, is that we have always been making things that we think are either cool or funny, sometimes both at the same time. The new gen are still doing that exact thing. I've made meme content in the past and now, not because it's more profitable or fits the algorithm better, but *because it's fun.* animation is gruelling and painstaking and can burn you out quickly. we make things that are either cool or funny to us because it keeps us going, and it's good practice, and practice is _everything_ to artists.
the only difference between the content produced now and the content produced then, is that the stuff created is no longer cool or funny to the people who yearn for the 'good old days'. but the passion is still there, believe me.
Content most people would call cringe still existed back in 2015. The most viewed SFM of all time is Five Funky Nights at Freddy's 2. They didn't want to be the most viewed SFM, they wanted to make what they thought was cool and funny.
The 'content farm' is a new concept. I've had my dealings with them. They're soulless suits who pay other artists less than they're worth and treat this like an investment game. I can tell you right now nobody in the new gen (yes, even DaFuqBoom and mediexcalibur) is a content farm. Even if what they make is cringe, it's not cringe to them. We don't give a damn about the algorithm. this 'memes and pointless content' generation started long after youtube killed all chance of animators making money on this platform. At the end of the day, we make what we want because we want to, and we want to share it with the world. that idea takes different forms as time goes on, but it will never change.
if anyone is yearning for the good old days, and you've got your ideas: sfm is free. it's never been a better time to start. there are so many resources to tap into, all of zachariah scott's tutorials are still here and they blow the capabilities of this program wide open. tf2 (despite the doomsayers) is immensely popular now. you have all the tools to make your ideas real. it takes practice, dedication, a healthy dose of resilience to discouragement and a lot of time, but it can be done.
I was going to write my opinion as well but you pretty much wrote everything I had in mind. 100% agree with everything
This is exactly the thoughts I sat with, watching this! Good to hear I'm not alone with my concerns that this video could be rooting!
Also, Being able to create a full fledged "short film" put together, with seperate sequences, in an enviornment of free and easily available assets, sounds and VFXs and with fully textured characters on full real-time playback, really is something you shouldn't take for granted if you pursue the animation industry! 😅
Reminds me of the quote “You don’t miss old Roblox, you miss having fun.”
This video spoke to me, both because you totally nailed some of the causes for where the Content stands, but also because I strongly disagree, and want to point out some issues I have with this video!
The Agreements:
I started fiddling with SFM back in 2012, and did so by myself mostly until 2016, where I got "drafted" into a bigger project for the 2017/2018 Saxxy Awards. This feeling of working with multiple talents, of different skill and experience taught me a bunch, and elevated my own skills a ton! Seeing as it's been 5 years since people realized Saxxies weren't coming back, a huge generation of young and passionate talent out there, never got to experience these kind of community projects, to boost their own skills and creativity! This huge gap is an issue! Imagine 5 generations of creators not getting the same benefits as we did back in the day?? Of Course we see a decline in creative and quality content!
The Issues:
Now at the end of your video, your prayers for animators to get back into creating big ambitious projects come off as a bit entitled. You're not owed content by anyone, neither does anyone need to create "better" or different content than what THEY want to create. This is the toxic mentality that we've seen spread across the workshop, causing tons of newbie 3D modeling artist to never pursue and grow, because how horrible the Workshop community has gotten.
WE DO NOT NEED THIS IN SFM CREATORS COMMENT SECTIONS!
I strongly hope this was never your intention, and that you can also see my concern! Cuz reading through your comment section, it already feels like people have found a "safespace" to vent their frustrations that targets very real and very creative people! We can all meme on how horrible Skibidi Toilets and Fnaf Ship animations are, but someone created these, someone spent their time making this for fun and wanted to share it.
"Constructive critisism" isn't always the way to go, especially for new creators. If people start racking your first animation down, even if their intentions are good, chances are, they'll maybe never touch the software again, rather than learn from the comments! Encourage new creators, highlight the positives, and let them learn for themselves over time!
Sorry for the long textwall, I just felt it was important to address before the SFM community goes into a very dark place!
You have to understand that times have changed as well as humor, maybe for the worst but your just gonna be more miserable wishing things were more like the past. there are tons of other people making the same memes without the tf2 characters anyway.
As a new SFM animator, it’s really encouraging to know that there’s already an expectation from the opinion of someone who themself said it’s too hard for them.
there is a sfm animator called Blackimus that is working on a series called the scratched universe, he's getting better every day at animating
SFM is free and many people have learned how to use it, which means more content that from one's perspective can be separated into good and bad content.
From my perspective there has been more "bad" content than good and your video explains very well which is which and why.
Having this said and following other comments here, there is still really good content that deserves more attention, we will still have good content coming out in the future.
*Some* of the animators that copy IRL memes are perhaps using them to learn how to animate, to improve and who knows, in the future they too will make good stories. One of the "downsides" of this is having lots of animated memes out there that don't have meaning, only to serve as a learning process to the animator.
I do miss the old times of SFM where we had great animations coming out but I'm still hopeful for certain new artists on the rise that seem commited with their work, only the future will tell.
I will always prefer to watch a good animation with meaning even if it's not perfectly animated, passion still matters.
The winglet is still a beast with sfm watched him for almost a decade
man these were my childlhood, i loved growing up with tf2 sfms, they were all absolute masterpieces
You can't tell me to watch old sfm animations, because i already did... Yes till the day i was bron the tf2 was in my blood, watched them like a morning kids show when i was a kid and also yes in my entire life of being a fan of tf2 i yet never had a single time of playing even a 1 hour of playing tf2. İ played anything besides tf2 in my life at steam but still i can't forget about team fortress 2. This shows me how much a effect this game had on me from even the beginning. İ love it.
And yes i watched each and every one good sfm you showed on this video i watched them all.
I also feel the same way about taunts. The taunt section of the workshop is filled with either references to the Meet the team shorts/Comics & memes or copy cats of already existing taunts (Sitting taunts, veilichles, instruments, ect.), and the new original one's we do get are good in concept but are dragged down by the overly wacky animations.
As someone who's guilty of just remaking memes in a TF2 context, I was a bit afraid that one of my older works was gonna show up in those compilations featured lol
The main thing I gotta add is that a lot of the examples shown were newer animators, a majority of the meme remakes that I get recommended are from very small channels who might just be using an easy format as a stepping stone, like I have (at least, I *hope* I've progressed since)
I think there's been an influx of new animators just hoping to get their foot in the door lately, and I'm sure in due time, at least some will start to develop and cultivate more ambitious projects instead of content farming what's popular
Great video, this is definitely an interesting point of discussion
OMG Unusual
I never thought about it that way, I hope that's the case
Yeah, making a 2+ minute video in SFM as a newbie is batso insane. Animating is HARD WORK and learning software more than quadruples the time it takes to do anything. I'd rather make some crappy meme than try and butcher together a 3 minute video that looks and feels really awful because I didn't get the practise in beforehand to not suck at what I'm doing.
YEAH, HOW DARE YOU REMAKE MEMES, YOU ARE DESTROYING TF2 SFM. YOU ARE LITERALLY THE WORST PERSON ON THE PLANET.
Yep you hit the nail on the head for the most part.
I used to spend months, hell, sometimes over a year on animations that I thought were good quality only for them to get like 500 views.
Meanwhile a shitpost that literally took me less than a day to make is about to hit 100k views and be my most viewed video. The incentive to make long passion projects is basically gone unless you already have a good following.
While a lot of what you said is true, there are a few points I'd like to add from the perspective of someone who has been using the software for 10 years now:
- The TF2 models are basically some of the only models that come free with SFM, making it dead-simple to make an animation with, which is likely why you see many people making shitposts
- In the same vein as my last point, because those are the only models, a lot of TF2-oriented stories kind of hit the same beats now as it becomes more saturated
- The community and honestly online culture in general is transitioning to shorter form content being king, so it's no surprise people make shorter things that are more likely to illicit a reaction in a shorter time.
- If I'm being brutally honest, if someone new to the scene sends me a 10 minute long SFM, I'm likely not going to watch the entire thing (and I doubt most would), and short form content is a decent way to get your name out there while also building your skills
But overall definitely a good video saying things that needed to be said. It has always irked me that the SFM subreddit even sees a lot of this now. The most popular stuff there is often low effort shitposts because it's the quickest way to get a laugh.
Anyway if you read to this point, thanks appreciate it. skibidi toilet or whatever the hell the kids say now.
Emesis Blue is still one of my most favorite SFM movies ever, and with how much SFM can be glitchy, it deserves to have an award.
I don’t know. I feel like the current declined state of SFM is living proof that times do change, and SFM will always be around even if it has evolved past what we originally enjoyed about it.
oh yea, check out "team neighborhood"!! its a sfm series but idk if its still alive. like 12 episodes and episode 1 was released in 2017
It's animated almost entirely in GMod, although I think the latest episode was made in SFM, might be wrong
@@geist6032yea some parts are made in sfm and others in gmod. i dunno the gmod to sfm ratio tho
when I was a kid I used to watch "Sonic.exe came into our house in minecraft!" and 3am challenges and the "THE HEAVY IS DEAD!"back then
You just made me realize The Heavy Is Dead is 4 years old what
You are not over the age of 13 ☠️
Watching one of your older videos before watching one of your newer videos is like listening to two different people.
I LOVE this guy, this channel and his editing. The music in the beginning always gives me good vibes. Altough I never played or cared about TF I still watched this. Thank you Mr. Sournale.
When a community isn’t being monitored and/or updated, it descends into chaos
i've been using sfm for 8 years now and i'm trying to shift into blender for quite some time to discover new animation horizons
tf2 was my n.1 game pick to play with my brother. but now i can't even look at it without thinking of the widespread memes. there are diamonds like emezis blue or the fantastic classics like team fabulous 2 (rest in peace kitty ❤). back in the day it was all about creativity but now its just copy and paste
many tf2 fans say that the game will live forever but if nothing will change..
i'm afraid that soon tf2 will be a relic of the past that future generations will forget. the community might be dedicated. sure...
but valve isn't. and that is the biggest issue
(rest in peace rick may: voice of the soldier 🕊️)
thank you for reading
As someone who has followed the SFM scene for a while and has friends in the community, I would like to add these few thoughts.
To me, it's not just that former animators moved on from TF2 (and who could blame them, the game is more than 15 years old...): it's also that they moved on from the SFM, which not only is a nightmare to use as you said, but is STILL in a Beta state and has barely been updated and maintained. Former SFM animators are now using Blender, Maya or 3DS Max, and some even moved to professional animation, with SFM being their gateway to the industry. SFM is complicated to use yes, but it's very simplistic and limited compared to professional animation programmes. If animating in SFM brings you a calling in animation, it ends up being a burden and limiting yourself too much. SFM is decent to start out, but not to keep long-term.
Related to this, I would like to further one of your arguments regarding the stop of the Saxxies: while early editions still allowed for one or two people to make a passion project, later editions became extremely team-focused. Think of some of the earliest Best Overall winners like "Story of a Sentry" or "Animator vs. Animation" (which, btw, is a TF2 version of an existing concept!) which were made by one person, compared to the last one, "Agent Gunn", which had almost 20 people on its team (and Valve also promised to fly them all to Seattle for a visit of their studios, no matter where in the world they were!). This led to two unfortunate cases: people who couldn't integrate a team or couldn't find one needed to climb Mount Everest or have a ridiculous amount of talent to even get a decent entry; and even if your team was large, there was a chance you wouldn't get a statue, or even a nomination. To this day, I still say that "The Jewel Escapade" not winning a Saxxy was a robbery... I think Valve did not like these new developments and risks, and this may also why they decided to stop the contest. And when the contest was stopped, on top of what I said earlier about SFM vs. professional animation... why continue with the SFM?
Also, do not forget that there was a ton of low-effort content back in the day as well, and I was guilty of this. We didn't call them "memes", but "fads", and one advantage of this is that they were not taking an existing meme and make it "the meme but TF2", but they were taking an existing GMOD/SFM vid and making it slightly different. In this sense, one could say it was marginally better... And just like back in the day, we also still have talented people in the SFM/GMOD community today, just like we had insane talent back in 2010.
Still can’t believe you make some of the best video essays on the platform on iMovie
Don't worry my guys, as a new little animator (making animation SFM only for 2 years with 556 subs), I vow to be one of those who will bring a new generation of good and original SFM creators content, not just remade memes. And this, I take very seriously.
The Scout Caps reference reawakened a fire in my soul.
In 2020 I was inspired by old sfms to make a story and start animating, I saw that meme videos got more views though so I gravitated toward them, I still got a story but it’s been on the backburner for so long because it might not ever be shown :’)
Appreciate you talking about these tho!
It's fair to say I've been in the TF2 community longer than I realise. I've been watching all of these silly SFMs since 2013 but only really started playing in 2019. I hate to see the state of TF2 SFM how it is now. So glad that there's good SFM creators still doing it NO matter what. ItalianNinja, eltorro64rus, all of these pillars to what SFM is.
This has been... eye opening, to say the least. I'm glad that you made this revelation and was able to make this video. Man, one day I might even try out SFM when I get past my hurdle with Blender. Good luck to all those that are beginning and/or continuing to make SFMs to this day!
I remember when I was younger, TF2 SFMs were all I'd watch on UA-cam because I didn't have a computer to play TF2 but loved seeing it. I remember Rise of the Epic Scout, Bolted Behemoth, Live and Let Spy, Wrench in the Gears. Heck even Practical Problems.
I saw every animation as it's own passion project, and they pretty much were because they were dedicated for the Saxxy Awards.
Now it's never gonna feel the same, the last time it actually did feel the same was when I watched the "Creation of Mimi-Sentry" SFM.
9:11 to be fair: that clip comes from someone touching SFM for the first time in years, and was relearning the software from the ground up, and that same dude, in the same video ended up animating an entire Jerma skit.
“Who’s cooking tonight” will always be my first and favorite sfm ever
Tbh the memes are still funny to me, I don’t really mind the silly memes to come from TF2 SFM, however I agree with how there should be more SFMs that should actually be interesting and taken seriously
nostalgia (for simpler times)
ps cheers from the Netherlands, ya absolute madman.
Hoovytube fell off so hard.
ikr, from posting actual good sfm to fucking skibi toilet. Its not even fukin funny
TF2 and FNAF fans racing to beat eachother to remaking the same meme but with their characters, which 100% makes it funnier, right?
Man I still rewatch gmod and sfm projects of TF2, even at work. I've watched them so much i can pretty much replay the whole video in my head with every little detail just by listening to the video
I just miss what we once had, man. When valve and youtube (for the most part) cared.
Usually when I see "downfall" videos I roll my eyes to the back of my skull but this is something I've felt for a long time and am happy to see somebody covering. You did an excellent job.
I personally enjoy the 'crappy meme reposts' because they add A lot more charm to it, but I totally see where you and plenty of others are coming from.
I mean there isn't much ideas left nowadays since the SFM has been oversaturated quite a lot. There are still some good sfms like emesis blue and etc. But not much have bern left
This really motivated me to work on longer projects, thanks man
so many great SFM’s released years ago
Be the change you want to see in the world
The current era is one of a constant cycle of trends, quantity over quality and instant gratification, none of these fads stick around for long and you ultimately end up with painfully dated drivel that won't mean much of anything other than the specific time it was made.
I wish tf2 didnt have bots... This game was amazing
Though i do understand where you and other veterans of TF2 are coming from, and i understand the frustrations, calling it a decline is a bit disingenuous and it feels like throwing the abundance of actually good sfm/gmod animators into a sinking ship. This phenomenon happens with almost every fan base, people see something they find entertaining so they recreate it with characters from something they like. It doesn't mean that the entirety of fan made creations are simular or following suit. TF2 is outrageously popular, even today, so these recrrations have also gotten outrageously popular. And rhough you did mention in the beginning that there are still good animators, you call them "rare" which is something i disagree with. You can still find high quality animators both relatively new (Izumi Ch.) and old (Electorro64Rus). I don't blame newcomers for using TF2's silly characters to do silly things either, it may be a shallow use of the characters, being more like charicatures, this is the way most great animators start out, and I'm personally glad that people are able to do small projects (like recreating a meme) to hone or create skills with a program that's a living hell to use, (both you and I know the woes.) and i hope it will be the catalyst for several people to get into animation. I would call this a rising subsection of content, not an overall decline.
2:40 I TOUGHT U WERE ABOUT TO PUT FEMTANYL CHASER I LOVE THESE VIDEOS AAAAA
In a bit of irony . Your video actually modified my algorithm and now youtube recommend me high quality project of small animator .
Then why the hell are many sfm creators appearing
I do remember as a kid, I would always watch TF2 SFMS. They’re so addictive, and somewhat funny lol.
Ok, but can we talk about HOW EVERYONE OF ITS VIDEOS HAVE MY FAVORITE ARTIST SONGS??? FIRST FEMTANYL AND NOW SAINT PEPSI AAAA
Seeing the creative decay of sfm is really unfortunate, for me and still, it's a good beginner program for getting into character animation. As well as getting a proof of concept going. Sure the apps buggy as all hell, but ya know. Even with the problems of the current state of tf2 sfm, the fact the program is getting a form of recognition again might be beneficial, maybe we'll see some new passion projects, even like ya said it might be far in between. But still, I have some hope even if the current situation is brain rot atm
I deadass want to pick up tf2 sfm making, it might not be good seeing as how if one wanted to make a “movie” then that would take ages but it’d be a nice side hobby having to deal with all the issues.
I saw this video 6 days after everyone else, but I gotta give my input. I’m an SFM animator who used to animate for the Saxxies between 2015-2018, and when the saxxies just stopped, it was hard on me and my friends. Me and others would have a blast trying to create the best saxxy entry we could make and it was a whole sub community itself.
I took a long break from TF2 and SFM stuff between 2019 to 2021, but I came back when TF2 SFM memes became popular and widespread. I myself made an SFM meme recreation which is my most popular video which sits at 1.6 millions views atm. But it seems that these videos have flooded the SFM/TF2 animation space and it’s kind of disheartening when there’s so much potential to create better videos (not saying they are bad, but long form SFMs seem to be few and far between these days).
I’ve taken on the goal of making a longer form SFM animation for my channel, and have been working with Fortress Films by creating models for them to use. Truth is longer form animations take a lot of man hours and critical planning and can take years to create, so you may not see a lot of them right now, but there could very well be a boost in longer SFMs in the near future, we might just not know it!
That’s my input anyway. This was a great video and it was something that needed to be spoken about. Hope you have a great day! 👍
To be honest, everything you showed in this video is all true. The game is being played less and less due to so many problems.
But that doesn't mean we should stop playing this game for fun, and the coolest thing is the game's animations on the animation creation platform.
TBH you have a point. Even the shitposts from around a decade ago didn't seem like trendhopping, or perhaps I'm misremembering.
also if we talk about it from a basic animating standpoint people dont usually make animations more than 1 min bc there are lots of factors to consider like staging and posing and blocking it out, plus animating dialogue is a pain in the ass (usually with 2d animation 20 seconds is considered a lot and still hard work). another thing is its just easier to replicate clips of funny videos because there is something to work with (knowing how the character moves realistically) and you arent just going from scratch which actually takes more planning and blocking. Animators will record themselves or an actor sometimes to get a feel of way the character will move
people just dont have the incentive to most likely because of saxxys not being a thing anymore
"TF2 has been replaced with Meme culture, and everyone's OK with that"
I mean...hasn't it always been since the GMOD and Smexual days? We've had pootis, get behind me doktor, painis cupcake, and stu_pidface back then. There were people like Kitty0706 (I miss him so much), MegaGFilms with “Here Comes Soldier”, and many more from a lot of different content creators, either retired, or still making those types of videos to this very day, separately from the modern-day TF2 SFM content. While I do see the point of people needlessly remaking every meme in SFM, there were a few that kinda just remade them in GMOD. I've taken a crack/laugh at some few that were made in SFM either due to my sense of humor being broken due to the amount of Vinesauce related slop (from Vinny, Joel, and Mike) that I still enjoy to this very day since 2014, or simply cuz I watch most of these short-form SFM content at around 4 AM w/ no real reason (other than I lost control of my life hurr).
Of course there are some good SFM animators out there in the open, some that make some lighthearted stuff, case in point, Kostamoinen. He makes some good SFM videos with the style of TF2's humor from the early 2010s, and that's something I enjoyed myself. Nevertheless, I do agree that SFM has been on a steep decline, but it's kind of the same loop. I've seen people remake memes and such with SFM around 2014/2015 with either FNAF content mixed with Left 4 Dead 2 or Team Fortress 2 since my Google+ haydays where me and my friends would bingewatch all of these on Skype, and some of those animators at the time would then move either to Blender or Maya and make some really great shit, or they still use SFM and now since moved away from that content to make something original or something they wanted to make for a long time.
I think the best comparison I could make with this is with GoAnimate...yeah, THAT GoAnimate. While mainly known for its terrible Grounded videos (as the same with SFM being known nowadays with the short-content format memes you see nowadays), there were some people that used to use GoAnimate to make some really impressive stuff, with a web software tool that was very limited in what you could do. Of course they get overshadowed with something it's *infamously* known for. A great friend of mine, Smirks (TheOmgWtfProductions) made a video (The Good Side of GoAnimate), basically a retrospect of what GoAnimate was (and used to be as a community) back around 2011 to Early/Mid 2014, before GoAnimate’s inevitable steep decline around Late 2014/Early 2015 (and so on so forth), where some animators either moved on (pass on, got bored, used other tools, or unfortunately passed away), or some stay but have to unfortunately get by with making the exact same slop with either Caillou or Dora, or else you get no views because it isn’t a stereotypical “GROUNDED” video with characters that some manchildren hate for some unknown/batshit reason that wouldn’t make any lick of sense. This is basically what’s going on with SFM right now, while TF2…sort of? I mean, there are some people out there that are paying homage to old SFM and GMOD videos by referencing certain tropes, scenes, or memefads that everyone wants to showcase for the modern generation (Pootis bird, TF2 freaks, smexuals, most of that wacky stuff), and while I like it, I do agree that either stuff like that or simply high quality SFM animations would be overshadowed with the same SFM slop, in favor of UA-cam’s algorithm, that being UA-cam Shorts, or a regular video upload you’d see.
All that aside, I really love seeing people make some content in SFM, an extremely buggy, hard-to-use, never-maintained piece of software that’s basically a stepping stone for 3D Animators, who will then later merge on to Blender, while taking some of the Source assets TO Blender (the TF2 Trifecta addon for Blender in this case). While yeah, the trend of TF2 SFMs are basically following the same path GoAnimate did, I don’t think it would be a permanent case at all, let alone the fact that it would rarely ever go in the same path, since again, there will be people that would use SFM to make high quality content down the road once they get everything under control, and would have the BALLS to find some workarounds to a very buggy software.
Also with TF2 cosmetics nowadays…I just don’t care anymore, I just say “fuck it” and roll with it. (Controversial take I know, but maybe that’s just me not giving a fuck like a cynical bastard I am)
Either way, this is a very long comment, basically an overview/response to the video itself, and while I agree with the points made, unfortunately there will be those that would just scoff and move on. But yeah, thanks for coming to my TED talk, or something…wutever. :y
i aint readin allat
@@ziphy_6471 TLDR: Boy, this here is just gonna keep happening, and happening.
EXACTLY! I’m sick of people setting expectations for how THEY like content they DIDNT MAKE. It’s not like they’re a director that is paying us to do what they want. Someone on the internet who criticizes others despite not making SFMs themself is just ridiculous.
I’m an aspiring SFM animator and this video feels crushing to me.
This is probably the best edited video.. Keep going I love your content
I started learning sfm recently because i got bored and i miss one of my friends at school because it's weekend. So now i've got a challenge to do. Nice.
oh damn, i was waiting for "poopy skibidi toilet mobile game rip-offs"
I will say that, I am by no means at all a veteran to TF2. I have been in the backlines a few years after its release, but having never actually played the game until about a year ago thanks to some friends, it has been quite the ride to starting to make my own things in SFM; even if just for a silly little edit for some dumb clip.
However, I also grew up with the animations; by god have I grown up with all of the incredible SFM animations that this community has created. And, I can safely yet sadly say, that I sincerely doubt that SFMs will return to the limelight. Why?
Back in the day when SFMs were being made with heart and for the sake of the work, there were a lot of things working in its favor. TF2 was relevant to Valve, meaning we had the Saxxies, and thanks to the game being updated, it felt more like there was some bond between Valve and the community that may have helped motivate creative individuals to make SFM animations.
Nowadays, however, what are the incentives to make an SFM? Well, we don't have the Saxxy awards. There are no good sites to share your art on where they can get attention other than UA-cam; no more Valve blogs. You also have the shadow of the greats of past SFM creators and their works to live up against. SFM is also heavily outclassed by other software, some of which is just as free as SFM, yet far easier to use. There has been so much time and so little innovation to the TF2 universe, that it can seem like all the good ideas are already taken.
Animation; especially in SFM; is hard. It takes hours of work for seconds of animation. Ideas are hard to come by, and if you have enough experience to write, script, animate, sound design, edit, and composite a full animation, odds are you are already working for someone. SFM is charity work, you get very little from it, and there is far less room for that kind of stuff nowadays.
However, it can take only a couple hours or a day or two to make a couple seconds of animation that replicates a reference, where you have to do no scripting, no cinematography, no audio design; just copy and paste and you're done. I can say that even that does take talent, but its like asking Beethoven to play twinkle twinkle little stars-- its squandering such incredible potential that these animators do have.
However, something I will say, is that complaining will not accomplish anything. Saying "you should all do better" isn't giving anyone the tools or motivation they need to actually make a difference. Animation usually takes teams of people, who need money to survive and time that they would likely have to take from their real jobs or risk spending literal years on one project, which also risks burnout. Nobody is coordinating real projects, nobody has made it clear that they are willing to fund SFM animators, and nobody is raising their hand to do the work, because it simply is no longer worth it. Memes are relevant. TF2 is not.
Sad, but true.
And the only hope we have is for someone to coordinate something real. I hope to do that soon; I have a concept and a rough draft script, but I haven't formally started thanks to life beating my ass, and having little motivation. Though, if anyone wants to know about it or even help out with the project, dm me on discord @moony_otter (I am broke, I hope to find new income soon, sorry for those wanting to be paid but I cannot promise that, do not offer otherwise.) Maybe if I get some traction (especially since my next video is gonna advertise it) then I might actually start working on it for reals.
As someone who has watched SFM animations for years, and wanted to participate, and has been dipping my toes into the purple-and-black-textured water of SFM, I can say that these kinds of projects aren't going to get popular at any point. But hey, let's just cherish the heroes that do continue this art?
id say one of the best args currently out there, Interloper, which is all about sfm is actually really great.
It’s more about the source engine itself, than SFM.
I talked a bit about this in my new video! I had it in the drafts for a while but your video inspired me to post it aswell. I may make a tf2 video talking about how meet the spy made me fall in love with the game.
When you can be going from watching some of the most beautiful stuff like turbulence, for example, who got nominated for the saxy award to the most garbage stuff ever
I love this UA-camr, he’s someone who speaks about major UA-cam problems that aren’t really named and payed attention to, but people are aware of.
As someone who is guilty of remaking memes in SFM recently, they are a really great way of learning to animate. They're also a lot more boring to make, and make me feel less creative as well.
This community has a problem of chasing trends and memes all the way back to 2008 when every TF2 animation was a clone of "Scout was Delicious".
And when some creative and unique animator becomes famous, Rubberfruit for example. A lot of the other creators are copying their style.
Kinda how most modern animations went from copying Pixar to copying Spiderverse.
Chasing trends is also a bad habit I have myself. Is admittedly hard to get rid of when wanting a consistent but unnecessary upload schedule.
This video really should have been just focused on trend hopping meme recreations and stuff like that instead of just doing a "old man yells at a cloud" type thing. Throwing literally every new video under the bus because you don't like a pacific type of video feels really misguided to me. Like SFM short form joke content with TF2 existed before on the platform and there's still accounts that make videos like that so making the narrative just about serious videos feels like you're acting like this all is black and white.
To be fair, he did say that there were pockets of actual GOOD animation, so...
All of the videos that he likes are sfm short films or movies,not memes or anything shorter than 10 minutes@@ttpbroadcastingcompany.4460
What about an atlantic type of video
It's hard to be optimistic about TF2 in every single way, in and out of the game.
God damn it.
sfm REALLY NEEDS AN UPDATE, that also why a lot of sfm artists moved to blender
FINALLY somebody has mentioned this
The state of tf2 sfm scares me. I'm okay with some sfms that are just recreations of another meme as long as it and the original meme are funny. I only recreated 2 memes and while i did enjoy animating them. I rather make more original content because they are alot more fun and more worth my time. I hope Skibidi Toilet, Mimi Sentry/Dispenser etc will die out quick enough so that better animations get the attention they deserve. Now if you excuse me i gotta render a 2 minute animation that is part of a larger project that i have no idea how long it will be. Also good video i like
Eltorro64rus has been making content for years and I think theirs are amazing. Can't forget Heavy is Dead video. That one got so popular that the Actors recreated it.
I have ideas, I just have trouble grasping how to actually animate in SFM. I know posing and stills, but making it move has always kinda frightened me
I have mixed opinions, I agree that passion should be encouraged so that we can have great animations based off our beloved game. But I will admit I have animated audios from shows and memes before but only for fun and because I think the audios fit the characters.
Hey Sournale if you wanna look at some sfms heres a small list:
Like white on spy
Endless Rust
Yakuspy
The wanderer
Bio fortress (although not sfm still cool)
The crow's nest
Happy binging.
hey Sournale, there is a tf2 sfm series called the scratched universe, its a really good sfm that developed over time from some funny side project into a fullblown series, and the total watchtime is about 5ish hours
I have a playlist of DECENT TF2 SFM content that I actively search for content to add to every month. While I agree with this (I have been watching TF2 SFMs since I was in Highschool 10+ years ago), I think that the animation quality and talent has genuinely improved over the years and continues to improve, and it's always amazing to see what animators come up with next.
A very well made video, mate. Nice work.
i know right? it's such a shame, too. it's hard to believe that just a few years ago we even got an official pepsi ad made with sfm. don't believe me? look up SFM who touch my pepsi?