Valve announces Source Filmmaker for release this year

Valve has announced the Source Filmmaker (SFM), the tool its used to create all the Meet the Team videos for Team Fortress 2.

The news came alongside the release of Team Fortress 2's final short, Meet the Pyro.

Valve claimed today that the "SFM condenses the production pipeline of an animation studio down onto a single gaming PC."

"The goal of the SFM was to develop a story telling tool that allowed us to create computer animated movies more efficiently, and with greater creative freedom," said Bay Raitt, designer at Valve.

"Over the past five years, we've produced more than 50 animated shorts with the SFM. The Source Filmmaker will allow our community to create their own movies in Team Fortress 2 and in their own Source SDK-created mods."

The SFM is currently in closed beta and will be made available - free of charge - later this year via Steam. More information can be found here.