Think you can meet the Pyro better than Valve revealed among unicorns and cherubic Heavies? Then get over to the Source Filmmaker, Valve's baby that allows you to make quality animation using games that run off the Source engine. Free to download and use, as Ars Technica points out, but it does have some limitations:
"The voiceover points out that the tool allows animators to pause the videos they create, implement changes in the 3D frame, and then start the animation again, without having to re-render the scene. Reduction of rendering time has been cited as a major advantage of Unreal Engine 4, so its use in a consumer-level industry tool is very impressive. Of course, SFM has a much smaller toolset to draw from—most, if not all, of the characters in the demo video are of the square-jawed TF2 variety. This is not Valve's first time sharing animation tools, either; earlier in June, the company announced it was sharing its Source engine to power an upcoming 3D animated film, Deep."
All you need to sign up for the public Beta is a Steam account and a computer ready to deal with massive animations and processing powers. Valve outlines what Source exactly is in their FAQ:
"Most tools only create a fraction of a movie: a renderer, a 2D video clip editor, a keyframer, a motion capture editor, a sound editor, etc. The SFM is a hybrid of all these workflows merged into a single system, where you can create an entire movie by reusing assets and events from the video game world."
And if you have your own mods, maps or other designs for Team Fortress 2 they can be easily brought over into your next machinima masterpiece. As for the hardware requirements, you can't blame Valve for the high expectations. You are trying to outdo them when it comes to the "Meet The" videos. Or, to translate: Sorry, Apple users.
"OS: Windows 7 / Vista (Windows 7 64 bit suggested)
Processor: 3.0 GHz P4, Dual Core 2.0 (or higher) or AMD64X2 (or higher)
Memory: 2GB (4 GB suggested)
Hard Disk Space: At least 15 GB of Space
Video: NVIDIA GeForce 200 series card or better, or AMD Radeon 3000 series or better (NVIDIA GeForce 400 series or AMD Radeon 5000 series preferred)
Monitor: 1366 x 768 (1920 x 1080 suggested)
Audio: DirectX 9.0c compatible
USB headset with mic (suggested)"
So go forth and start reliving your very own Sword Car masterpieces.