For those interested in animation, I'm starting a series of tips for improving your animation. This won't be a how-to series; there's many of them already. Instead I'm covering subjects I myself found invaluable.

http://murraythis.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/concern-yourself-with-frames.html

While on the subject, is there a way to disable the green path line? I know you can remove it by unhighlighting areas in the motion editor, but this causes annoyances elsewhere.

Fantastic, they're perfect! Thank you Jack.

*Jack Frost has kindly fulfilled the request. The models are available for download in Jack's comment below.

Hi everyone!

I would like to make a request for two gift tags, both scaled to fit the tf_gift model. One nametag needs to read "Scout", and the other needs to read "Heavy". It's important that the text is clear on both models as I will be getting some close up shots of the tags.

The following image resembles the shape and colour of the tags I need. Don't worry about the thread/string though, it's just the tag I need.
http://www.vividwrap.com/ekmps/shops/vividwrap/images/plain-gift-tags-gtp70-cream-840-p.jpg

I don't have much to offer back, but I will credit whoever makes the tags in the video where I use them, and be in debt to them!

Thank you.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WpKJ7EBnnlc

Sooooothing ACTION, action, action...

I think your terminology is wrong here. Rigs merely attach a skeletal structure with controls to the model to aid the animator. If you're looking for more animations to use in SFM, look for free mocap files (.bvh) and then look for a tutorial to import mocap into source filmmaker.

Love your work man!

Impressive! The textures look a little low res but aside from that it's a very tasty render!

It's a mix of the tools available in Maya and 3ds, and preference; mainly preference. An example of the tools in Maya are things like trax, and plug-ins such as tween machine.

The repetition you see, is the result of copying and pasting keys, ultimately creating new keyframes, disconnected to prior keys. If you want an animation to loop, you need to build the animation (or the cycle) first and then copy it when you're happy with it.