There used to be a guide a long time ago, but it didn't go into great detail on how to do everything: only the basic functions of some of the tools (MdlVis & Magos' Model Editor)
The guide fell into obscurity because the website that hosted it went under, and took the necessary tutorial photos with it.
I've been meaning to make a guide, but while I have the editor skill, microphone, and time: I don't have any recording software that'll do it now that Fraps has stopped capturing the Desktop.
Were I you, I'd contact
@Gluma, he is the finest motion-animator on the Hive Workshop.
@Mythic is the best particle engineer I've seen, could teach you so much more than I could there.
@Tauer employs some of the finest mesh and texture tricks to achieve spectacular quality without bloating the polygon count
My only trick as a creator here is sheer volume of models spanning genres.
I've got a basic understanding of animation and a rudimentary understanding of particles.
With every model I make, I try to give it a full set of custom animations unless it's an animal - their skeletons are whack.
I recommend the following tools
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MdlVis (To render and animate)
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BLP Lab (To convert .PNGs into .BLPs and compress them)
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Magos' Model Editor (To Import and adjust textures, create particles, sounds, and keyframe events)
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Gimp 2.8 (The current version of Gimp 2 has some stunningly stupid changes that'll slow down your work, use Gimp 2.8)