Have you checked out this? http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=155101824

I can't really help with GIMP too much since I've never really used it.

Well for starters, you should probably get a basic model completed first before trying bodygroups and transparent textures.

Bodygroups should be very easy with the new importer, though. There should be a checkbox for what geometry you want to hide for characters (e.g. his gas tank) in the importer. Otherwise, you'll have to do it manually with a QC file.

This might help with transparency: http://steamcommunity.com/groups/BlenderTutorialCommunity/discussions/0/864974467279350930/

Ask around as well. I'm no longer as active here as I once was.

This is "normal" in the sense that blender is doing it's job correctly for what you're asking it to do. I think the problem lies with how your UVs are set up. Make sure to get set up the UVs so that you don't get very tiny pieces that would lead to lighting errors like that. You can either try to expand the UVs (and bake at a higher resolution with higher settings), or you can just fix the AO bake with photoshop.

For me, I like to render my AO at 4x the final size of the texture and with high settings. Then I scale it down in photoshop and try to paint over any small errors in the bake.

Like Avagantamo said, I think it looks good, but accentuate the pot edge (make the rim more prominent --> just extrude it out a bit more to give it depth), and perhaps paint a little dirt smudge on the side of the pot. Alternative, you could have the flower growing out of the bottom of the pot (at the top of the hat) which would be coming out of a crack in the bottom. I think if you make these changes, it could be really neat. Also the phong shininess is a bit high for what is supposed to be a more clay-like material.

It was made using jigglebones. Decompile it and take a look at how the bones were set up. Then google how to make jigglebones (someone put together a very good jigglebones video on youtube).

Compile the model...

Or you can use the "new" TF2 SDK:

-Navigate to your /Steam/SteamApps/common/Team Fortress 2/bin/ folder
-Find the batch file titled "hlmv.bat" and open this file
-TF2-specific source SDK that should work

If it doesn't work, open HLMV.bat with notepad++ and edit line 5 to be the following:

Then open HLMV.bat again.

This is a question I would ask NapyDaWise (he deals with facial flexes).

Either he put them in the wrong folder, or you gave him the wrong files.

It should be as simple as copying your models and materials folders from C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\Team Fortress 2\tf\ and pasting them in C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\SourceFilmmaker\game\tf.

Hey. Sorry to give you a non-answer here, but animation is out of my scope (currently). I would try asking around the facepunch forums or a workshop contributor who does animations (maybe ask NeoDement or the Heartsman).