I appreciate the tip regarding Milkshape but I truly have an aversion for that software.

Maybe I am missing something, just not reading closely enough, but it would seem to me that there should be some type of solution that is guaranteed to work whether it be in-house or 3rd-party. This is after all game development software and there should be some infallible way of getting content into it. Is there perhaps something within 3DGS itself that allows you to bone and animate meshes?

There simply has to be one excellent way to get content into the engine or else why use it?