These are some simple techniques that you may have thought of and want something more but I'll present them anyways.
1.) I know you can import some type of animation picture (gif i think). I've also recolored a slide indicator to make it look like a piston and then changed the value every loop to get an animation. Adding decorations can help "pretty" it up.
2.) see 4
3.) Not sure what your looking for here. I've used the image navigator pipes and just made them really small if I want a fatter line.
4.) For different valves, I typically use the DSC image navigator and either place it as a static image (for manual valves) or place it in a ring structure (with different colors or orientations). The classic ring is best since you can make the whole thing transparent. You can then cycle the ring for different valve positions.
Again, simple but works well for what I do.
