http://wiki.polycount.com/wiki/SkankerzeroModularCharacterSystem
How to create a modular character system, by Jesse 'skankerzero' Sosa
Modular Assets
For this 'character' I will be creating a modular asset.
By 'modular asset' I mean an asset that can act as a lego piece if you will.
During my 9 years at Terminal Reality, I spearheaded our crowd / parting system on the art side. We created characters that used a single animation rig and were made out of parts that were swapped according to an XML file. In that file we defined specific variants and the parts they worked with. We were also able to completely randomize the character using parts and creating an exception list of parts that didn't work together.
Below is a small example of some that I've done in my past.
Back in 2004, I tackled my first modular parts character for BloodRayne 2.