Character customization question

Suppose this goes for external tools.

I’ve been going over the character customization example. I noticed the characters there are separated into different pieces.

How can you split a character in parts like that?
Should I make different models for every body part and every variation of it? If so how do I animate a bunch of different body parts?

I’m new to modeling and I’m using 3d Studio Max.

well i guess you could just modify the same…“clothes” that you have then rename it, so you still have the same animations, but im not to sure :S