[2D Animation] How to create modular dress-up game on rig with deformation?

Hello,

I'm trying to build a dress-up style game where the player can choose a skin for their character, and apply various hairstyles, clothing, and items, any of which can be multiple pieces, and bound to different bones for motion. In case it is relevant, there may be hundreds of items down the line, and many may be downloaded OTA.

How can I set up a rig such that I can swap out full skins or single items, while maintaining the same skeleton, and binding each clothing item to the bones such that they can deform along with the rig?

Is there any way to author a rig outside of the sprite editor? It seems so odd that I am forced to have my bone data live within a specific sprite, which means I must use a spritesheet instead of individual sprites.

How would I import an article of clothing (sprite set or spritesheet) for instance, a pair of pants, and then map it onto just the legs of my rig which exist in another sprite?

Any workflow tips would be helpful.

 

I thought that the Animation 2D package was still in experimental along with the IK package. My mistake.