The generation of realistic or accurate 3-dimensional human body models is generally a challenging task. It involves a variety of different steps and a combination of various tools along a specific authoring pipeline. This thesis focuses on the current methodologies and tools that are part of this pipeline in various contexts of application. These methodologies and tools are the result of decades of research into the generation of human body models. This thesis identifies the strengths and analyzes the weaknesses of existing approaches and proposes improvements as well as new solutions.