I know there is already confirmation of swapping in custom portraits, but I'm curious about something slightly different:
How hard/expensive would it be to create the built-in portraits in a layered format, with things like hair, skin, eyes, and cloths on separate layers? Furthermore, if that is doable, is it possible to have an in game color-swapper for these layers (and possibly a visibility toggle for things like facial hair).
If the portraits are provided in any layered format openable by a good image editor, then we could do the swapping/toggling ourselves quite easily (I'm the antithesis of an artist, and even I could do that), but an in-game interface during character creation would be a nice touch - provided that it doesn't take too much time/money. If this is doable, custom portraits should be allowed to be flat images or layered ones, so that people can just grab their favorites off the web if they want to, or use ones custom-made for P:E with full access to the color change/visibility features.
Is any of this a reasonable possibility? Does anyone besides me think it would be at all beneficial?