With the KP_CurveTools plugin you can extrude objects (cubes) along multiple curves at once (figure A). The tool features several parameters to customize the extrusion (figure B) and has the option to create a new set of controls (figure C) for later animation of the extruded objects (subdivs, position along curve, thickness, etc.).

Figure A

The MeshSliceTool allows you to slice a polygon mesh in a way, that the polgons nearest to a bone or another specified object get extracted to a new polygon object. So you no longer have to manually create slices of a character to allow animation in realtime for instance.