The Silver Lining (a massive fan effort to make a top quality freeware game based on the King's Quest series) have a journal update where they show how they build up the 3D scenes used in the game
http://www.tsl-game.com/journal/special/
The Silver Lining is the fan-designed ninth episode inspired by the King's Quest series. This series is Sierra On-Line's flagship collection of adventure games, designed by the award-winning Roberta Williams.
The Silver Lining features a 1500+ page script, 9 chapters, hundreds of characters, gigabytes of 2D & 3D artwork, both a live & online voiceover cast, hundreds of songs and all being put into a 3D game engine.
The Silver Lining is a 3D cinematic 3rd person screen-to-screen, point-and-click adventure game that you have never experienced before.

http://www.tsl-game.com/
PART 1 DEMO
http://www.tsl-game.com/trilogy/