How would I begin 3D modeling a city for a render?

defthorizon

I'm trying to make a render of a cyberpunk-like city with a lot of buildings, signs and more. What I have trouble is how I'm gonna make the roads and big buildings. What I mean is if I'm gonna do modular road system or all in one piece? What works best with texture, uv-mapping and so on. 

Here is an example of what I'm trying to create. 
https://youtu.be/UEzJ-Ckl7co?t=77

Noors

Well you're not starting simple. Yes you should go modular, and you should go procedural. I used cityengine once, dno how it is these days. Studios tend to make their own solutions based on houdini, but there are other softwares and plugins around.

Sage

I would base it off something real. Use google maps.

check out https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APZ2kZ3OF1E&t=30s for ideas...

musashidan

If it's just for a render/illustration then you can rely heavily on compositing/photobashing/matte painting.

sacboi

Unsure of the aesthetic you're aiming for, couldn't open the link on my phone but anyway here's a 80lvl breakdown via an ArtStation challenge piece that may if nothing else provide some direction as to overall workflow and/or asset generation:

https://www.google.com/amp/s/80.lv/articles/cyberpunk-environment-production-techniques/?amp_markup=1

Mark Dygert

Houdini is great for procedural content like this. You can plug it into unreal and its pretty awesome.

https://vimeo.com/228234352

Depending on what tools/engine you are using there are a few different options out there. Are you using just Maya or Max? Are you using an engine like Unity or Unreal?