Is Maya good for making large levels or maps or should I just build it up in Unreal or Unity?

Irraka

Hi I just want to preface this by saying I have very little skill or experience with Unreal Engine. It seems a bit intimidating but I wanted to create a large map that looks like it belongs in a video game for my portfolio as an 3d artist. I guess my first question is can Maya even pull off having a huge map like that? Would it be worth learning Unreal and just making the map playable and building it in Unreal? Let me know what you guys think!

oglu

Go with Unreal. Maya does not have the tools and in the end you have to export it anyways. 

Alex_J

oglu said:

Go with Unreal. Maya does not have the tools and in the end you have to export it anyways. 

what tools are necessary? I am making some large archviz type scenes for static renders. Was using Marmoset toolbag and arranging in maya. I liked to do work in maya cause got the full range of snapping tools and easy gizmo. Whats benefit of doing in unreal specifically?

oglu

You wrote huge map. I thought you are going to create kilometers of terrain and vegetation for a game. If its for a still everything is fine. 

Alex_J

Regarding a different project that has several static archviz style scenes. @oglu

icegodofhungary

You generally use your 3D package (maya, unity, 3dsmax, etc) to build your buildings and objects. Then you export to unreal to build your actual scene that you walk through. Your terrain, lighting, particle effects, and that kind of stuff will be done in unreal. You probably wouldn't build your entire scene in maya and then export it as that would be doing unnecessary double-work. 

Ideally you'd do the following:

- Go into unreal and block out  your level. This is called grayboxing. You use a few simple, quickly modeled pieces to block out your level. This is to get the scale right and set up the composition of your scene. There are primitive shapes within unreal that you can use as well, but you don't do any real modeling in unreal. Just blocking out things. You can import some placeholder objects you made in maya or unity for things that simple cubes/spheres/cylinders can't approximate.

- Go into maya or unity and start making your actual objects. How you approach making objects depends entirely on your project's requirements.

- Go back to unreal and replace your placeholder objects with the final version of the objects. It may be helpful when starting out to go back and forth. Like an iterative process. Slowly add more and more detail, refine each object until you get to the level of finish you want.

- Texture the objects however like or require. Texturing methods also depends on your project. Here you'll be moving between maya or unity, some texturing package like substance or quixel, and possibly a sculpting program like mudbox or zbrush. You also might do some baking in maya or the other programs.

- Import textures into unreal and build your materials there. There may be some need to adjust your textures or rebake depending on how they look in unreal. Apply your textures to your objects.

- In unreal adjust your lighting. You might add a sun and sky for outdoor lighting (there's a sun and sky already there in the project templates). Or you will add other lights for interior scenes. You can also add fog and particle fx to polish the scene. 

- Create a video from camera fly-throughs within unreal to show off your finished level. Or set up several stationary cameras to highlight points of interest within your map. Keep good composition in mind when picking the proper angle and distance from objects.

I have almost no experience with animations inside unreal so I can't advise on that aspect. But if you have animations you would work that in somewhere before making your final video/images of your scene.

Repeating advice I've read elsewhere on these forums: If you're starting out as an environment artist and building your portfolio, it's better to do several small-scale environments than trying to tackle a massive open world. Start out with a single building or diorama/vignette. Then work your way up. Art directors would rather see several smaller high-polished pieces that show off various skills than one massive environment. And if you're trying to learn the basics of unreal, trying to do everything at once will be very daunting. I would just make a single object (or use one you've already made) and get used to importing, materials, and lighting at first. Then build more complex scenes as you learn stuff.

poopipe

Fwiw I find unreal to be a fucking awful level creation tool compared to the maya based systems I've used in studios that have their own engines. 
This is largely because it doesn't have the same toolset for snapping etc. And doesn't allow for spontaneous creation of custom geometry.  

All that said. If you're planning to use unreal then you need to either work the way it likes or build tools to get around the problem 

The post above describes a perfectly sensible workflow if you're not in a position to build tools to support a better one. 

goekbenjamin

this looks very interesting:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2SWOEkzX80