Since I will be documenting my whole process at the end of the contest I will try and include as much info on how I approach certain things first.
So to start off when I first open max I make sure that I have generic units set and I set my grid up to be a lot like Unreals grid and by using the unreal grid tools plug in for max I can easily change my grid settings.
I try to keep everything on the grid and snapped to grid points as once in unreal the pieces are much easier to move around and snap to each other like lego pieces.
Once I get my proxy meshes completed I export them and drop them into the editor to see the approximate size and make sure everything fits together. Then as I update the pieces I just re-import into unreal and they update automatically in the scene.
It could be a nice touch of depth to expand the scene into the street add in the bus power cables and the mounts anchored into the building, (even though the mounts aren't in the ref).
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So to start off when I first open max I make sure that I have generic units set and I set my grid up to be a lot like Unreals grid and by using the unreal grid tools plug in for max I can easily change my grid settings.
I try to keep everything on the grid and snapped to grid points as once in unreal the pieces are much easier to move around and snap to each other like lego pieces.
Once I get my proxy meshes completed I export them and drop them into the editor to see the approximate size and make sure everything fits together. Then as I update the pieces I just re-import into unreal and they update automatically in the scene.