Those material tutorials were posted on polycount, and referenced in a polycount news post. Why post the Game Artist version instead of the Polycount? Do you get ad revenue for linking to the other sites or something?
The first thing I did was to plan my environment and create the blockout. As I am using nanites I am not so much worrying about polycount. Of course, there are no crazy amounts of tris, but for some parts like the Jesus statue I just decimated it from and created auto UVs and then created textures.
All the decent contract work I have gotten has been directly or indirectly from Polycount. Polycount also motivated me to put togther a portfolio and told me how to do it correctly. Thanks Polycount!
Happy birthday Polycount! He. I found polycount because of an awesome "Knife Tutorial" by Rat. We had a short fling, which later turned out to be quite the romance. I still love U Polycount!