Hey guys,

Recently I got an idea for a relatively simple game, and wanted to start building it. My programming skills and Unity3d skills are great. The thing is that I'm not an amazing modeler. I can model non living things relatively decently, but any sort of animal, human, etc., I'm pretty inexperienced with. There's a pretty good chance that I won't need to have any living things in my game, but I'm still wondering whether to just find the models online or give it a try at modeling all of my art assets in Maya. What says the community?

You could buy from a asset or download from free sites, it sounds like you know enough to do your own retopology so you should have a large choice.

At worst you could hire a 3D artist or pay one to model for you, it sounds like you don't really need one, and buying from asset stores is usually cheaper but the props probably won't be unique to your game.

Also to use props from asset stores effectively you will need a level designer or some skill in level design yourself, many games using assets from stores look bad because developers just add things wildly. Stick to a theme.

You could buy from a asset or download from free sites, it sounds like you know enough to do your own retopology so you should have a large choice.

At worst you could hire a 3D artist or pay one to model for you, it sounds like you don't really need one, and buying from asset stores is usually cheaper but the props probably won't be unique to your game.

Also to use props from asset stores effectively you will need a level designer or some skill in level design yourself, many games using assets from stores look bad because developers just add things wildly. Stick to a theme.

Yea that was my major gripe with getting assets from asset stores is that it wouldn't really look necessarily a part of my game. I could do a mix of both as well I suppose: make some on my own and use free assets from online as well.

When I first started with modeling, I would use models from opengameart.org, but then edit them and make a new texture until they fit whatever style I was going for. It's not a bad stop-gap measure until you're more comfortable making your own assets from scratch. I found that editing already made models gave me a better idea how others went about making theirs and in the process I became much more comfortable with the sculpting/texturing process.

From there, I just moved into making really blocky versions of a model, then sculpting the detail in. I found it wasn't much different than just editing someone else's model. You'll slowly build up a workflow that works for you, I think. But, in the meantime be able to have assets that work for the game you're making.

When I first started with modeling, I would use models from opengameart.org, but then edit them and make a new texture until they fit whatever style I was going for. It's not a bad stop-gap measure until you're more comfortable making your own assets from scratch. I found that editing already made models gave me a better idea how others went about making theirs and in the process I became much more comfortable with the sculpting/texturing process.

From there, I just moved into making really blocky versions of a model, then sculpting the detail in. I found it wasn't much different than just editing someone else's model. You'll slowly build up a workflow that works for you, I think. But, in the meantime be able to have assets that work for the game you're making.

Hmm, I like this idea a good amount. Of course, I'm still open to anyone's advice. Also guys, this may or may not be a commercial project (I mean I could put it on the Apple app store, but it'd be more for fun than anything else).

this may or may not be a commercial project

If that's the case, for my suggestion anyhow, just make sure you follow the license on the particular model you're using to adapt. There's a wide range of different "open" copyright types out there, some more permissive than others.

I've spent my time learning to model/texture/animate from scratch. I feel that I don't want to depend on anything else if I can help it. Now if I actually get a partner and/or team, it is one thing, but depending on "free" assets or even paid assets in the hopes that it fits my game...I don't like it. Worse, depending on the situation it make take as much time to change things to fit than to just make it from scratch.

Now, for placeholders, it is quite different. But even then I usually just make something quick and ugly, maybe just doing a quick sculpt and decimate depending on the complexity of the final sculpt, just something to get something that at least resembles the object, no textures(or just quick baked procedural textures base on very quick automatic UVs), and no animations most likely.

Well, as it turns out I only have the student license for Maya anyways, and if I'm not wrong, I can't go commercial with it. So I guess I'll stick with the original suggestion by Misantes then.

I modeled a base model that can be smoothed into a good base for sculpting a human. It can also be box modeled further for details. I plan on making such meshes for more species. A quadruped base, a bird, a fish, etc.

I have stepped away from modeling for a bit, but I need this also right now. I will upload links and images later today.

Link to the page with the models:

http://forum.maratis3d.com/viewtopic.php?id=735

Nice bases there, can be useful for some easy humans to modify into what you want.(exactly the point, I know).