Kanaru's correct. As far as modeling and creating the assets you can use whichever software package you're comfortable with and simply export your models as an OBJ (this is the standard for moving assets across modeling platforms). In Maya you may need to enable OBJ export, go to your plugins and scroll through it untill you find "obj export", make sure you enable that. Once that's on select the models you want to put into 3d studio max and choose export (ensure UV's and Normals are enabeled or your UV mapping and modeling wont carry over fully) and make sure you export these assets somewhere that you can find them ;).
Once you've got your exported assets simply open 3dstudio max, go to file and choose import. Choose Wavefront OBJ as the filetype (or all files types) and find your OBJ. Open it up, right click the asset and convert it to an editable mesh. Follow the instructions in Nintentoxicated's M3 export thread and you should have be good to go. A little poking around in Max's material editor and you can have them fully textured as well.
Little complicated but do it a couple times and you'll have the process down. If there's enough interest i can make a tutorial showing step by step how to import an OBJ to MAX, put your textures on it and get it in game.
EDIT: There are forums devoted completely to creating video game art of all types, my personal favorite, polycount can be found here and has nearly a decade's worth of knowledge on all manner of game art. Here's a link to their technical forums:
@Kanaru: Go
Kanaru's correct. As far as modeling and creating the assets you can use whichever software package you're comfortable with and simply export your models as an OBJ (this is the standard for moving assets across modeling platforms). In Maya you may need to enable OBJ export, go to your plugins and scroll through it untill you find "obj export", make sure you enable that. Once that's on select the models you want to put into 3d studio max and choose export (ensure UV's and Normals are enabeled or your UV mapping and modeling wont carry over fully) and make sure you export these assets somewhere that you can find them ;).
Once you've got your exported assets simply open 3dstudio max, go to file and choose import. Choose Wavefront OBJ as the filetype (or all files types) and find your OBJ. Open it up, right click the asset and convert it to an editable mesh. Follow the instructions in Nintentoxicated's M3 export thread and you should have be good to go. A little poking around in Max's material editor and you can have them fully textured as well.
Little complicated but do it a couple times and you'll have the process down. If there's enough interest i can make a tutorial showing step by step how to import an OBJ to MAX, put your textures on it and get it in game.
EDIT: There are forums devoted completely to creating video game art of all types, my personal favorite, polycount can be found here and has nearly a decade's worth of knowledge on all manner of game art. Here's a link to their technical forums:
http://boards.polycount.net/forumdisplay.php?f=43
Use the search function properly and you can find anything could could ever want to know about UV mapping, Texturing, High poly baking, etc, etc.
Great community if any of you have hopes of becoming a game artist or just need to learn a few things to get something working in max or maya.