Well, i see, he's a programmer not a 3D artist at all.
I should recommand , making a team with some modeler, it will be lot more easy for him if he targets a good quality game.
for prototype , he can use anything (even cubes !)
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It's not the subject here , but let's talk about helping on projects :
- I helped some creature monster of very good quality for some great 3DGS game that had a great level and characters. I've put hours and hours of work, and the prject failed one or two months after
-Same thing i put lot of hours creating some animated character for some arcade project ,and the project have been abandonned for another game type.
Help for free : it's ok, when you begin 3D, but once you are skilled a little and want to make a game, you'll keep free time for your project instead
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I'm too much really busy in my game, i can't even find a ll the free time i would want to put on it !
I really recommend him to make some two guys team : programmer, 3D artist.
And you can find amateur 3D artists on 3D forums elsewhere than in 3DGS forums