Making a mod: Unreal it is! [Solved]

Reznik

I want to have something more substantial to show off in my portfolio once I graduate college, so this summer I want to take on a mod project. I'm not much of a coder or level designer, more a modeler and animator, so if I'm doing this solo it's going to be something small just to kind of show off my stuff in an interactive environment. One of my friends likes to make levels though so if he were to get involved then the scope would expand.

Anyway!

Which of these is easiest to work with? I have a bit of coding experience from highschool in Java, and some actionscript this year, but I'm not a programmer by any means. I work primarily in 3D Studio Max so if one of the two plays nicer with Max then that is a bonus. And I guess in general if one is prettier than the other, that would also be a plus.

But the main criteria is ease of use and amount of good tutorials. I would like to actually complete this, so if there is a super steep learning curve even to make a very small project, that's not very good for what I need to do. I'm planning on starting asset generation now, so that I have all the crap to work with over the summer instead of having to spend the bulk of the time modeling/animating/texturing the characters.

By very small project I mean 1 mostly outdoor map with a couple buildings, 3 or 4 enemies, the main character and some different weapons. A couple friendly NPCs if I get the modeling done quickly.

Thanks for your input

Angel_of_Bacon

I can't speak for ease of use/tutorials/workflow/programming, but I would throw into consideration that if you're graduating college and soon to be looking for a job, listing 'Unreal engine experience' is probably going to be more useful on a resume than Source experience, since a lot of studios use Unreal.

Good chance you'll have to learn it when you do get a job anyways, so that's the one I'd go for.

List of Unreal Engine Games

List of Source Games

Black Ice

Bacon brings up a good point. A lot of studios use Unreal. Gears of War and Rainbow Six instantly come to mind... not a lot use Source other than Valve!

TychoCelchuuu

Unreal, you basically have to be a coder or have a PhD to get shit into Source. With Unreal you just hit 3 buttons and you're set.

Reznik

Thanks a lot guys. Looks like I'll be going with Unreal!