What is a good game creation workflow for making an island?

I would like to create an island for game purpose, and it will be very helpful if anyone can give me some hints about the workflow of creating a game environment and the good way to do it.

I tried to find tutorials to learn creating landscape/terrain but nothing close to what I want (or maybe I just looked into the wrong direction) and some tutorials mentioned hightmap. I want to make an island like this one: Map of the whole island . On the island it will look something like this: rivers and trees , mountains, waterfalls and caves.

My questions are, how do you start to do a environment like this, do you use extensional programs like Maya, Zbrush, etc. to create models (rocks and trees) then import the models into UE4? I am a 3D modeller/animator and I know if I create the whole jungle/island/forest out of maya or zbrush, it is going to take forever and my PC probably cant handle it.

Is there any way (or any other software) to do it more effectively? So far I checked some programs like TerreSculptor HMES, SpeedTree online, any recommendation?
Can anyone share the workflow of creating jungle/island environment with me? what software you use, how/where do you start and what should I be aware of if the environment models are used for first person shooting game?

Is there anywhere that I can get sources like rocks/trees models/textures for free?

For now, I would like to do a test project to make a small environment with waterfall and a few rocks with caves and trees around it just so I can get used to UE4 and the workflow. but still I would like to know the best way to do it.

If you have some tutorials related to this, please share me the links, or any suggestions would be greatful, I will be soooooo thankful for your help.

Sorry for a whole bunch of questions and thank you for your time!

Did you try to watch and search for what you need in videos made by Epic Games on YouTube?? They got tons of diffrent videos that shows you how to sculpt/model and create preety much everything in a basic way and later on its much easier to push it deeper by yourself

Try here mabe you will find something useful. As I’m Level Designer and whenever I need some info i check there.

Thanks for kind reply. :slight_smile:

ye I checked, they dont really have tutorials for the whole workflow of creating a game but more like a separate section for programming, animation, import model and soon.
I found a UE4 tutorial from Hourences yesterday. it seems that is what im looking for :smiley: I think i will go for it.

Once again, thanks for your time :slight_smile:

Have a good day.

I also posted this question on the forum, I got some answers about the workflow.

Here is the link to the thread: