3D Assets workflow,

Hi!

Trying to make a 2.5D Shmup game, learned the basics with the Spaceshooter tutorial (and other sources) and built a basic prototype from there, i'm now learning Maya 2016 in order to make the assets for it but i'm unsure about the following:

1. What do i need to create in Maya? Only mesh? What about Textures and Shaders, if doable in both software what's best and why?

2. What about PBR?

3. And Animations?

4. Is now the right moment to be doing the models or should i hold onto placeholders for longer? My reasoning to be doing it now is for making correct Colliders and to have an idea of how big/small the models are going to be on screen. ,