2 Schools of thought

There seems to be 2 main forms of thought when it comes to creating environments. One is simply create each prop individually with there own unique texture texture creating the texture after the model. The second is to create the texture first then create the model based off of that. Each of these has its own advantages and disadvantages the second method seems to be the best for quickly blocking out and creating a scene and depending on what software used may be extremely useful, also very diverse however certain engines will not allow for this technique in such a way as to create high quality assets and can create issues when lighting. This is from my own personal experience.

The first technique on the other hand can be used in all engines and can usually take advantage of the same software the second uses creating a greater variety. Although this technique takes longer it tends to create much more interesting areas and realism for shadows, norm, spec and other basic maps can be created for greater quality all through this technique tends to take much longer as you must focus on each individual asset.

A combination of these 2 techniques seems to be the best choice for setting up the scene with the 2nd and then defining and cleaning up the scene with the first.

These are my opinions and observations, feel free to add to this or correct me.