personally the easiest way i find to model people within Maya is actually using the Polytool.
Best way i've found is to start with the body, create it from the side view ... then use the polysplit tool to create major lines, suchas ribs and fold areas for animation. Try to generally keep it in a grid pattern, so you don't have many triangles trying to keep as many quads as possible visble.
Then once you've outlines the major bits (don't bother with detail until you've done the next bit) ... you select all of the internal vertex - NOT the outline vertex, and press delete and this neatens up your mesh and is easier to work with.
Then use the front/read views to pull out to shape, then you can start adding details ... like on women breasts and such.
Next comes the head, don't make the neck as you'll want to line this up and merge later as it makes it simpler to animate and cutup if you know where to place it in relation to the head
for the arms and legs, cut the shoulder & pelvis areas so you have relatively circular areas ... then using the extrude tool you just pull out several stacks, which you then shape.
for the feets depends on what kinda shoes, for hands however i've always found that making a box per finger limb + thumb limb and then a box for the hand and wrist help to shape them better.
if i have time i'll see about throwing together some simple technique tutorials (not a full how-to think, just technique)
to export Maya -> DBP just export as a format that it is capable using. Dx/Md3/Md2/Mdl
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