I’m debating between Unity or Unreal to get my characters up and running about. I’ve got absolutely no programming experience just modeling and some animation. Also, these characters aren’t rigged yet, so I’m wondering how I’d go about that. Does Unreal or Unity require a certain setup? I’m using Autodesk Maya 2016. And another thing, my models are around 30k polys. Is that okay for game characters?
I have never used Unreal, but if you are going to rig your characters in maya you can use the Human IK system which is in many ways very similar to the Human IK system in Unity. Be certain to read the documentation on skeleton setups for Unity. Unity is fairly particular in how the bones must be setup in terms of extra joints. Maya will allow far many more joints in the HIK rig than Unity will calculate (by default).
Although setting up as generic rig can be just as friendly as any other game engine rig on the planet. 
But mocap and other animation packages will not be able to retarget to a generic rig setup, so weigh all the options.