Hi, I'm new here, looking for help!

I normally build miniatures for film work, but with the turn of filmmaking to digital, I'm forcing myself to learn 3D in order to keep up with the industry. I have picked Maya, as it seems to be the industry standard (and I'm on a Mac), but I see a lot more photorealistic renders coming out of 3DS Max. Is there really that big of a difference between the programs and their supported renderers? And if so, why would the industry standard be Maya if Max looks better?

At any rate, I am stuck with Maya (can't find Max for Mac), and wondering how I can make my renders more photorealistic? I attached a photo of a scene I am working on. The textures are all from photographs of an actual model I built for one of the jail cells. The hallway seems like it is almost there in realism, but there is just something about it that screams CG, and I can't figure out what that is or how to fix it. Any suggestions? Any specific info/other screen shots you need to know/see about it? It is rendered in Mental Ray.

Thanks in advance for any help!



This is the actual miniature