The easiest and best way (IMHO) to achieve the "clay render" look is to use the Ambient Occlusion material in MR and render with that, it produces some nice results and really helps to show off details.

Do a search in the forums for Ambient Occlusion or have a look:

https://forum.simplymaya.com/showthre...ient+occlusion

I have seen a thread where one of the long timers walked everyone through it, but I cant seem to find it...