AubreyM

A simple inset/extrude will do the trick.

There are some good ones here, some crap too but it's not a bad site. http://the-blueprints.com/

I couldn't agree more. It's like learning boxing from a book...it doesn't mean a damn thing until someone tries to hit you. The majority of what I learned in 3D was from trying different things. Even if what I did didn't work that taught me something also. I hate it when people ask "What is the best way to do [fill in the blank]" or "will this work if I do this?". These are questions from lazy people who don't want to put in the time to try it themselves. Questions are fine to get you started or point you in the right direction but there is no substitute for actually doing the work. I can't count the number of times I was trying something and came across a new technique/tool totally unrelated to what I started out trying to do. As far as I am concerned that is one of the coolest parts of the learning process, the discovery. If you want to learn something, research it and try to do it, don't just ask someone how they do it to take the shortcut. You will wind up loosing the discovery of other things along the way. That blog post summed it up pretty well IMHO, thanks for posting it Scott. What Jo said above is so true.

I'll pass that on to Russell just in case it is something in the new config. I have had pages load slow but only occasionally so I assumed it was just the internet.

Nice start. The materials are really flat though and could use some reflection. The rough wood texture is not the greatest. The deck could use some bump/displacement or model the boards.

I have no idea what Microsoft was thinking trying to force desktop users to use a tablet OS. I am never installing Win8 on my PC. IMHO go back to Windows 7, leave 8 for your tablet.

Russell has been working on the website doing an upgrade. You got the email when he migrated all the users to the new site. The website is back up, it was down for a day while he was doing some work on it.

I use Forest Pack Pro and I absolutely love it. Easy to use, lots of options, renders fast. The HQ plants/trees are nice too. If you are thinking about it, give the lite version a try, it's free and all the features are there except you are limited to three (I think) different objects and you can only use it on flat surfaces. So aside from some slope options and such it will give you a good overview of what it can do. Nothing against muliscatter but Forest Pro is my first choice.

I would say some color variation would help a lot and maybe a little more reflection on the materials. The green looks a bit too saturated.

It's better to have a sealed room for the light to bounce off of.

There are a ton of tutorials out there, you just have to look. Here are a few to get you started. http://www.vray.us/vray_tutorials/rendering_vray_interior_tutorial.shtml http://www.evermotion.org/tutorials/show/7900/making-interior-scene http://www.aleso3d.com/blog/?p=70

Along with what John said I also think that some of your textures could use a little work. Some are too flat and a couple are over saturated. It's a good base though and could be a really good image.

You need really good reference photos. Since you are fairly new I don't think you can model it by reference photos alone. Take a few pictures from the front,back and sides then bring them into max and setup the planes. You can model off of that. It would take way to long to explain exactly how to do that but there are some really good tutorials on how to set it up. Here is a link to the Autodesk site where they show a virtual studio. The tutorial is on an airplane but the studio setup is the same. http://download.autodesk.com/us/3dsmax/2012tutorials/files/GUID-E1B42D4D-E193-4290-83D8-72FB66E467F6.htm It should give you an idea where to start.

You could always give Forest Pack and HQ plants a try. They look pretty good and are not as intense as Evermotion. There are a bunch of trees that come with Forest Pack Lite so you could download the free version and give it a try.

Two things off the top of my head would be turn on Detail enhancement and if you are using the Adaptive DMC then up the min to 4, so 4/10 for the min/max. Are you using vray displacement?