Model Presentation
Lighting
Three-Point Lighting for 3D Renderings - by Jeremy Birn
How to create the classic Hollywood lighting scheme called three-point lighting.
LIGHT - a detailed tutorial - by Richard Yot
A detailed dissection of real-world lighting.
Advanced Lighting Techniques - by Amaan Akram
Lighting for mood using basic lighting theories.
High-Poly Models
Rendering a Sculpture - by Mike Fudge
Lighting, material, and rendering setup in Maya.
High Poly Material Rendering Tutorial - by Artem "X-Convict" Volchik
Double-specular material setup in 3ds Max. Discussion and examples here in Polycount.
MR materials for 3ds Max - by Enrico "SyncViewS" Gullotti
mental ray materials for 3ds Max, including dark shiny, light wireframe, and dark wireframe. Discussion and examples here in Polycount.
Engineering Material - by Pete Draper
Outline and cross-hatching render setup, using the Ink and Paint material in 3ds Max.
Low-Poly Models
Low-poly models are usually best presented as screenshots from a game engine, or from your modeling app's viewport using shaders.
Current/Nextgen Game Material Rendering - by James Hall
Lighting a normal-mapped model using 2-point lighting and ambient occlusion.
Depth of field in the 3ds Max viewport - by Pior "pior" Oberson
Using real-time depth of field, plus antialiased wireframes, in 3ds Max.
Baked shadow maps in the 3ds Max viewport - by Pior "pior" Oberson
Self-shadowing can be easily baked in 3ds Max. However baking can be avoided in version 2009 onwards because Max now supports real-time dynamic shadowing in the viewport.
Setting up UDK for portfolio renders? thread on Polycount
Helpful tips about using UDK to create nice screenshots of your models. See also this post from Lamont about capturing animation from UDK.
