Thanks for the help, ladies and gents... I'm getting to grips with render passes/ in 3DS Max and compositing in After Effects right now. JoerIV, thanks you I also tried with "environment/background switcher" map which is useful too, but it isn't quite giving me the results I'm hoping for.
Great update! I really like the checker switcher now, totally useful, nice work! I think the point of the relinking script was so that you could run it on a bunch of files without having to open them? I didn't look at the script but I think its been linked before.
it's the white background that's washing out your image... when using final gathering it behaves like a white self illuminated ball around your environment. use an HDRI to light the scene, within an environment/background switcher so you'll have separate background and environment map, for lighting and reflections.
Thanks big time MoP, I'll check out that Switcher plugin because I've been clicking for hours not finding a way to get it to snap like how my brain wants it to. Yeah I don't quite get why you guys want backfacing off... just dont get it at all....
Having used both, they each have their strengths and weaknesses. Overall I think I prefer Max because the modeling tools seem a bit more robust. However, I think the viewport navigation, locked orthos, and sticky snap in Maya is a lot more intuitive. That's why I use Switcher for Max :)
Glad to hear you got it working. Its so damn easy to do in max, i can never get how maya complicated rendering so much. On a less whiny note I'd take a look at the ray switcher it really is a neat a clean solution, plus the production shaders are damn awesome.