I think it came out really well. Nice one. This tutorial may also be helpful http://www.philipk.net/tutorials/materials/tilesold/tilesold.html it's more a combination of the naughty dog one with finishing it in max. You were asking about easier ways to bend the bricks into curves, this tutorial touches on that. I took bits…
Update! Doing plenty of sculpting in Zbrush. I haven't had much luck finding pre-made brushes and assets with Hindu inspired design, so I've had to make a lot of my own custom brushes for this one. I'm thinking I need to revise my idea of "complete" to be just a high poly scene with polypaint. No way I'm getting quality…