Offline rendering is a pretty in-depth topic, but here's some things that might help you out. If your uni has a digital tutors membership - they have a ton of intro level videos covering the basics of mental ray lighting. If not, check YouTube - lots of other artists record tutorials covering these topics (I found a lot…
Thanks for the tips guys, i dont have a digital tutors pass unfortunately. My idea is to have 5-6 fly throughs, around 5 seconds each, though ive never animated a camera before