If I may ask...what school are you going to my good sir? Everyone have given you their own prospective and both of them are correct. Here 50% of the PC members would use just the 3ds max to build their portfolio and the rest would use 3ds max and UDK. There isnt any right answer to "which one will be better for me" but…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visual_semiotics http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_a_visual_metaphor and all that but beyond the pretentiousness of that, just think of a backstory and think what things are for. Do research, and it should come.
After so many times of dealing with this topic throughout, what I've learned is if you've got quality work no matter where you rendered it, you're showing promise and talent and if you need to learn a new program, workflow or anything like that, it shouldn't take you long to learn. You'd be surprised there are willing…