Here are a few places where you can find some great tutorials and information to feed your brain.

If you ever want to create a large lush environment then Ground Wiz
can be a time saver.  This plug-in is very powerful...
(Once you learn how it works)
http://www.gugila.com/links.html

Great site for max users.

http://www.maxunderground.com/archives/category/tutorials

If you wish your After Effects knowledge was better than check this out.
http://www.videocopilot.net/tutorials/epic_shatter/

 Here is my own tutorial on: The Basics of Ground Wiz




Here is a Vray manual.
http://www.vray.com/vray_for_3ds_max/manual/index.shtml

And here are some tutorials using Vray.
http://www.interstation3d.com/tutorials/vray_dmc_sampler/demistyfing_dmc.html

Interested in Facial motion capture? Check out the Face Robot Wiki.
http://facerobot.wiki.softimage.com/index.php?title=Main_Page