My "secret" tool is Vray2SidedMtl. It's a cool way to create realistic leaves for vegetation and, in my opinion, it's better and also faster for rendering than using translucence map.

The main components of a great render are: interesting design, good composition, balanced lighting, realistic materials and right camera angle.

The only way to make great work is to love what you do. And to spend time to improve yourself.

The real challenge though to every architectural project on 3d field is time.

I started when I was in second year of architecture college approximately from 2004 I learned 3ds Max to visualize my college projects then I liked the field and started to develop my skills in 3D in general not for architecture only I worked on modeling, texturing, lighting, rendering and some more stuff.

Actually ,I was fortunate to grow in family with a lot of artistic interests admiring all types of arts specially in drawing and photography, and I was always having a passion in CG field, so during my architectural studies at the university I started learning 3D and of course architectural visualization, because it's related with my study.