Originally Posted by Tommy L

Well, its not easy to just explain a work-flow, but here's a couple of tips:

Modeling:
1: Draw your scene. With a pencil on that white stuff. Sounds like a bizarre tip but for me it seems to cut out alot of problems. It makes you think procedurally about the scene before you jump into virtual space.
2: Make a list. Another old-fashioned thing to do, but it works. List your modeling tasks. Dont skip listed items when working, because you see an easier one ahead....but...if one on the list sounds tricky, think of an alternative before spending hours modeling something.
3: Plan each modeling task. This may be written, it maybe in your mind, but make sure you are in control of each component before experimenting with tools. Do you know a procedural tool for the task? that could save you an hour. Know your skills limits.
4: Once you have a basic room/scene/whatever, get the camera confirmed by the client. Then you are free to omit whatever is not seen.

Materials:
1: Decide on a color palette. I cant stress how important this is.
2: Think about render times whilst building materials.
3: Save all the materials you end up liking into your own custom built library. On a rush job a well organized library saves muchos minutos (this goes for models as well. When you complete a job, spend an hour deconstructing the job and recycling things before archiving).
4: Dont test render until you have applied ALL your materials. This may sound weird, but the materials affect each other. They have to work in harmony.

Rendering:
1: Keep test renders small and quick.
2: Buy a farm and get DR working.
3: Know your software and hardware inside out.
4: Ensure you time manage your project to leave ample time for rendering.

By the way, being a good librarian is very important in rendering. THeres no point in saying "yes, but you used pre-made models". A good renderer HAS a good model library. A good modeler can also adapt models quickly for a new task.

I dont write scripts and Im not even that good a modeler, but yes, I could do those scenes in 6 hrs, maybe with the exception of the chandeliers. Remember, theres always someone thats five times as good as you, theres probably only 5 exceptions to that rule in rendering.

Hope this helps.
Tom.