Hi @Anonymous,
@Anonymous wrote:
what tutorials/books would you recommend for learning 3DSMAX?
I guess it depends on your options, i'm not officially trained in 3DS Max but i learned by watching tutorials on youtube.
Here's a list i made when i got started with it, which are for Mental Ray:
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If you're interested in using 3DS Max to make renders, but don't know how to start, try the tutorial by Jakub Reichman.
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8p6L6TZkOY
The people over at Design&Motion also have a Tutorial on this, you can find it here:
http://designandmotion.net/autodesk/max-morgan-a-minimalist-guide-to-rendering-in-3ds-max/
And you can find some more tutorial videos by Marion Landry here:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLowqs8sl9-jv_B1VIOBrWd89aCf6DjbDW
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Nowadays i really like using Pluralsight, but Lynda.com is also a well reputed learning site.
Those are subscription based sites though, but if you're willing to spend a little on learning they offer a wide range of programs.
As for books... it might be a good question to ask on the Max forums, might even be some topics about it already so search first.
@Anonymous wrote:
Is the Cloud rendering of higher quality than 3DSMAX?
I think that's not the correct question.
3DS Max cloud rendering is dependent on which renderer you use in your scene as not al materials are compatible with cloud rendering.
(i use Arnold nowadays and that isn't supported as far as i know)
You still have to set everything up in 3DS Max, you just outsource the rendering to the cloud and whichever rendering engine is used there.
So as an answer to your question: i haven't really used cloud rendering because of limitations and so can't comment on quality differences.
Hope that helps. 
Niels van der Veer
Inventor professional user & 3DS Max enthusiast
Vault professional user/manager
The Netherlands