I'll do what I can to help you out with materials then. However, note that I actually do not know how they're created in 3ds (I only use blender), so if you could give me some heads-up about the workflow involved, that would be good.
SpooX and I agreed that materials are a big deal, it's the thing that will "level-up" your scene considerably. Generally I spend 3/4 of my modelling time on materials, while I actually prefer modelling the mesh, but that's what it takes. Thankfully, for your Midgar scenes, I believe you'll have relatively few materials to create, but I recommend you spend a great deal of time and care on the main ones, such as the basic construction material of the plate and the high buildings. In that respect, I suggest you try to document yourself (I can help out there, too) and see any reference image of Midgar
by day light (I think most of these references may be in Advent Children, actually) to figure what kind of construction material you would have to replicate (steel? concrete? other?) and we can work from there. The particular challenge for your scene will be to create one material with very high resolution, lots of details, and little repetition due to tiling.
By the way, ambient occlusion bakes may be very useful in the creation of your materials. Do you know how to get them in 3ds?
Regarding the scripts, I'm glad they worked. Take your time about these scenes, you sure picked some very challenging ones. By the way, I believe that SpooX already create a number of elements which your scene could use, such as the
SA-37 truck. We should try to make an incantation in order to attempt summoning his ghostly spirit
Oh, and if you would like the scripts for other scenes (maybe a couple of simpler ones which would take less time to recreate), don't hesitate to ask!
