Staging in 3D Max.3D Max Stage.

Lights are a very important part of almost any type of filming; Animating or photography this is because it can either create a very realistic effect or just ruin the mood/atmosphere of what is being watched/played.
Cameras are also a great way to enhance your animation, you can use different camera angles to you advantage extremely well, some effects can be created by some great lighting and camera angles, these two go tighter very well.
Motion blur is a great effect to give the a feeling of going fast or speeding up, E.G GTAIV have implemented motion blur into the game, when you are driving fast the sides of your vision blur, this creates a much more realistic effect.
Particle systems are like Snow, Rain, Smoke or even dust. It is the little things that add so much realism but would be almost impossible to model of animation by hand.