There are many settings that will work for different projects. When you get into more advanced rendering you will have to tweak the settings that were by default turned on when you set it to production and anti-aliasing to maximum. However in software render and in general render settings you can change things including the resolution, and not just dimension, but anywhere from 72dpi -1600 dpi or however high you really think you need to go.
Also image formats, your .png .tga .tif, among other varieties are things you can choose from.
In maya software you can adjust raytracing - advanced shadows - to get them crisper, to blend in more.
Motion blur, if you have moving parts you can use a built in motion blur.
Mostly in maya software are the presets and a bunch of values that you can tweak to suit. The more advanced you get in your creations, the more you'll need to learn the render settings, and even the different renderers for maximum quality.