I don't consider myself especially amazing at either visuals or math, actually. But I'm ok at both, so it's enough I guess.
When I do the shaders I use the node-based material editor (you can do it in a code mode, though, but in this case I like the visual editor). Also working this way has actually improved a lot of my mathematical understanding for how a lot of shader stuff works--it is just really easy to setup a test case and preview it. If I'm not exactly sure how the camera world position works, I can take the node and plug it into a diffuse, then move the camera around and watch it change in real time.

This is epics documentation. Pretty much exactly what we have available to us.
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/MaterialsCompendium.html

Not gonna lie, I love the damn noodles in Blender

I've never used blender actually. I started with 3D Studio Max, then learned Maya. I tend to prefer Maya mostly because it has python available to it. Max is ok too, and there are some things it does much better than Maya. Recently I've been interested in Houdini because it seems to do a really good job of blending in nice procedural elements, which greatly improve efficiency. CCP Android was using it in some of the new terrain technology--maybe he can pop in here and talk about it.
I'm thinking maybe I'll write a proper dev blog on Maya pipeline stuff.

So yeah again, what do you guys want from your Starmap?

You should check it out.

I like Blender (mostly because it's free!!!) but it does have python in it as well. There's even presets to change the layout to emulate other programs like 3D Studio Max and Maya so it's a pretty seamless transition. It also has a built in game-engine preview window, obviously not as powerful as something like the Unreal Engine but it does allow for some round-about ideas as to the limitations of the stuff. It's early stuff and I've absolutely no experience but I did experiment with it [Blender] a bit. Here's the results:

http://i.imgur.com/WCvzraG.png
http://youtu.be/8mx9Q2VUg84
http://youtu.be/KyQ1b1hOu_k

This bit isn't mine but it's a short that was made by a guy name Kaleb Lechowski in 7 months using Blender and now the guy has a feature-length movie in production. I think it shows a lot of what Blender's potential is and just how powerful it can be for a dedicated individual, especially surprising considering that it's freeware.

http://youtu.be/xQuGpW0NuW8

Your videos are super cool--I love the breaking glass. I've seen that trailer before, but I didn't know they were doing a full movie (feels sort of Battlestar Galactica/Skynet-ey--not a bad thing). I'll definitely keep an open mind towards Blender. That it also has Python is a big deal. Previously I worked at a company that had their own engine, and they had no editor software (like Unreal Editor), so they relied on Maya for doing everything. With Python integration, it made it easier and faster to build tools. We even added a library system, much like the unreal content browser (but more primitive).