Anyone know of MAX tutorials for making reliefs?

I am interested in using 3DSMAX (unless someone has a better idea) to make relief motifs that I can machine out of wood on a CNC Router...something along the lines of what can be found at TurboSquid (go there and search for "Cartouche")

I have used MAX before, but only for architectural modeling/walkthroughs, so I am well-versed in the overall interface, but not so much with the specifics of curved, undulating surfaces.

Does anyone know of any tutorials out there that could get me started in doing something like the aforementioned example? I'm sure I could figure it out eventually, but any little nudge helps Thanks!

A "Mesh edit" modifer on a segmented box may work. Very tedious and may not translate to CNC language, though.
Good luck.