Background work my thesis film "The Door to Tomorrow."
This was actually an interesting landscape. I first created the scene using Maya (tons of fur) then rendered out several passes. (Includes AO, World/Camera/Object normals, depth, diffuse, and otherwise) I can literally go in and relight the scene after it's completion giving me lots of control Yes, I then painted it right on top using Studio Artist.
The work looks a little different in the film due to various post-processes I applied to make it prettier.
Folks, just for the heck of it I'm posting the trailer link: