If one wanted to look into making their own works like this, what would you suggest looking at? (with minimum / average / stupid amounts of money being thrown at it?)
First, how good is your PC. My PC was $2500 last year. Its pretty fast without being specialized for rendering. Speed and memory will dictate what you can do. This render took 6.5GB, 98% CPU loading all 4 cores for 48 hours, on a 3.8Ghz i2700 with fast fast fast 16GB of ram.
I use Daz 3d. Its free, and it works.
http://www.daz3d.com/I use Reality 2.5 for rendering exclusively. (I wouldn't start there if I was you.)
http://www.renderosity.com/mod/bcs/reality-2-for-daz-studio/92598I've only been doing this for 2 years. (I do this mostly out of curiosity.) You can see a lot of my recent work here;
http://fluffybush.deviantart.com/The industry doesn't make its money from software. Software is relatively low volume. Most of your money gets tied up in Models. (Characters, Clothing, Scenes, Props) There are probably $100 to $150 of stuff in that render.
Background city is Urban Future 4 by Stonemason (his models are extremely well detailed).
http://www.daz3d.com/stonemasonGirl's Hair is Desire by Alfaseed. (His stuff is the best, and he provides lots of morphs, for things like wind in hair.)
http://www.runtimedna.com/AlfaSeed/Bike and girl's outfit, Raven at Daz.
http://www.daz3d.com/dark-raven-bundleOne car was this one;
http://www.renderosity.com/mod/bcs/thunderbolt/77704/The other was;
http://www.daz3d.com/skyriderThe fireball was;
http://www.daz3d.com/shadowcaster-spellribbonsFYI, Naughty Bits can be found at Renderotica...
My feeling is that should think about how much you want to spend and what your interest really is. I'm kind of ADD so my interests are all over the place. Some people thrive on just doing portraits, and yet others like doing one off dioramas.
I was thinking of doing a digital comic based on my scooby render. The gang, all cybered up, and mentally messed up.