Scene composition - programs to use
 

Hello,
Im new to Maya and 3D graphics in general (except of modeling, but not in Maya again) so Id like to ask a pretty basic question about composition. Lets say I want to make a scene (where some people are chating for example) and I want to put some hills and mountains in the back. So - how do I do this? I guess it cant be done in Maya alone, because I just tried to make a plane of size around 500x500 and it already had problems to render it. So is the distant environment made in another program (like Vue, Terragen or...)? If so, which one is a good choice? Are those mountains inserted into the scene as 2D sprite, or are they somehow imported into Maya (as 3-dimensional objects)?

To make this question more general - are multiple programs used for different parts of scene?

Vue allows the intergraton of Vue scenes into Maya (or other programmes). Though the best thing to do would be to use a compositing application such as after effects, fusion or nuke, After effects would be the best bet as its part of theadobe suite and cheap when compared to the others.

This would allow the intergration of the mountains and the CGI parts.

Thanks. :)
Is there a Personal Learning Edition of any of these programs? (I see Vue has, Maya has too (right now Im using 2010 trial), but cant find After Effects, nor Fusion or Nuke)

of Afx, there is no PLE version. u should be able to get a trial version of 30 days.