That was rendered with maya's built-in renderer :) It isn't that bad imo. I've seen worse...

Heh, I just checked the scene and the lighting was very simple. Just one slightly orange key light coming from back-left and one slightly blue fill light coming from right. Both are directional...

Uh, I thought this thread was dead :) I can't remember how I did the lightning. I can't check it out either at the moment because my Maya computer is broken. I try to remember to answer asap...

They're GrassBlowing2.mel and straw.mel.

Yes, there are two types of paintfx grasses.

Here's a "little" worm I made in couple of nights ;)
http://kotisivu.mtv3.fi/karppa/gallery/worm.jpg
Rather simple, but I like it. Originally it was actually just a texturing practise with my new...