Hey Leo, how you doing? Its a bit snowy in London today, and freeeezing!

I use Shake, although I'm no way an expert at using it! I know the basics though, such as layering and keying. I've used After Effects before, but I didn't really like it much. I probably just didn't give it a chance, I know its a pretty good program.

Yes, the best way to render is in layers, as it gives you so much more control over the final look of your scene. Typical render layers can include a beauty, specular, diffuse, occlusion, reflection and shadow passes, but you can have lots more. Rendering in layers enables you to tweak each layer individually to get just the look you want, its amazing the difference this can make to your final piece. Compositing is a huge topic by itself though.

Bye for now,

LisaG