Currently I'm laying out UVs but have run across some questions about how to go about this best.

First: I was wondering what people do with the High Quality Display mode option in Maya (where the object smooths out by hitting the number 3 key).

Do you convert (rez it up) to a denser mesh once you're ready to layout the UVs or do you keep it in its basic form and just render the smoothed mesh? I'm having a heck of time getting decent looking UVs on my objects in the HQD mode. So the trade off (currently) is to either have a decent looking UVs in the low quality mode or an awesome shape but crappy UVs in the HQD mode.

I'm willing to put in the work on a denser mesh (I own Headus), but was curious about other workflows before committing to this taxing and rather time consuming endeavor first.

Second: Are there any rendering gods among us? I'm attempting to learn and use the mia_material_x_passes node and render layers to its full potential. If this is unnecessary then I'll gladly concede to a proven method of rendering the multiple layer types for compositing in After Effects.

Thanks for your time.
~CG