I mainly use Maya for my modeling with mental ray as my renderer. I also use zbrush for any sculpting work that needs to
done.As far as texturing goes , its a combination of photo projection and polypaint.
My uv's are made with Uvlayout.
I usually render out my models separately and then comp them together in photoshop with paint overs if needed.
A few year back i received a BA (hons) in Animation from glyndwr university in Wrexham,North Wales.