Hasta La Motion!

Ok .. i think this can be constructive. I want to know what you are using for your renders. Is it mental ray, is it vray, is it final render or brazil? And more important, why?
Ok, this was the first question. I just want to see why you are rendering with that engine, what are the benefits from your p.o.v.

Second question. Do you render all the time all the passes for comping? If not, which are the passes that you render most often? Why?

Third question. Do you render with DOF on or just render a Z-depth pass and add DOF in comp? Same question goes with motion blur -> motion vectors or inside job?

I am usually rendering in mental ray. I don’t usually render all the passes unless I’m not that sure what am I going to do in comp. Usually I try to get the 3d look pretty close to what I need. I don’t rely on changing the look DRAMATICLY during comping. Of course, most of the times I render diffuse, specular, reflection, AO, self illumination. I often do a low-res low-qual test render before the final one. Most of the times I rely on Z-depth and motion vectors. I find it much faster, but sometimes it costs me when I have very fine detail.