Hasta La Motion!

###The challenge:

I used to be very much into the CGI 10 years ago (yikes!) so I would appreciate your CG advice/wisdom of what is easily doable with today’s tools.

The goal is to take someone’s logo or text, and make a photorrealistic image (ie. average person in the street can’t tell it’s CG) of the logo/text as a sign in a real room.

End result something simple like this:

Or this:

###My assumption:

One can create the 3d shape/text, give it basic metal/brass texture, render it high res, and integrate it into an office photograph with Photoshop.

a) is the assumption of the process correct or am overlooking major complexity?

b) how many hours would an experienced designer take to go from start to finish given the complexity of the first examples?

c) any other comments or remarks I should take into account? (ie. best 3d software for this)

Thanks a lot!