Not sure what to study - either textures or lighting for this effect...

[DOM0]

Hello,

newbie here. I started out with Blender so I know some things and can model fairly decent.  I used texture nodes with basic cycles in lighting. and these are the two areas I need to learn more about.

I want to learn Maya and the biggest issue I am having is texture and or lighting. I'm not sure how animation films do it. I mean, do they use image textures and digital paint them and then, use mental ray shaders and such on th eimages?  I would like to learn this texture/slash lighting affect.  

 I know I will need to learn mental ray, but can this affect be done with image textures, volume lighting and or dust particles or only photoshop and procedural texturing?  I appreciate anybody who  answers and can can lead me in the right direction and or links on how to learn this style for animation films . link to video on what i mean is here on a video i found it's exactly the textures I want to be able to make.  http://youtu.be/qmjHP9awRbk

[n8skow]

I'd definitely go with texture maps (versus procedural shaders) to achieve the 'look' of the video.