Has anyone with actual animation experience and is willing to share some details tried rendering out in passes, then mastering the shot in a compositing program like combustion or AE?

I saw where Pendulum Studio does a final composite in AE, but it didn't say if they use passes from Vue or the whole clip.  Pendulum also said we can get "95% of the feel we want in vue."  So I can only guess that the final 5% means compositing?

And guys, I can go read vue's website and brochures, so that's not really help.  But thank you anyway.

I can't live on water either.  I have a shot at doing some matte painting for a small production company, but so far I can't even show them a sample.  So I'm really trying to get to the bottom of this and get some results.  If I've seemed cross, it's because I'm on a strict time line.