Howdy, Graphikdon -

You can use Carrara or RDS to paste a 3D object onto a photographic or video scene by putting your file into the backdrop. Of course, it looks pasted on, as the lizard on the right above. Using a compositing program like AfterEffects or those described above, you can mask out foreground elements, add shadows and such to really plant your 3D object INTO the scene. I spent about 5 minutes on the shot on the left trying to get the lizard into the shot.

This sort of thing has been done in standard animation circles for decades -- Ray Harryhausen's "Dynamation" is a perfect example.

The images above are pretty poor -- I only had a few minutes to prep them, but I hope this will help you out a bit.

• Dex