In 2007 I made a bear in a tree using Autodesk Maya.

I am self-taught in maya so I really don't know what the heck I'm doing. I play around with things until they look okay. I started with a bear in a tree and tried adding some clouds.

a bear sitting in a tree with some clouds

I didn't like the tree's surface reflection so I changed that. Also I wanted a darker image, so I tried different lighting.

a bear sitting in a tree without any clouds

I mixed in some stars, tweaked the lighting, and decided that I was done. It took me a lot longer than it should have. Here's the final image:

final image of a bear in a tree with falling stars