This is a quick way to render out your CG scene in Maya in passes using Maya's render layers function. We don't cover the actual render layers in detail or the different types of passes you can do. It's a very basic introduction to get a person compositing together the passes in Shake or After Effects.
This is part 1 of an entry level compositing tutorial on how to composite multiple 3D render layers from a 3D program into an After Effects scene using blending modes.