good read on pixar's short film: piper and how they managed to make the film happen using the different software, and their research for the film itself.

https://www.fxguide.com/featured/the-tech-of-pixar-part-1-piper-daring-to-be-different/

tut for using height map in maya. results came out instantaneously, would be really cool to try this one day in maya. not sure if they're using different renderer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lq9VYGpnkh4

baking displacement and normal map in mudbox. really great tut. it's been a great help for projects that i've worked on . :D

http://polycount.com/discussion/109030/problem-with-displacement-maps-mudbox-maya