Cottage industry film-making
Hi, Grafxman--
Indeed, going from a modeled scene to an animated one, and then leaping to a produced short is sort of daunting. But if you think about it, it took 364 sfx folks about a year to do King Kong, with over 4 terras storage and I have no idea how many daisy-chained boxes on render farms. You and I are individuals, not very experienced withe state-of-the-art CG production, and many of us don't own a spare machine to dedicate to rendering.
But there's hope if you have the drive. It took me an entire year (2004) to produce only a minute of finished footage. Last year, I was able to produce a minute a week. Better tools, increasing one's education (we never seem to have the spare time!), and just a basic yearning that can be traced back almost a century now--to make pictures that move.
My Best,
Gare