Inspiration

This guys planets look awesome.  Sam Krug  He has some details on how he did these in blender also.

Reference

Here is a great reference of a spaceship done right.  Notice the details that give the ship a sense of scale, the running lights, the spotlights, the nurnie shapes.  The shot with pool window tells us something about the size, we know how big pools are.  The planet looks good and they have a lot of the blue atmosphere at the edge of the planet.  The rings are weirdly placed but look good.  The pod thing has great heat effects, and that's good compositing.

Here are some links to some videos that talk about Funding your projects.

Beginner

Work a job and use your savings to get a Fast computer with a fast graphics card and buy plugins that save you time. 

This website has not only a video about funding, but other film making techniques also.

Places to get Mocap data (some free)

Mixamo - Mocap Data:

MocapOnline - Mocap Data:

Rokoko Motion Library - Mocap Data:

Beginner

What is a render farm, and the types?

Talks about crowd rendered Render farms.  (like sheep it)