Pixar animators usually get to go on fun trips to do research for the look of their movies. The Finding Nemo crew took a trip to Australia and went diving, the Ratatouille team went to Paris, Up artists flew to Venezuela and Lee Unkrich took his Toy Story 3 crew to a dump. This allows the animators to draw sketches of the environment to later try and capture the essence of said places in the movies. You have to envy them. Particularly the TS3 animators.