We do this stuff all the time at work. Basically you just use a good pano backplate wrapped to an environment. We use max with vray for animations, and Im guessing that is what was used here.
Which would be easier to learn? I know blender is freeware, but don’t want to spend ages learning a new program. I also need to import solidworks files or XT, IGES etc… Looks like I’m up for about $2500 all up with Modo, because I’d need their solidworks importer and advanced cad importer.