It is a digital picture created with 3D software.....I went to school for this stuff, but do not use it much. It can be created with software like 3D Studio Max or Maya. Once the scene is put together it can be rendered into any kind of image.....jpg, .tiff, or you can even render movies in .avi, .mpeg and more. It is really fun, but very time consuming. It is great work from the artist and the really nailed the lighting of the scene Good work