Animated Documentary - Set

To help me get ideas on what kind of sets we want, I research into existing stop motion animations to see how they did their backgrounds.

I like the idea of having a simple brackgrounds, and really admired how Fantastic Mr. Fox has done theirs. they've added little bits of 3D foreground props similar to how Creature Comforts have done theirs, and to me this then makes you focus more on the characters not the busy backgrounds. Plus it would take a lot of effot to create a big setting. 

I'd like to have a background sky painted behinds, maybe adding a bit of depth with some hills, but only create little bits in the foreground to create the surroundings, make it look 3D.