It was slightly influenced by the artist Koji Morimoto. http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2486/3809761501_1e65cc50ec.jpg Here's an initial sketch. and the zbrush sculpt Ps. to 'achillesian' getting freaked out - sorry :)
something fast you could fix, your glowy bits should be casting light on the surrounding surfaces. pretty easy to fake with a soft low opacity brush in PS
People mostly use the padding tool in whatever they're baking with. Marmoset, Substance, Maya, Max, etc. If I need to add padding in PS, I use Solidify.
Thanks Eric. Yes, I tried to do a projection on a cylinder but the projection wouldn't grab the entire cage. I'll keep trying , maybe it will take some PS work to.
Is that your actual scene or is that a simplified version? If that's your actual scene just render each one separately, then add them together in PS. Took me five minutes.