Well, when I think of realism, it doesn't neccessarily conjure up a scene from real life. I would consider a render of a dragon biting the head off Ridley Scott's Alien Queen realistic, if it were done in a certain way. And a render of vicki brushing her Millenium Teeth (or whatever they are), could be total fantasy depending on the style. Renoir and the impressionists created non-realistic paintings by looking at reality and giving it a new twist. Giger created highly realistic artwork of alien creatures and Vargas created fantasy-like Playboy pinups. But I agree that realism improves other skills too. Although that applies to any aspect of 3D. No matter what you learn, it helps with something else somewhere down the line. mac