Yes 3d apps are little different because they are very technical programs. It would be very difficult to let your imagination fly when you cant create anything beyond a primitive. So at least with 3d apps you have to learn the rules before you can break them.

Exactly.

Only, it's not just the matter of 3D apps. It's for all kinds of arts. If marc painted his elephant, my judgement would be about the same. There are rules about composition and so on, and you have to know what they are and why you want to break them. Just like with language - you have to know the rules and why and where to break them to achieve something.

If you can't draw a straight line, you simply cannot draw everything you want. You can call your squiggly lines your style, but...

If you cannot express yourself except in simple subject-verb-object sentences, you're not a writer. You can call those sentences literature, but...

Even in abstract art, good artists know the rules, however random the image may seem. So, 90% work. Ideas or imagination, it's cheap. Work is very dear. If I could execute everything that's buzzing around in my head, I'd be one of the greatest artists in the world. But when I try, it often doesn't look even remotely like the idea. Not enough work.

-- erlik