In a sense I can understand what you're saying. Simply because I have decided that I'm going to learn everything by doing it. I do photography, - I've started modelling (a whole different world than posing), I pose and make animations in Poser, - I render in Bryce. I make most of the textures myself. I do my own postwork (has taken me a couple of years to be efficient and pretty OK with Photoshop, - Photopaint and other graphical programs). In short, - the learning curve for getting to use all of these programs is darned high. I have the luxury to have this as a hobby, - and I can spend a lot of my time playing and learning. With all the difeerent - and sometimes weird interfaces you can imagine how long time it will take to be a good user of: Photoshop, Amapi, Poser, UV-mapper, Bryce, Terragen (to get decent skies in Bryce), cr2-edit, and a dozen of other small and large utility programs. I guess I am a person like you, who likes to bake a cake from scratch. As a matter of fact, I often feel like I'm harvesting the corn and grinding to get the flour as well. I think that it's time to say it's OK to buy a cake-mix. The cake might look well, - and taste great without doing everything from scratch. There are so many "philosophies" out there. Some are "purists" and say that if you don't make a render completely in Poser, - it's not "Poser-art". I don't share that view, but I respect those who feel that way. Britt