Watching this presentation , was amlost like the greyscalegorilla has been in my head.What is sad though is that I've known a lot of these solutions you've mentioned but never did them or did them half way.I think if the whole presentation was summed up into various sentences , one that would come up is challenge yourself . I for one need to work on my deadlines.One thing that resonated with me especially was your comment about storytelling, I've watched every behind the scenes there is on a dvd from Brad Birds the incredibles to David Goyers Blade, and through out a lot of emphasis is put on story and storytelling.I've been buying dvd's from the dialogue series just to see if I can up my writing skills which is not too bad and also John truby's stuff, hopefully I succeed and also I understand having a good eye is not something that can be taught because personally I have a good eye for color but after having went through the course for color theory with Digital Tutors i think it helped a great deal and having the color palettes on my wall help me make color decision quicker. But really thanks for this information it was great, very very Awesome@vicI have a question but before that , I have a suggestion (just a suggestion for vic) , dude or lady , trust me, you need to move out. I'm African as well and I've encountered the same issues, I was 18 (which was already late)when I got my first PC with QuickBasic on it, so I started to learn programming, Years later I will get into photoshop due to the fact that I was good with color even in DOS so I felt I could design. The folks around when I moved to london to study Computer Science did their best to encourage me to stop, they couldn't see what I was trying to do, they will go to sleep at 9 or 10 , wake up at 6 or 8 only to find me still sitting at the computer figuring maya out. I must say though I wasn't working at the time so maybe electric bills and such. Things were different when I lived with my friend for a while and everybody in his family is into these visual stuff, he print's and fixes computers, his younger bro's are photographers and editors and we all share info and due to dat I managed to go further to make a living out of what I do instead of giving up and I'm still working to be at the level I need to be because this is what i do well and the only thing I can do in my life. if I dont do this and do it right I'm f..ked . This is what you need to understand, you are unique,even amogst your family you are unique and I mean no disrepect at all, but you need to understand that what you have is a lil fragile and it needs space and encouragement to grow, I grew up in a house of a brilliant doctor who would later became minister of health and transport for 8 good years back in my original country, he didn't see potential in me when I was younger because I wasn't gonna be a doctor, but later his face went blank when he saw me program the shit out of a pc.I've read profiles of so many people in this industry from Stu Mashwiths to you name names, they all had some form of grounding from childhood, it's not always true but it helps to be in the right environment.I've never been in America, but I've seen so many documentaries some from even lynda.com where people migrate to certain regions where their type of work is in demand and respected and well paid and they become successful with hard work and consistency. I guess things are little different now with so many complaining that works are being outsourced to India. lolI may be wrong, because I dont fully understand your situation or what works for one doesn't work for the other but I do know that the environment affects you, if you wanna test this out do this, move into an area which is very nice and colorful or into a group of people who do what you do even better and see if you dont change , Napoleon Hill talks about these things in think and grow rich. If I were you,I will probably get an extra job and do my other stuff at nights and off days build myself a killer reel save money move out and start afresh. It's America Dude.Anyway NickMy Questioni read this article at VFXSOLDIER.com and I didn't like it, with so many VFX Artist being out of jobs and stuff, do you think as an aspiring vfx artist I should remain on course of find something else, was my Uncle who knows nothing about this industry right when he told me that this industry is too saturated and I'm better off as a cleaner like everyone else. Though I'm one that wants to setup my own VFX and post house whatever, I really would like to work for quite a while in the industry , what do you think