>>    But how many times do you open your 2D app in a year? How will you 
>> learn anything if you don't practice?
>
> Practice what? The problem here is that I lack talent.
>
> Other people can pick up a pencil, draw a few brisk strokes on a pad of 
> paper, and produce something the like of which I couldn't copy if I had 
> several hours to work on it.

Very few people have the raw talent to just pick up a new medium and be good 
at it, for most of us we have to *practise* until we get good.  Then get 
annoyed by someone who has used it for 1% of the time we have and produces 
something way better :-)

Did you just write some complex program in Haskell the first day you ever 
installed it?  You now seem pretty damn good at Haskell, because you 
PRACTISED and got good at it.

Did you just play some complex song on an organ/piano/keyboard the first 
time you used one?  You now seem pretty damn good at playing the organ, 
because you PRACTISED and got good at it.

Spend the same amount of time you have with Haskell on anything else and 
you'll be surprised how good you get.  Just don't give up after 1 day if you 
can't instantly become a genius.

> Using a computer doesn't really improve matters either. I played with a 
> copy of 3D Studio Max - allegedly "the most powerful 3D program ever". All 
> I could get it to do was render spheres and cylinders.

And exactly how many hours did you spend with it?  Did you even bother to 
search for a tutorial or did you just try to point and click everywhere? 
Complex 3D programs are not like Word where an average person can just rock 
up and start using it, I went on a 5 day training course to learn how to use 
Catia, and still there are lots of things I have to Google/YouTube to find 
out how to use.

> I've spent years fiddling with POV-Ray, and to this day I have yet to 
> produce anything high-quality. Everything I make is dull and boring, with 
> bad lighting and laughable texturing.

Again, have you even looked for some tutorials or books on lighting and 
texturing?  I remember Warp has a good simple lighting tutorial somewhere 
that can give good results.  Oh yes here it is:

http://warp.povusers.org/povtips/

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