I’m a fan of the old saying, “necessity is the mother of invention”. 3D, for me, is the same way. I’m an independent filmmaker first, so I let story drive everything. If I feel that the only way to tell the story I want is to do a vfx shot, then I assess what my current skills are and if I need to learn anything special. Then I can go learn what I need to, as I need to. Early on, this meant “learning Blender” or “learning Nuke”. Now it’s more, “How do I control x parameter of yz feature?” For me, I’ve found this method of learning is best- learning what I need as I need it, rather than trying to build a skillset and then figure out what to do with it.