The more you learn about cg along a generalist learning curve-I think the more one might desire to restrain-that’s how its been for me.
Originally I started to learn CG because I was told it was a steady income for a modeller but once I got into it it became an obsessive personal creative thing–I preferred learning as a generalist so I could make my own effects films like had with stop motion a decade earlier (which I gave up on because I didnt want to learn metal working to make armatures and get a chemical scale to mix foam rubber and all the complex stuff required to do an in camera matte).
My goal was to be able to do better than Sy Fy quality character animation from scratch. Things that wouldnt look like I just pasted together something using default procedures and stock video game animation files.
After about 7 years of learning it finally reached a point where it wasnt boring and I could guess at how long it would take to make a project shot without too many delays due to ignorance of a process or wasted time because I didnt see the short cuts.
And where I felt comfortable cheating.
All that matters is getting the shot, even if it means painting things by hand into the frame. Or using stock footage and altering it in after effects or photoshop.
Now I am at a point where I can actually enjoy it as I work (making a fake movie trailer for a Harryhausen style sword and sorcery film that will be used as a book ad). Been working on it for a year now. It gets boring and tedious but then I finish a shot and switch to another.
Best time I have had with graphics.
However, I am mostly working in standard definition not high def, at most 720 HD and I down rez it to blur it up and make it look dirty and hand-touched. I use obscure old movie footage as source material when I can, and add CG elements into it. Or remove things from the scene.Lots of painting frame by frame.
And I havent kept up to speed on new processes techniques very much. I havent tried out new features in zbrush for years. Just what I use for sculpting and displacement/painting.
I havent done much with animated hair and fur rendering–my last big obstacle. If I dont need it much I may cheat using polygons or comped footage from something (as long as it doesnt look composited in).
The computer does a lot for you, but not the serious artistic decision making that is required to make something not look too fake or out of scale or blended into a scene. You need to develop a keen eye for effects to spot the things that dont look right.
An automated computer program would have to get really really sophisticated to be able to remove that work load. I dont see it happening anytime soon.