Re: 3d

I would say the more skills the better; except for a handful of one-topic specialists that work in the rarefied air of super-high-budgets, everybody further down the food chain in the middle levels of the market needs to be somewhat of a generalist these days. Even if you don't learn it very deeply, it will enable you to talk intelligebty with clents and 3-d collabotators, and that's a nice thing to have as well, even if you don't progress further.

I have always been a Lightwave fan, and had worked at learning it for a few years, but it's one of those things that's like a muscle: the longer you stay away from it, the more skill atrophies. Still, I retain enough to be able to create a scene and fly around some 3-d type, that sort of thing. It's my own fault mostly for not sticking with it harder, but you know how distractions can crop up in life. Also, it didn't help that my workplace never saw any need or desire for developing the capability.

But back to the question, and a sort of logical leap: maybe 3-d is not your bag, but extended 2-d IS.

Look into Toon Boom Studio; imagine what kind of neat stuff you can do moving 2-d flat art around in a 3-d space with a traditional drawn and inked cel animation look. This kind of stuff is the shiznit in flash animations all over the web these days, and folks often come back to this kind of thing when they want to make spots and intros and promos for things that there is no footage for.

Yes, of course, you can do much the same in AE or Motion or another compositor, and every editor should be at least familiar/conversant with one of those, if not a master of one of them, but Toon Boom is a different enough app from AE to warrant your inspection. You could try a free demo version and see if it sparks something in you. If so, then pursue it.