i agree with ombre. and i agree with Dreamon. Following trends and similar tuts are for noobs such as myself. Once, we are able to fllow along with trend and are able to duplicate similar tags to th trends. Thats when it is our responibility to create our own style. When we get there, we become trendsetters because everyone else will follow our style and we are accused of following the trend. So in otherwords, there is a cycle of trendfollowing and trendsetting. but yeah, there is some unneeded trends such as bubbles or dependency on C4Ds...
this is why i don't get really active at big gfx boards. its annoying when i have a -------unique style, that takes more talent, skill, ect..., but they all bash my work because it is not the "in" style. It got me ranked novic3 at nsl a month ago when i was at least low -------.